Britain ‘No Longer Home For New Zealand’

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30529, 26 August 1964, Page 7

Britain ‘No Longer Home For New Zealand’

TSpocial Corrazpondant N.1.P.4.)

LONDON, August 25. "Britain Is no longer Home for New Zealanders. Our destiny Is In the Pacific; our true home Is in these Islands, and in a hundred different ways ; we are standing more firmly on our own feet,” says Mr M. H. Holeroft, editor of the “New Zealand Listener,” In an article in the “Punch” series "Home Truths from Abroad.” We are also learning to look-at Britain, the Home of our fathers, in a detached and critical way when matters of policy and interest come into question. But emotionally we are still tied to that ancient and weather-beaten island.

“It may be a pity, a deplorable weakness on our part, a sentimental hangover. But it is first and last a fact—and to see it plainly is perhaps not a bad starting point for a new and-different relationship between Britain and New Zealand in the strange and perilous future.” Discussing the changing outlook in New Zealand, Mr Holeroft says: “In our islands the popular imagination has always given Britain a rocklike stability. She has been there from the beginning of our short history the first home of our early settlers, the source of whatever culture we have been able to grow from transplanted roots, the market across the seas which received nearly all our wool and butter, and finally the island encircled by enemies to which

twice in thirty-five years our young men gave help in battle. An image so strengthened by family feeling and national interest is not easily displaced.” “Earth Moved” * But, Mt. Holeroft continues, “When Britain seemed to be turning towards Europe, the earth moved beneath our feet, and we looked at one another thoughtfully. “There has been time since then for old attitudes to harden, for new ones to show themselves. "The image of a Britain pure and undefiled can be explained negatively,” he says, “New Zealanders are loyal to an England of the past, an England perhaps that never was. an idealised picture of a mother of nations, seated unshakeably at Westminster, her fleets ruling all the seas, her flag drooping over jungle outposts, her armies magnificent in retreat, yet' winning the last and vital battle. It is a vision that men now in middle life acquired in their schooldays, and they don’t want to lose it. New Perspective

“What is to replace it if they do? We are told nowadays to look northwards to South-east Asia; and gradually there is indeed taking place an adjustment c* perpective. It becomes easier to look at Japan when our meat goes there in growing cargoes. Teachers and other voluntary workers who go to Indonesia and Malaysia are bringing back new ideas about our

place in the pacific; and our soldiers for some years have been stationed in Malaya, learning about Communists and jungle warfare. “The movements of people and cargoes must open new horizons. But the seas around us are still very wide, and New Zealanders know, that their safety depends ultimately on the power of the United States. They are realistic about this in their defence and treaty arrangements, but are slow to accept it emotionally. The association with America is loose and undefined; it is implicit in the whole strategy of the Pacific basin. But there are no historic associations, as with Britain, to make it acceptable.” “Still Potent” Mr Holeroft also says "There are features of British life today we do not like,” and adds, “But there are aspects of life outside Britain that we like even less. And the influence from London, although weakened, is still potent. We are old enough now, as a nation, to be critical of attitudes and practices dictated by what seem to us to be outmoded and even decadent notions of class and privilege. Yet we have to form our opinions, and perhaps nurse our prejudices, within a cultural framework which favours the old, inherited loyalities.”

In my opinion, the most fruitful and natural play of the mind is conversation.— Montaigne.