FIVE YEARS IN NEW ZEALAND Sir Bernard Fergusson In Retrospective Mood

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31727, 10 July 1968, Page 19

FIVE YEARS IN NEW ZEALAND Sir Bernard Fergusson In Retrospective Mood

(London correspondent) LONDON, June 29. For his five years as Governor-General of New Zealand, Sir Bernard Fergusson was bound by the nature of his post not to say anything controversial. Even now that he is back in Scotland, 12,000 miles away, he is still not really free to speak his mind.

“Whereas I could say what I liked before I went to New Zealand, I am now a former governor-general and consequently slightly muzzled,” he says. “I do not feel an entirely free agent to say what I think now, in completely uninhibited terms.”

Yet, even within these confines, this soldier and journalist, who made such a remarkable impression as governor-general, has a great deal to say to help New Zealanders to know themselves better.

He believes, for instance, that while inter-marriage is averting the danger of racial friction in New Zealand, both Maoris and Europeans must make a greater effort to understand each other. He believes, too, that in its international attitudes New Zealand may sometimes be “too anxious to be loved and too well-mannered to risk giving offence.” Here, then, is the text of an interview given by Sir Bernard Fergusson in London recently. “For five years I have had a captive audience and was unable to aay anything controversial. Now I long to say things which may be controversial, but I have not got the audience. "I would like to shout the odds for New Zealand because I feel as much a New Zealander as I do a Scotsman, and I feel that New Zealand and Britain need each other badly. I have been casting round for ways and means to strengthen the links which for many reasons are now being subjected to more strain than they have been for a long time. Gauses Of Rift “The two things which are causing New Zealand to drift apart from Britain at the moment are Britain’s evident determination to enter the Common Market and Britain’s evident determination to pull out of the Far East. “I have been five years away and since I came back I have been living in the backblocks of Scotland, so perhaps I am rather out of touch. But in order to try to keep in touch I have been coming to London once a month for two or three days: and I attended the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in May, in Edinburgh, where I met a lot of old friends. But I cannot claim to have been at the heart of things as much as I would like. “Most of my friends seem to think that the Common Market is a ‘must’ for the British economy and try to persuade me that in the long run, after perhaps some lean years, countries like New Zealand will find a better and more prosperous Britain to trade with at the moment. I have a nasty feeling that this view is expressed to comfort me rather than with any conviction.” Assembly Motion Sir Bernard said he was rather shaken to find at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland that there was a motion down asking the assembly to convey to the British Government its conviction that no time should be lost in entering the Common Market. “I made an impassioned speech saying that in all the background to

this motion there was no mention of New Zealand or Australia, and no mention of tae fact that joining the Common Market was apparently incompatible with keeping our position in the Far East and maintaining our links with New Zealand,” he said. “I moved a counter motion ’ hicL was passed by six votes; it meant the original motion was dropped, but I don’t suppose the Government would have paid much attention either way.” Discussing the British pullout from the Far East, Sir Bernard referred to a letter he had written to “The ’Hmes,” of London, soon after his return from New Zealand late last year. “I pointed out that cuts in social spending, however lamentable, could always be restored but the surrendering of bases could never be gone back on: and that Britain’s obligations to Australia and New Zealand were ties of blood; they had come eagerly to our help in two wars and our obligations were not only moral ones but were written into the S.E.A.T.O. Treaty. Maori And Pakeha Asked about his impressions on the relationship of Maoris and Europeans in New Zealand, in which he had shown much interest. Sir Bernard Fergusson said: “When we went to New Zealand, we decided there were two fields which were not too controversial and in which we could do something to help—to bring the Maoris and Europeans more closely together and to bring the churches closer together. "I had two rules about Maoris: you must not generalise about them and you must not get soppy about them. You must not generalise, because they vary as much as everybody else. You must not get soppy, because that is unrealistic and helps nobody. “Everybody recognises, including their own leaders, that Maoris have not benefited as much as they could have from educational facilities open to every New Zealander. And many Europeans in New Zealand do not recognise how different they, the Maoris, still are from the Europeans. All I have learned is how little I know, and that at least is to have learned something. “The average European living outside the country areas does not realise, for example, how totally different the Maori concept of the family is. Basic Differences “You never met a Maori in an old people’s home, or hardly ever, because they look after their own old people; this is very much borne in on one. This concept of the family structure is much wider than ours is. And there are many other basic differences, such as having ‘all things common, like the early disciples in the Bible.

“It is not for me to teach New Zealanders how to live; but I do not think the average European fully understands Maori viewpoints. He

asks, ‘why shouldn’t the Maoris be just like us?’ *’

Sir Bernard said that at first, in New Zealand, he did not dare “talk turkey” to the Maoris. “And then I began to stick my neck out; they did not seem to mind. I think and hope they knew my heart was in the right place. “I think there was a time not many years ago, since the war anyway, when there was a real risk of friction, not due to any ill-will but due just to a want of understanding on both sides—the more so because of the flocking of Maoris from the country to the town, where these differences were noticed by the Europeans and regarded as a jolly nuisance. Maori hospitality, for instance, which might include having all the family and a mass of visitors at a party; singing and dancing all night, and the more disturbing to European neighbours because it was unfamiliar to them. Mixed Marriages “I think the danger of a clash of colour which may have existed then has been overtaken and insulated by the rapidly-increasing number of Maori-European marriages. In one recent year 46 per cent of all Maori marriages in Auckland were with Europeans: and we all know that the mixture is a good one. I think everybody recognises that an admixture of Polynesian blood is something to be proud of. I know that in my own Regiment, the Black Watch, we are very proud of having a part-Maori regular officer, who is a great success with officers and men alike.” Sir Bernard Fergusson said he would be miserable if the Maori language and all Maori culture died out. “I would have thought that the Maori could achieve something like the Welsh (unfortunately, the Scottish Highlanders are failing) and keep the two languages going—that the Maori culture would survive in so far as it is going to be an inspiration and not a drag on the wheel. It is not for me to advise the Maori people or the Europeans for that matter; but I think both sides must make a greater effort to understand the background of the other, and to help to preserve the best of both.” Helping Asians Sir Bernard said he thought that New Zealand should stop her ears, and Australia too, to the people who clamoured for the admittance of Asians in large numbers. “You would only be creating a problem (like Fiji’s) which may prove insoluble,” he said. “Why create a problem where it does not exist? The best way New Zealand can help is the way she is helping already: volunteer service abroad, the Colombo Plan, accepting immigrants from the Pacific, and so on. “And I include in this her magnificent readiness to play her part in defence pacts in South-East Asia. In three visits to this area within six years I saw how much New Zealand is admired in that part of the world. She somehow has the reputation for being a fair country and a free country: and, whatever anybody may say, nobody that matters thinks any the less of her for taking her share in Vietnam; the very reverse.”

Discussing New Zealand international attitudes, Sir Bernard said he sometimes wondered if, at the back of all her policies, New Zealand was not sometimes too anxious to be loved and too well mannered to risk giving offence. “She is an adult nation,” he said, “and as such has her obligations as well as her rights.” Taken For Granted He thought Britain tended to take New Zealand affection for granted. “In a way it is rather like London not reflecting on the effect of decisions on Scotland,” he said. “Britain is rather apt to take New Zealand affection for granted because it was always so in the past. “There is sometimes a thoughtlessness about British policy and an apparent lack of regard for New Zealand interests. I hope in my humble way to help try to adjust this.” Speaking of the Crown, Sir Bernard said the Queen was the symbol of freedom and justice, law and order, hardwon rights “and all the things we treasure most.” In the second place, she set such a wonderful personal example in the way she did her job. “She does it unobtrusively, but I of all people, like any other governor-general, serving or retired, know at first hand how true it is. She is marvellous: there is no other word for it.

“For people with our traditions there is no substitute for the Crown, quite apart from the fact that it avoids the turmoil—and expense—of the election of a president, who would usually be a controversial figure and who could never enjoy the same mystique or mana.” Speaking personally. Sir

Bernard said he and his family were terribly sad to leave New Zealand. “We miss it and talk about it daily, and we are using our New Zealand carpets given to us as a farewell present—and we are surrounded by mementos and pictures of New Zealand, and by New Zealand shrubs. “Just as it was with my parents, there will never be a day in our lives when New Zealand is not in the forefront of our minds. “We miss it all, but it has been great fun all the same resuming one’s place here. “Geordie is at Eton ... I find myself taking the money in the plate on Sunday mornings in my capacity as elder in the church ... I am growing potatoes and looking after my 24 acres of woodland ... I am beginning to write again. I have a couple of books on the stocks. “We resumed our washing up and cutting our own firewood with no bother at all

. . . we live very like New Zealanders, without any servants and 16 miles from the nearest railway station. . . . I am about to have to constitute myself into a one-man Rabbit Board. ...”