AS OTHERS SEE US

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32303, 22 May 1970, Page 8

AS OTHERS SEE US

What a lot of things New N Zealand can be proud of. They have created a society which has succeeded in avoiding extremes of wealth and poverty. I tried to find a slum and discovered nothing worthy of the name. They have no » problems of crime or pollution, which bedevil - the “greater” nations. Their people are fit, bronzed and out-door loving. They are amusing, tolerant, hardworking and hard-playing. Swimming, ski-ing, golfing, tennis, , riding, fishing, climbing—all these things are within the financial reach of every man and woman in the country.

They have the highest proportion of cars per head of population of anywhere in the world—-and yet the roads are emptier than in Ireland.

Why don’t I emigrate, then, if everything is so perfect? If I wasn’t so old and grey and careworn I would, and besides, I must confess that I like to farm in a country which has been farmed for a thousand years before tne; where I can hear in every field and wood and hill, the whisper of the spirits of the longdead men and women who have lived here and looked after the land through the centuries. But for the 90 per cent of our population who are not as old and stuffy as me, I would say that a oneway ticket to New Zealand would be a journey to a marvellous way of life.

And what about those musterers who I described at the start, high up on their j South Island station, with their language strong I enough to set a tired sheep| dog barking at 200 yards?! Need they be so concerned; about the future? I don’t think so—l think that the Common Market negotiations have done noth- s ing but good for New Zea-| land.' This country is going to continue to eat lamb j

whether we join the European Economic Community or not, and if we don’t produce it ourselves, we have to get it from elsewhere—and where else but New Zealand? About the same time as Common Market discussions started, the New Zealand Government decided that

they must diversify their markets—and so great expertise and money and energy were put into finding new outlets for their exports. This policy looks like succeeding. So good luck to Ray and his musterers, and all other New Zealanders like them. May their future be as bright as their sun, and let us hope that the British Government treats them as friends of this country should be treated, and not as they have treated some of our overseas supporters in past years. (Concluded)

This is the final excerpt from an article written by an English farmer, Mr Charles Baker-Cresswell, who visited New Zealand last year. The article has recently appeared in an agricultural supplement of the “Tweeddale Press.”