DOMINION IMPRESSES MISS MACDONALD

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 113, 6 February 1935, Page 11

DOMINION IMPRESSES MISS MACDONALD

“You Live in a Paradise”

BUT WHY DO BRILLIANT YOUNG PEOPLE LEAVE? By Telegraph.—Press Association Auckland, February 5. After spending two months in the Dominion, mostly in the country districts. Miss Sheila MacDonald, daughter of the British Prime Minister, sailed to-day in the Aofangi. In her farewell remarks she said she had been much impressed by the southern mountain scenery, but on going into the New Zealand bush she was always struck by the absence of bird life. She had been told that this was due to the ravages of deer upon plant life, and she lioped something would be done to protect and restore the bird life. In the English country districts birds were everywhere. In an informal talk at the Women’s Club she said there was still an enormous amount of work to be done in New Zealand by women’s organisations. Excellent work was being done on domestic lines, but there it seemed to stop. The intellectual side of life seemed to be neglected.

One thing she had noticed all through New Zealand, and could not understand, was why all the brilliant young people left the Dominion. “It seems so strange to me,” she said, “that instead of stopping in your own country and making the atmosphere you all crave you go away and take your culture with you. You have a wonderful country crying out for people to make it great, and yet you go away instead of staying to bring about the change.” Referring especially to sunshine and life she said: “You live in a paradise and you do not know it.”