God Has Richly Endowed This Little Country

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 65, 9 December 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

God Has Richly Endowed This Little Country

Islands of Peace and Prosperity, Sunshine and Scenery WHEN the world was young, after God had made the greater, older countries, it seems He took the little bits over and moulded them into three little lovely islands, and set them among the winds and waves and sunshine down at the bottom end of- the world. And so He endowed New Zealand with something of the beauty of every other part of the earth compressed into a small space, as well as with a charm that is all her own. And He gave the South Sea sunshine to smile on her, and the nor’-west rain to make her prosperous and fertile, and the great winds of the Roaring Forties to blow purity and truth into the hearts of the New Zealanders. So. surely, it can be no offence to boast a little of this rich and beautiful Dominion, under the English flag. A land of scenic beauty, under the southern sun. The sun shines hotly and long upon New Zealand, making her young men and girls bronzed and handsome, her children healthy and strong. The sun shines 2100 hours of the year in New Zealand, and the Maoris will tell you why: the demi-god Maui noosed the sun and beat him, because he hurried too fast across the heavens, and did not spare New Zealand sufficient of his bounty. So to-day visitors have ample sunshine to play among New Zealand’s natural beauties. The sun and the rain bring fertility to New Zealand. It would: be wrong to think of her only as a land of grand and glorious scenery, of nature untamed. She is a land of homesteads and gardens, wheatfields and green pastures, maize and vineyards and orchards heavy with fruit. Four million cattle, thirty million sheep, graze on her sunny hillsides. Her forests yield timber, her soil coal and gold and iron for the needs of men. Fish tipple in her lakes and rivers, shoal in her coastal seas. Few countries so small are blessed with such plentitude of natural resources. And she is peopled by a progressive pioneering nation, of English, Scottish and Irish stock,. tempered with the blood of the industrious seafaring Scandinavian migrants, and the easy-going, likeable, yet fearless warlike and proud Polynesians, who were the original holders of the land. A hen Tasman discovered, and Cook rediscovered,

these islands of the South, they met defiant greeting from the warriors of the noblest native race that ever ate fellow-man. Chiefs of the Maori welcomed the first settlers, traders, whalers, for the sake of the musket and powder that were theirs. Centuries of tribal war were terminated by bloodshed unprecedented in the unwritten history of the past. Insidious and clever, the white man took possession. not by strength of hand, but by broken treaty and in subtle trade. When Maori resentment smouldered into flame, there took place one of the strangest wars in history, when the men of the Stone Age learnt to wield nineteenth century weapons and nineteenth century strategy, and taught the nineteenth century soldiery lessons in gallantry and courage and endurance. But they lost, as they were bound to lose. The rest of New Zealand history was the uneventful story of a young country learning to stand on its own feet, the commonplace narrative of settlement, development, and the march of time. To-day Maori and pakeha live at peace, with common aims and interests, in the most advanced of the world’s democracies, the loya’est nation of the British Commonwealth. From the Stone Age she has, in a century, progressed to the summits of civilisation. Her government is of the people. Her education is freesecular. compulsory: nowhere is a peop’e with so high an average standard of intellectual attainment. Her standard of living is the highest in the world, for every workman almost owns his home and garden, his motorcar and radio set, and participates in sports and pastimes that are elsewhere the prerogative only of the verv rich.

She is the playground of the world, sunny and beautiful. . Against the background of her natural loveliness, under her cheery sun. has grown up an out-, door race. Bathing, yachting, shooting, fishing, motoring, mountaineering, riding, walking, skating, ski-ing, big-game angling, horse-racing, touring and tramping and camping, are the recreations of her happy people." Field sports are universal; everybody has. some such interest, whether Rugby or tennis, cricket or golf, running or cycling, basketball, baseball, or bowls. Young and old alike participate in this great outdoor tradition of sportsmanship. This outdoor sentiment permeates her culture, influences her art and literature, her architecture, her dress, her appetite, her physique. The health of the nation is good. The rate of child mortality, and the death-rate, are the lowest in the world. The expectation of life is high—6B years for a woman, 65 for a

man—ten years more than was the case in 1900. The people of the Dominion are of fine physique: comely women, six-foot men, and fine, upstanding youngsters. They eat heartily and simply. This is the annual fare of an average New Zealander: 1171 b. of beef, 871 b. of mutton, 401 b. of butter. 1811 b. of potatoes, 1871 b. of flour, 1041 b. of sugar, 71b. of tea. He is active of body and brain, reads voraciously, works hard, plays eagerly, and, if and when the need arises, fights mightily for country and the Empire. To-day there are a million and a half of people of European blood in New Zealand, and 80,000 Maoris. The average income is £350, the average capital £7OO. In such a productive country, the wealth of the people is deservedly high. Her farms produce meat and wool, butter and cheese, milk and cream, cereals and crops, to a total value of £71,900,000 yearly. Her factories produce goods worth £35,000,000 over and above the cost of the raw materials. For New Zealand is no longer solely a primary-producing country. No article that can be made better and more cheaply here than overseas is to-day imported. Thousands of New Zealanders find employment in secondary industry. Indeed, so great is thf ‘ rnnntry's production, that i than meets the needs habitants. New Zealai two-thirds of her agrici pastoral produce, and t that of her forests s mines.

So it will be seen tht New Zealand’s" situatioi sunshine and rain, am lovely countryside, that made.her .what she is. If environment and climate shape the destiny, mould the character, of a nation, she need not fear for the future. From her isolation she has learnt independence, from her climate she has won health, wealth and happiness, and in the surpassing beauty of her scenery she has found a source of inspiration and high ideals.