CANDID CRITICISM

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 94, 14 January 1939, Page 6

CANDID CRITICISM

Australian's Views On New Zealanders

-L have been to New Zealand -0 times in almost as many years, and this is the first time I’ve enjoyed a visit,’’ said Mrs. F. B. S. Falkiner yesierdav “Why? Bebause you New Zea fanders have always been so narrow, so insular, and so very, very supeuor., Mrs Falkiner comes from New South Wales', where she is very known a s the widow of the late Mr. F. B. . Falkiner, Federal Cabinet Ministei, who w£ one'of Australia’s best-known primary producers and station-hold. -• P “Now,” Mrs. Falkiner went on, “there is a marked difference. No longer is there a very apparent Prejudice toward Australians. We are met with iiiend liness and never a suggestion now that Australians are what the Dutch call ‘slim.’ At one time you would not take our money in the hotels and shops, even taxi-men were suspicious of Aus traHan coin, refusing it bluntly and rudely. Now—you take it with thanks Mrs Falkiner believes that at last the two sister Dominions are being drawn closer together and New Zealanders are eliminating an unreasonable hostility and losing something of thcli “Little England” attitude. Mrs. Falkiner also has her own views on primary and secondary Production, though she admits, m spite of her political associations, that she knows little of politics. She does not agree with Australia’s pushing forward of secondary industries. She argues that the wages in both Dominions prohibit entering into competition with overseas countries, and that the markets are in any case too distant. Our populations are too small to absorb all the products. . “Therefore more primary production,” says Mrs. Falkiner, “is the only solution. All the world wants of us is butter and wool and meat. M e can supply these already, so why not concentrate on this?” She explained that in New South Wales the production problem was (becoming a vexed question “almost as violent as in bygone years when we fought over Free Trade versus Protection." , Mrs. Falkiner has a Quick sense ol humour. She drove from Auckland to ■Wellington in her own car and on tiie way was held up by sheep and cattle. With her was a friend who believes in boosting secondary industries. “These sheep and cattle . . I” her friend complained bitterly at each delay, Yes, retorted Mrs. Falkiner, “primary products. Backbone of the country. You secondary producers will want them transported by air next!” Gruelling Experiences.

And as a primary producer Mrs. Falkiner has had her experiences. She can relate gruelling weeks during droughts on sheep stations times when thousands of sheep were killed off or sold for a shilling a head. She can tell bitter stories of the dust menace when during -drought periods the sun is completely obscured by flying dust for days on end. These are called “black dust storms,” but the dust is actually red, and so thick that one can scarcely see one’s own hand. Animals are terrified of the storms, which are causing havoc on farms _ and ruining many who get their living from the land.

Mrs. Falkiner is a would-be champion of shopgirls. When she left Sydney she nearly fainted in the heat, yet had time to notice that shopgirls had to keep on behind their counters. “They should be allowed to sit down,” she said. “Those little tramconductor collapsible seats should be installed by the employers. These girls are the potential mothers of Australia, and the constant standing behind counters will not make them healthy mothers. People talk about the birthrate, but they don’t get down to the fundamentals. Mrs. Falkiner denied leaving any active interest in charitable work, yet revealed herself as a philanthropist when she was asked about her own disability. Mrs. Falkiner has been deaf for 20 years, yet one may speak to her in a whisper and he understood. >Shc wears a remarkable instrument winch has just come on to the market, and which she says will open up a new world for the hard of hearing. She heard the talkies at Auckland this week for the first time. “If it is hard for the deaf, how much harder must it be for the blind!” said Mrs. Falkiner. “Did you know that a Braille book costs £10?” She mentioned casually that she had given numbers to the Blind Institute Library in Sydney, which is one of the best in the world. She said that the people who gave books in Braille were too inclined to give stolid, educative subjects. “The History of the Nation” and similar subjects were examples of their choice. Mrs. Falkiner takes a more human attitude to the reading requirements of the 'blind, and contributes such works as “Beau Geste” and “Jew Suss.” She regularly corresponds with a remarkable girl who is the Australian Helen Keller. Hannah Higgins has no legs, no arms, is deaf and dumb. Yet she has obtained her master of arts degree, and writes profusely. Mrs. 1’ alkiner s letters from her are always “in purple ink on blue paper, in an exquisite backhand.” Her means of writing is an iron instrument attached to the arm stump.

M.>. l-'atkiner is not lacking iu criti- ; cisui o." tier countrywomen. The Sydney girl she describes as very badly dressed: “loud and blousy." She deplores the “slashes of blood. ' as she describes their made-up lips, and sn.'S they live for the moment, with no | thought of the future. Here her praise for New Zealand women comes in. “You all have such beautiful complexions,” she said graciously. Two of Mrs. Falklner’s daughters live in New Zealand. They are Mrs. J. Lowry and Mrs. Nelson, both well known in Hawke’s Bay. Arriving From Overseas Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Fuller, Point Piper, Sydney, with their three daughters, Patricia, Diane and Virginia, will arrive in New Zealand at the end of next month and will make their home in Wellington for about live years. Returned From Abroad Mrs. R. O. Chesney, Waterloo Road, Lower Hutt, and Miss M. Chesney have returned from a holiday in England They have recently visited friends in Hawke's Bay and are notv in Wellington

.again. Miss Gwyneth Abercrombie, Lower Hutt, and Miss Inga Blackwood, Wellington, luive returned after a holiday in the Marlborough Sounds, where I hey were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. G. S. Barton.