NEW ZEALAND AT HOME.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 143, 16 December 1908, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND AT HOME.

A GOOD REPUTATION. BUT NO ADVERTISEMENT. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 6th November. The colonial in London cannot fail to be struck by the energetic steps which are taken by the British colonies to secure settlers from the Old Country : and the 'New Zealander cannot fail to notice that his own country is far less prominent than others. To the average Briton the Empire consists of Canada — first, because it is nearest and best advertised. ; Australia next, because it is very large, very wayward, and very well advertised ; South Africa third, because of the Asiatic trouble and the Boer ascendency ; and New Zealand fourth and among the classics because it has a good name, but is not advertised. One thing is quite certain: If New Zealand is not better and more systema- j tically advertised than she is at pre- j sent, the stream of emigration must soon j leave her altogether. Canada simply floods England, Scotland, and Ireland with literature extolling its opportunities for vigorous youns: met. Every paper that is read at all widely is emblazoned with advertisements from the Dominion and almost every one of the provinces of Canada. Australia is now almost as well advertised. Even The Times has columns of reading matter paid for by the Agents-General of the federated states. New Zealand is conspicuously absent. QUID PRO QUO. The editors of the papers which receive these advertisements make no secret of their desire to give the advertising countries a good hearing as compared with those which do not advertise. One has only to read "The Standard of Empire" any Thursday to I be convinced that New Zealand must lose ground among the emigrating classes if we do not advertise more than at present. We are going along on the str&ngth of our traditions, and that will not take us very far. Already people axe beginning to shako their heads dubiously with a sort of "I-told-you-so" air, and to -ask significant questions about the shrinkage of the exports and the failure of conciliation. If we as a people are going to let the thing go by default we will only have ourselves to blame when we see the stream of emigration diverted from New Zealand to the States of Australia. NEW ZEALAND'S POPULARITY. The things that are filling our emi-| grant ships to-day are the patriotism of New Zealanders in England, the memory of the South African contingent!?, the fame of the All Black footballers — now almost spent in the disrepute of last season in New Zealandi — and, chief of all, the increased contribution to the Navy. ' If one thing more than others has cemented New Zealand in the goodwill of the Mother Country, it is the attitude of the country towards the Imperial Navy. Australia has always been unpopular in England, but active and judicious advertising has corrected this to some extsnt, and would have done more but for the independent Navy movement. Still, New Zealand cannot hope to progress much on the unpopularity of her neighbours or the goodwill of past events. That is a very oldfashioned idea. New Zealanders in the Old Country aro unanimously patriotic in advertising their native land, and it> is astonishing how far such recommendations have permeated. But these | are only haphazard means of attracting population. They must fail before the organised campaigns which are being ! maintained, by the other self-governing colonies, and the Government would do well to take heed at once and commence judicious advertising in the light places if it does not wish to wake up some day and find our supply of new settlers suddenly stopped.