THE FUTURE NEW ZEALANDER

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 30, 4 August 1909, Page 10

THE FUTURE NEW ZEALANDER

PROPHECY BY SIR ROBERT STOUT. A DIFFERENT ENGLISHMAN. (From Ouv O«vii Correspondent.) LONDON, 25th June. Sir Robert Stout, speaking at the New Zcalnnd dinner on Monday evening, took as his text ;i little incident that occurred on his .steamer on the passage Home. Somebody wanted to know if some of the passengers were Australians — they were all speaking English. It was sometimes necessary, said Sir .Robert, to define a New Zealander. Some people believed they were a coloured race. In some respects they wvre English. The pioneers had come trom England, Scotland, and Ireland carrying with them their household goods and household gods. Their ideas and pnnciples were those of England, but now that he came to England he discovered that the New Zealanuers did not possess all the ideas and principles of the English. Influenced by our surroundings we had changed them. The iutuie New Zealander had not yet been made, lie was still English. But climate and institutions would cnange him and in the end we should have a variety of the English race. Our country was one of mountains and plains, the whole physical features quite different from those of England. And the physical features of a country had a great effect on the race. (Pear, hear.) Compare the Highlander with what the Highlander would call the tlat-footed Saxon, and see the difference (Laughter.) The Highlander had the imagination and the poetry thai the man in the plains did not possess. Imagination and idealism would be found, too, in the mountainous districts of >>e\v Zealand. Our different sun and other climatic conditions would pioduce deferences in the race. The future New Zealander, if Macaulay could have pictured him, would noi l>e like an Englishman, and he would not t-pend his time sitting on a broken down bridge. He would have more idealism than the Englishman, more atertnes.-i, more poetry, and moie imagination. He would be a different variety of the English race, and they intended, with their free education, to make him a better one. The highest possible education would soon bo fre,e to all. If England had the same proportion oi her young men getting a Univeisity education that New Zealand had, the number of undergraduates heie would be more than doubled. If the democracy was to be saved they must have the highest possible education. (Hear, hear.) The press, too, was ap important factor of education. He believed that had no ■evening paper in London, except perhaps the Westminster Gazette, which ne considered the best of their papers — (laughter). Yes, he was not influenced by the political aspect of the papers at all. Next to The Times, lht» kerning Post was the best morning paper. There were two or three evening papers in .small New Zealand better than those in London. (Hear, hear.) Thad had more intelligent and better leading articles, with more thought in them, and what is more, they were much more judicial in tont, and not to partisan. (Applause.) The New Zealand papers were not "yellow'" because thsy had to appeal to an educated people. Education in I'utnie waj going to make democuicy possible. Here the restraints and customs of the p.is-i, wcie in the blood. The history of the past was in the blood, and the people did not know it. We had not these conditions, and so in the future the New Zealand would be a variety of the Englishman, more artistic, more- tolerant, more idealistic. As Emerson said, they would not hitch their wagon to the past, but to a star, and try, ever conquering what the future would be, to carve out a life of high idealism, setting their face to the futtue and looking forward to a grander and a better rate than the world had ever seen. If England naa as many drilled men for her population as New Zealand had, she would possess an army of 1£ millions. (Loud applause.) One thing we must guard against was being degraded, ruined, and degenerated by that species, of social life under \vliich millions did not know where their next meal was to come from. Even if we had to live comparatively poorly we might still be a thoughtful people, a vigorous race, physically strong, intellectually great, and morallj" pure. Then he cared nothing for riches and millionaires, naval and military armaments, for they would have a great country and a noble history, and that would do no disgrace to the English nation even though it should be a variety different from the lace in the Homeland. (Applause. )