OF N.Z. INTEREST

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 126, 24 November 1923, Page 10

OF N.Z. INTEREST

IRISH COLONISTS

*; PUBLIC-SCHOOL BOYS AS

SETTLERS

IANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS,

(FROM OUB OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON, 10th October.

*;.Mr. Massey made a statement regard'ifiig Anglo-American relations at the Colonial Institute Banquet. "I should like ■fo know what was at the back of his niind when he made that eloquent plea," diya a, writer in "The Sunday Illustrated." "I.noticed that some of the guests looked rather surprised as the statesman jehlarged his theme. ..Mr. Massey may know more than we"do."'■' " "

-3rAn editorial paragraph concerning tlie •ame subject appears in "Horse and Hound." "I was glad to find Mr. Massey, the Premier of New Zealand, so downright in his belief—and its expression—that the greatest hope for the world is a union between America and the British Empire. It is an idea —more than an idea: an ideal—which is very near to the hearts of a large number on both sides of the Atlantic who desire peace and amity between the nations.. Such a union would give an unparalleled ijnpetus to the idea of the amicable set-tlement'-of differences—to the only way of settling- differences,, that is, which Become ;.'grown-up folk; it would assist ill clearing the world of ; international politics of a.lot of fusty, dusty, musty, arid cob-webbed notions which belong to dead ages; and would let into it a breach of common-sense which would sweeten the atmosphere beyond all knowing. Mr. ■ ;Massey is an ardent advocate valuable to a cause which is one of the most -.worthy to enlist the sympathies and energies of all people of,good will." :; IRISH IN THE DOMINION. -. The somewhat heated correspondence "on Irishmen in the Dominions continues ".in the "Saturday .Review." Mr. Bryan Gooper, of Dalkeyj Dublin, last week quoted Dr. G. H. Scholefield's "New Zealand in Evolution," with reference to the malcontents of Ireland giving to .Australia and New Zealand "a phalanx ;of the strongest - characters and the brightest intellects which were ever engaged in the shaping of new Britains in the Antipodes." •-;_ "In a semi-scientific mathematical question of population percentages," •says another correspondent, "any serious .investigator would: be: laughed out of ;Gourt: upon • quoting journalistic assertions, whether by, say, Mr. Lovat Fraser, ■Mr. L'ansbuiy, Sir Philip Gibbs, or Dr. Scholefield, against Official Blue Books /and Census returns. As a matter of • fact, New Zealand is more English and Scotch (Highland, Lowland, and UleteT) than her two Mother Countries te-day, and this circumstance is probably the reason why Mr. Cooper's Ireland has always stopped short at Sydney. I shall ,te-much surprised if Mr. 'Cooper can .-"find any 'Ballyhauhises' in the New Zealand atlas: looking for them will instruct him upon the significance of the JlChristchurches' and 'Canterburys,' and 'Invercargills.' To take '-a thoroughly representative New Zea"lander, her Premier, Mr. W. F. Mas:ley, was born of LPster folk in- the Ireland (Londonderry) not of Mr. Cooper .tiut of Sir James Craig. - "Mr. Cooper may retort with the example of Archbishop Mannix as being illustrative of 'the'strongest characters ;and brightest intellects which were ever -engaged in the shaping of new Britains 7(pace that prelate !); in the Antipodes.' "He can keep his example, and as many of jthem as he likes, for there are numbers -of them in Australia, especially in the !South, if he 'will not lay claim to New' .Zealand and the hardy Dublin patronymics of men like Mr. S. M. Bruce." :- KAILWAYS AND TUNNELS. ■I', Controversy is going on at present Regarding the construction of a tunnel ■Jjeneath- the Mersey,-and this week, a correspondent in." the-l"'Liverpool "Daily Tost" points to the example New Zea;]and has set in piercing the Southern JAlps. Mr. Massey told the story of the Arthur's Pass tunnel at the Mansion House dinner the other night,, and the correspondent reproduces the extract from London papers "as indicative of the enterprise of the far-off island of New Zealand in constructing cheap and Xapid means of communication to promote- their trade." ■ ■■■-■•■■ j "New Zealand Railways" also forms 'the subject of an article in ''The Manchester Guardian," -written by the Wellington correspondent. In this the Writer explains the great difficulties that have.been, overcome. in. the construction .of the main lines; "It "will be long be-, fpre New Zealand, with its narrow 3ft €in,gauge, and its gradients and curves, -can be brought up to the modem standard," .says the correspondent. "Includ.Siig the Otira Tunnel, the total length of tunnels in the New Zealand railway ssytem is 27 miles. Bridges of over 10ft span, if put together, would extend 47£ miles, so that bridges and tunnels together, account for 2^ per-c'ent. of the total mileage of the railway system. These figures will give an idea of the difficulties;; the railway construction engineer has had to "face; and 'before the system Tcan be regarded' ■ as'; anythinglike complete therenvill be equally hard; problems to solve. It is these ' factors that make railway-building here seem so stow.,to the Englishman or American and travelling so tedious." ■ A DOMINANT SCIENTIST. "Now that the hypothesis of drifting continents has added a. new fascination to palace-geography," says. "Natnro," '"geologists will find the' series of maps and considerations put forwiard by Professor W. N. Benson, of the University cf Otago, New Zealand, -of 1 permanent vaiue for consultation ('Palaeozoic' and Mesozic Seas in Australasia,' Trans. New Zealand Institute, vol. 54, p. 1, 1923). The paper is a highly interesting 'attempt to trace the geographical evolution of Australasia,' and the author concludes, that the opening of the Cainozoic era saw Australasia broken into Weeks; the various regions thenceforth having individual and not cdnected histories. These regions provide the geographical features traceable at the present day. Professor "Benson takes us from the Tethys belt to the Antarctic fringe, and he even . includes (pp. 46 and 48) such a detail as the evidence of glaciation on the borders of Western Australia and South Australia at the close of Cretaceous times." PUBLIC SCHOOL' BOYS AS MIGRANTS. Mr. T. E. Limmer, clerk of Christ's Hospital, writes to the "Spectator" on the question of public school boys and overseas settlement. . "Christ's Hospital," he says, "has been fortunate in finding a good home for some of her .sons with a well-to-do farmer in New Zealand, where they are 'being well treated and making good profress. I hear the sequel is shortly to c that rtheh\ mothers and sisters will join them and resume the'family life. If those who advocate the migration of girls will allow the" boys to go first and

work for their, homes, the girls will naturally follow, as in this case. At all events, what is really wanted is to let the Dominions; have, a good sprinkling of our best boys arid girls to bring us closer together in sentiment and .in trade, and to be the' Empire's stronghold in the' anxious years to come."