MUSCLE AND NERVE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 32, 7 February 1930, Page 9

MUSCLE AND NERVE

THE SOCIAL SCALE

OPINION OF NEW ZEALAND

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 12th December.

In a letter to his father from Enfield, near Oamaru, a son gives some interesting details of his life in the Dominion.. He says that by the standards set up in New Zealand they do not require a "gentleman," but a man of muscle, courage, nerve, and independence. "If you arc 'game' to try a thing you willjTeadily be forgiven the inability to do it, but the unforgivable sin is the lack of courage to, as we say, 'Give it a go.' ... Practically every New Zealander, and for that matter every colonial, is a leader in the sense that he will not follow blindly, but has his own opinions and is not afraid to air them. We Anzacs, and I am proud to be 'We,' are a very self-confident nation, and it is my opinion that there lies the fault of the English people; there is too much of the 'herd instinct' about them. Perhaps you will be surprised at all this 'philosophy' coming from me, whose lifo consists of more muscle than brain work, but it is surprising to hear some of the subjects we get on when we are in our blankets with only the stars for a roof." He goes on to relate an amusing experience he had at a sale of horses which he attended. Ho remarked to a friend that a certain animal, which had started at twelvo guineas and was likely to reach twenty-live, was "a sleepy-looking brute that," and was promptly met by tho owner, who stood near, with a "Bet you a quid you can't ride him." "Of course," he writes, "I closed with the offer, and the auctioneer, well knowing ho had no hope of proceeding with the sale until the bet was settled, started a bookie's business. To cut the tale short, I did ride him, but the ! amusing part is that, after watching! the exhibition of vice that the horse gave nobody would bid for him, and I had difficulty in extracting the quid from the owner, who was greatly annoyed at tho turn of events. The money, however, did me no good, because the boys hauled me down town to an ice-cream bar, and I discovered that it takes more than £1 to supply nine stockriders with a sufficiency of icceream (thank heaven, there are no pubs in Oamaru)."

The Internationa) cable bows npjicarlus Id this issue is published by arrangement wltb the Australian Press Association an<i the "Sun"-"Herald" Newa Sorrlce, Limited.