A DETACHED UTOPIA

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 47, 23 August 1930, Page 21

A DETACHED UTOPIA

NEW ZEALAND TO-DAY

AN AMERICAN REVIEW

A remarkable tribute to New Zealand is paid by tho "New JTork Times" in. a review by P. W. Wilson of Professor Condliffe's book, "TSTew Zealand in the Making."

"For a community so segregated by its situation from human ills there is one and only one region on this planet perfectly prepared by nature," the reviewer. "It is a group of islajnds in the Pacific Ocean, adequate in i area, temperate in climate, entrancing in loveliness of varied scenery, well ffirnishedwith farmlands, forests, and otjher resources, and, above all, far distant from the civilisations that have defaced this wicked world. Erehwon, or Nowhere, as Samuel Butler used playfuHy to name such a country, is 1400. miles from Australia, 3500 miles fronj Honolulu, 12,000 miles from Western Europe. If ever an erring mankind has had a chance of making a fresh stant, it is in the most isolated of British.: Dominions. Educated in the universities, both of the Old and the Now Worlds, i and a man of international outlook, Djr. Condliff c is well fitted to present a opmplete picture of what has been ajchieved under conditions thus favourable to the hopes of our. race. Crisp in; style, precise in allusion to authorities, replete with statistics, shrewd.'in comment, we have here what, in .effect, is a consular report on the greatest of all attempts on earth actually tio realise the beatific vision. So studied, this volume is not only invaluable* to the banker, the merchant, the dig/lomatist. It is a challenging footnote ;to life itself. Beference is made to the Iffaori and especially to Sir James Cailroll, who has been a Minister of tho Cißown, and "the greatest name of all is tliat of Sir Apirana Ngata, M.P., LL.8.,, .scholar, poet, statesman, leader of his people in every constructive endeavokir." Dr. Condlift'e states that "for every loader of the present day (in the Maori community) there may be countefi numbers of promising youthful successors." POETRY TURNS TO BtROSE. When the European arrived, the poetry turned to prose. To Aljel Jansen. Tasman, the Hollander, A|O-Tea-Eoa was simply a second, or "NJew" Zealand, and the word "new1 * did not mean "better.?' An absence of orderly restraint seldom liberates tii.e good in man. It is the evil in Mm that is unleashed. To Macaulay, 'the New Zealander, perched on the: ruins of London. Bridge, was a symbol of barbarism triumphing over icivilisation, and the authorities of Botg.ny Bay in Australia suggested New 'Zealand as "the ultimate punishment fjbr. criminals too vicious to be restrained!! by fear of death." So much for thio Utopia of the later • eighteenth cent B.ry, where, undeterred by the Ten Commandments, tho whaler, the sealer, the' lumberman, and the beachcomber played the angel. A most casual glance o»er Dr. Condliffe's masterly narrative «of the econor mie vicissitudes suffered i(jy the colony is enough to demonstrate the practical difficulty, even within itao most favourable environment, ofi starting a heaven on earth. A severjance of European entanglements did not insure Elysium. The day came* when a lonely New Zealand laid a cfiible. A SOCIAL LABORATORY. The ridges of the mountains serrated a glittering skyline. Th^ pulsating passions of subterranean volcanoes warmed the waters of fountain^ that played over a fairyland of tijrraced mosaic, now overwhelmed by earthquake. But among the colonists t)| emselves there was manifested an uijiforseen phenomenon. In the Antipodes, strange to say, there were those i/jho wanted and knew how to get more tihan their share. Great estates were acquired and held for a rise in value, anfl/ it looked as if the Long White Cloud fvrould be edged, sooner or later, with dSical ermine. For such economic inequalities the New Zealander could <3iscovcr no logical justification. In tho 'nineties, therefore, an imperfect Utopia slid, head over ears, into (Socialism. For twenty years a Libers.! party, run by Labour, transformed tlhe landscape. It was not Bolshevism. True, the State runs the railwayis, the post office, the telegraphs, insurance, loans to farmers, and other activities. But private enterprise is eracouraged, private property is respected; All that the Government says is that civic needs, as interpreted in those latitudes, shall not be neglected. SUCCESS ACHIEVED. Iv industry hours .are limited, wages must not fall below <a minimum, plants are inspected, and arbitration is compulsory for capital and labour. For the aged there are pensions, and Dr. Condliffe devotes a who'Je page to a list of measures safeguard:'(ng the interests of women and childrejn. Infant mortality, reduced to 38.7 It, is by far the lowest in the world. The most recent available figure for the United States is 72, and for England and Wales 76. In the'task of elitlborating a community in which the difference. between rich and poor is reduced to a minimum the New Zealander has achieved, therefore a notable success. What, however, the apostles- of the Manchester School of Liberalism have maintained is that such interference by the State, however admirabJte its immediate objective, retards the free play of intiative, on which ultimately the progress of civilisation clepends. As an Exhibit A, the Donvtinion cannot be said finally to decide tfie point at issue. On the one hand, a;s Dr. Condliffo tells us, "such rapid, piaogrcss has been made that to-day New' Zealand claims the largest overseas "trade of any country in the world, and has a very high standard of economic welfare." But, on the other harnl, an area twice the size of England has to support fewer that 1,500,000 gewple. The problem of population is prospective only. Reference is made to the Dominion's service in the Scwth African War, and to the Great Wajr, to which New Zealand sent 84,000 men. Of these 17,000 were killed, 50,0©0 were wounded, and only 341 allowed rthemselves to be taken prisoner by the fenemy. The war debt exceeds 400,000.p00 dollars, or about 270 dollars per llcad of population. Add that New Zealai»d waß swept after the Armistice by tli'e world-wide fall in prices of agricultural and other products, and it wilj be seen that the most detached Utopia, has to sustain a heavy burden for international services. A NATION SOF THE PACIFIC. In early perictfs shipping approached New Zealand by way of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, cither through tho Suez Canal or touching tho Cape. Today the Panajma Canal, the rise of Japan, and thie development of the Western seaboard along North and South America; have brought tho Dominion within the vast horizon of the Pacific. Holdfing an independent seat in the League of Nations, it is significant that tbD first treaty concluded by New Zealand in her own name has been with Japan. We gather that the treaty dealt v»ith butter. For exports of this fascinating commodity New Zealand has negotiated parity with Canada, and,; what she values even more highly, a superiority over Australia. The problcpi of Asiatic immigration is dealt wit.'i by the reviewer. Dr. Condliffe saye that the reason for exclusion of Asiatics is economic. The standard of life must not be reduced

to Asia's level. The reviewer suggests that, however powerful this factor may be, there is also a deep racial cleavage. It is of the essence of New Zealand's Utopia that it should be Anglo-Saxon. New Zealand's success is due, in part, not to solving problems but to escaping them. Turning over these pages, we cannot but bo amazed by what can only be described as a panorama of virility. Yet, slowly but surely, we begin to bo aware of a certain hiatus. In tho scheme of things we find lumber and loans, mutton, wool, and welfare. But Dr. Condliffe would be the last man to to suggest that those blessings are more than the means to the real end which we express by the word "life." Venice, Florence, Genoa, Pisa, and Bruges were mercantile republics, but from their infancy they grew up in company with the artß. They produced, not commodities alone, but poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture. Of such expressions of the soul of man there is not in theso pages a serious hint. "The mentality of Now Zealand is. we take it, derivative," writes Mr. Wilson. "New Zealaud's imagination, concentrated on flocks and herds, has yot to be fertilised by memories of Greece and Rome, and, indeed, of Egypt and Babylon. Her Utopia is immediate rather than eternal. Using her hands and feet, she has attained to great results. Let her open her eyes to see and her ears to hear."