OUR GREAT MEN

Evening Star, Issue 23527, 16 March 1940, Page 3

OUR GREAT MEN

■“ HOT BY BREAD ALONE " CENTENNIAL REFLECTIONS

[Writen by Cyhano for * The Evening Star.’]

One of the things for which I like the Centennial number of tho ‘Evening Star’ is that it has something adequate to /Say about our great men and women. In some Centennial numbers that I have seen these products of ours have received little or -no notice. Great ones of the early days have been starred, but they were the fruit of trees rooted elsewhere. Our progress in the century has been measured rather too much by the rod of sheep and cattle, butter and timber, railways and roads. What of the New Zealand mind? In one Centennial number education finds no place. In another there is no mention of our literature. . ■' . This, I think, is a matter in winch Centennial celebrations generally have been somewhat weak. However, the Government’s Centennial surveys may be relied upon to strengthen them on this side. The 30,000-word surveys, of which two have appeared, promise to be very good, and the ‘ Dictionary of New Zealand Biography ’ will'supply something that has been badly needed. Journalists who have had to spend much time hunting up facts here and there about leading figures of the past will welcome it with cheers. It may be expected to give accurately and in proper proportion summaries of the careers of distinguished New Zealanders, and for this reason it will help us to evaluate our cultural achievement. Meanwhile it will be good for us to do a little thinking for ourselves. Who are the great men and women of New Zealand, or, if you think “ great ” is too restrictive, who are our most distinguished sons and daughters? That the fame of a New Zealander goes abroad is a good test.

I suppose it will be generally agreed that the two greatest figures in our political history have been Grey and Seddon. Both "were products of our Motherland. Both, by the way, are due for new biograhies. Grey’s ‘ Life. ’ should be rewritten by a New Zealander with special emphasis on his New Zealand career A good deal of the truth about Seddon has still to be put into print. We had to wait till 1925 for our first New Zealand-born Prime Minister, Sir Francis Bell. Fortunately wo have an excellent biography of him in the ‘ Life ’ by Mr Downie Stewart. In political originality and influence beyond New Zealand, William Pember Reeves is probably our greatest New Zealander, and he also has strong claims to be considered our foremost man of letters. . For style' ho is unequalled!. When are we to have a biography of him? Well done—and it would be a difficult job—his ‘ Life ’ would be of quite-outstanding value.. We really know little about the inside history of those exciting days in the early ’nineties, when Reeves framed his . labour legislation—with very little guide from other countries, and at first a staff of one in his department, Edward Tregear—and when John M‘Kenzie was introducing bis radical land legislation. I heard enough in conversation with Reeves when lid visited New Zealand 15 years ago to whet my appetite for a good deal more. As a subject for biography, . Reeves might make a bigget a. peal than other statesmen of ours to the reading public in England. This is one of the difficulties about writing New Zealand biographies : —the smallness of the market. I once discussed the matter with a visiting Engish publisher. He remarked that people in England were, not much interested in our leaders. “ They know who Queen Elizabeth was, and Cromwell and Wellington, but what does Seddon convey to them? ” politics there have been a number of native-born men and women who made a stir beyond their own country. Katherine Mansfield is our, one world figure in literature, hut we have others whose ability is recognised abroad —Eileen Duggan, for example, Robin Hyde, Nolle Scanlan, Hector Bolitho, and Darcy Cresswell. Eileen Duggan has been published in America, as well as England. 6. B. Lancaster is almost a New Zealander. I am leaving out of account the gifted men and women whose appeal is more or less restricted to New Zealand. Wo should certainly remember them in this Centennial year,’ In science we have Rutherford, one of the greatest physicists in history, and in medicine Truby King, And in art we have David Low, the most-dis-cussed cartoonist of the day, if not the ablest. Rutherford was a great man, and so, I think, was Truby King. There was reaf originality about Truby King, and behind his ideas was the driving force of an exceptionally powerful personality. There are people in Europe to-day who know New Zealand only through the work of Truby King. These, I think, are the “ Big Four ” —Katherine Mansfield, Rutherford, Truby King and David Low—and Centennial celebrations are incomplete without due recognition of their genius. There are others of lesser rank. Sir John Salmond, of whose work I have not seen much mention, had a reputation as a jurist beyond these shores. There was Harold Williams, the “ Cheerful Giver.” I have heard a much-respected New Zealand educationist say that R. C. Maclaurin was the greatest New Zealander. Maclaurin, who was brought to New Zealand at the age of four, was professor of mathematics and then of law at Victoria University College, and went to America, where he was drawn from Colombia University to the direction of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This he made the foremost institution of its kind in the United States, and, worn out by his labours, died in his prime. Maclaurin is one of the very few New Zealanders who have been tlio subject of a biography written and published abroad, but 1 doubt whether a hundred New Zealanders have read the excellent ‘ Life ’ of him by Henry Greenleaf Pearson. The above make something to think about. By all means let us be proud of our wool and butter exports, our savings bank deposits, our railways, and our cities, but don!t let us run away with the idea that these up the sum of civilisation. Visitors with a true sense of values will want to know a good deal more about us. Where are our thinkers, our writers, our artists, our architects? What contribution have we made to ideas? What sort of culture are we evolving in these remote islands? Is it but a pale reflection of the Motherland s, or are we shaping our British heritage to local conditions and needs? These are most pertinent questions in 1940. I would like to draw attention to another feature of the ‘Evening ‘ Star’s ’ Centennial number. There has been little humour in our celebrations, and for this reason “X.Y.’s verses, ‘ The Seed and the Harvest, excellent in themselves, are all the more welcome. We are by nature an over-solemn people, and it was to be expected that when the Centennial

came along we should treat it almost as seriouslv as we do Rugby football. Even in centennials, however, laughter does not cease to be a valuable antiseptic. Let us have more fun. As J. B. Priestley says, let the people sing, and let them laugh, too.