THE STORY OF NEW ZEALAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11555, 16 April 1898, Page 6

THE STORY OF NEW ZEALAND.

THE AGENT-GENERAL’S BOOK, [From Our Correspondent.]

LONDON, March 12,

My most agreeable duty this week has been the 1 perusal of the proof-sheets of the Agent-General's “ Story of New Zealand.” The little book is a model for handbooks of the kind. It is pithy, concise and picturesque. Mr Reeves is not afraid to speak out wheli occasion requires, but he sketches the history of the colony and the characteristics of its people with extraordinary impartiality •for one who has played so prominent a part in its politics. • The task was no light one, for it involved the absorption of innumerable books on New Zealand, most of them inaccurate, and nearly all of them slipshod, and the subsequent boiling-down of the matter so acquired to a veritable Eovril of history, that should he meaty and yet palatable;. Mr Reeves has taken infinite pains and trouble, he has written and.re-written and then re-written again even at the eleventh hour he has weighed every word, and tested the accuracy of every statement—and the result is a triumph of condensation. The book is no mere lifeless array of dates and figures, but a storywritten in terse, vigorous language, wellarranged, and without a single dull chapter. The perspective of the picture is excellent, and the headings of the eighteen chapters are so many dashes of colour. The first five chapters are concerned with the exploits of the Maoris, the whaling and beach - combing days, the pakeha-maori times, the early missions and the irregular settlements, depicted with plenty of local colour. Chapter VI., "Crown and Company,” deals with the treaty of. Waitangi and the New Zealand Company’s “almost criminal error in plumping down settlers iii districts occupied and certain to be stubbornly held by warlike Natives.” In a word, the author describes the first occupation of New Zealand as “rushed,” whereas “ the settlement of the North Island should not have been begun until after an understanding had been come to with the Imperial authorities, and the missionaries, and oh a proper and legal system of land purchase.” Chapter VII. takes us into the “ Valley of Humiliation” and the failures of Ohaewai and Okaihau; Chapter VIII. relates the doings of “ Good Governor Grey,” that concluded with the “ cleverly-managed surprise ” and capture of Rauparaha. Chapter IX., under the heading of “ Churches and Sheep,” describes the settlement of the South Island, Grey’s stoppage of the Wakefield system and the introcluction of his code of 1853, “destined to have lasting and mischievous effects on the future of the country.” Chapter X. is devoted to the “Constitution of Parliament ” and the growth of self-govern-ment, the foundations of which Grey laid “ deep and well.” Of Rarliranent as at present constituted Mr Reeves”says : —“The Lower House resembles in many ways the London County Council more that the House of Commons; ” the House supports a strong Speaker, hut is disposed to bully weakness in the chair.” In the Cabinet there are usually four or five able and overworked men, there is “no direct personal corruption,” party ties are looser than in England, and the “marked failing of New Zealand political life is an overstrained earnestness and lack of a sense of proportion or humour.” Chapter XI. touches on Governor Browne’s bafl bargain,” the Waitara land purchase, “ a classic example of a blunder worse than a crime.” Chapter XII. is headed “Ten to One,” and is occupied with the campaign that terminated with Orakau and the Gate pah, with some straight talking about General Cameron's “infuriating slowness” and mistaken policy in endeavouring to capture well-fortified pahs by assault. In Chapter XIII., “The Hau-haps and the Self-reliance Policy,” Mr Reeves suggests that the General’s slackness might be explained by the fact that he was sick of the war, which he and his officers regarded as “ an iniquitous job and inglorious to boot.” The irregulars and friendlies are referred to as “ more efficient than the regular Imperial troops.” Bringing the Native question up to date, Mr Reeves considers Sir Donald M’Lean “ a really capable Native Minister,” whose “ Celtic blood helped him to sympathise with the proud, warlike, clannish' nature of the Maori,” and refers to Mr Bryce’s Parihaka episode as a “high-handed proceeding, followed by an honourable and liberal settlement of the long-delayed reserve question.” Sir George Grey’s career as Governor for the second time is thus summarised:—(l) -He came on the scene too late. (2) He worked earnestly for peace for two years. (3) The part that he personally took in the wa l- was strikingly successful (4) He was scurvily treated by - the Colonial Office. Later in the book Mr Reeves deals gently witn the veteran statesman, whose “ cloudy eloquence would not do for human nature’s daily food.” A party leader, Mr Reeves thinks, should be “what Ballance was and Grey was not.” “ Gold ” is the subject of Chapter XIV. , and in Chapter XV. “ Exeunt the Provinces, Entep Demos.” “ But for one great blunder,” Mr Reeves thinks, “ the provinces should and probably would have existed now.” The public works policy is cleverly described with a few touches, and its inaugurate! - , Sir Julius Vogel, " may nit unfairly be defined as an imaginative materialist of the school of which Cecil Rhodes is the best known colonial exponent.” Mr Reeves says: —“It was not the public borrowing of the colony, but. the private debts of the colonists, which, following the extraordinary fall in the prices of their raw products between 1875 and 1895, plunged so many thousands into disaster. Ninetenths of the money publicly borrowed by the colony had been very well spent.” “New Zealand is now a-pleasant and highly civilised country. That she has become so in the last thirty years is due chiefly to the much criticised public works policy.”

“ Land settlement and local industries ” are handled in Chapter XVI., and praise is given to Mr John M’Kenzie, “ that sterling Minister of Lands.” Of the policy of compulsory land purchase, Mr Reeves says : “ As a rule there is no difficulty in buying hy friendly arrangement between the Government and the .proprietor. The latter is commonly as ready to sell as the former jo buy.” The operation of the tariff is thus described:—“English free-traders accept; as an axiom that Customs duties cannot produce increased revenue and at the same time stimulate local manufactures. Nevertheless, under the kind of compromise hy which duties of 15, 20 and 25 per cent are levied on so many articles, it does come about that the Colonial Treasurer gets his revenue, and, while sheltered by the fiscal hedge, certain colonial manufactures steadily grow up.” The State and its extensive functions make an interesting chapter, and Mr Reeves is naturally at home in dealing with the new force that came into the political field in 1890, “ Organised Labour.” “ The precise cause,” he says, “ of the victory of the Liberal-Labour fusion was the wave of socialistic, agrarian and labour feeling which swept over the English-speaking world at the time, and which reached New Zealand just as' plural voting had been finally abolished by Parliament, on the motion of Sir George Grey.” “By common consent, the Labour members eschew fireworks, and do their parliamentary work well.” “ It must not he mought that there is any strong party of deliberate State Socialists in the colony at all corresponding to the. following of Rebel and Liebknecht in Germany; or even of the IndependentLabour Party in England. There is not. “The reforms and experiments have been examined and taken on their merits, and not otherwise. They are the outcome of a belief which is not now the monopoly of one political party. The leaders of the rival parties—the robust Mr Seddon, the tactful Captain Russell—both admit one main principle. It is, that a young democratic country, still almost free from extremes of wealth and poverty, from class hatreds and fears, and the barriers these create, supplies an unequalled field for safe and rational experiment in the hope of preventing and shutting out some of the wox*st social evils and

miseries which afflict great nations, alike in the old world and the new.” The “ most venturesome of reforms, female suffrage,” says Mr Reeves, “ has been more noteworthy for what it has not brought about than for what it has. It has not unsexed women, broken up existing political parties or brought about family discord or domestic negligence. It has not stamped out the liquor traffic though it has strengthened the part of prohibition. Nor has it interfered with the institution of marriage, though it may presently bring about some amendment of the divorce laws. Secular education stands as strongly as ever, and ladies are not yet clamouring to be admitted to Parliament. Even the fashion of their dress is still English. On the other hand, they iise their votes eagerly, are taking a real and increasing interest in public affairs, and are likely to influence certain branches of legislation increasingly.” I Chapter XVIII. is sure to be more commented upon than the rest of the book, for it gives a faithful, and on the whole, a flattering picture of the Now Zealanders, whom Mr Reeves describes as essentially a British race. The Scotch he thinks in proportion to their numbers are more prominent than other races in pjolitics, commerce, finance, sheep-fanning, and the work of education. While the New Zealand race shows no sign of beating the best British, or of producing an average equal to that best, its average is undoubtedly better than the general British average. The intellectual average is good, but of artistic, poetic or scientific talent, of wit, originality or inventiveness there is not yet much sign. On the whole, young New Zealand is, as yet, better known by its collective usefulness than by its individual distinction. Society is not, as a rule, dictated to by mere money and is more sociable, self-confident and unsuspicious than that of older countries. “ Compared with the race from which they have sprung, the Islanders seem less conventional, less on irieir guard, and more neighbourly and sympathetic in minor matters, fonder of change and experiment, less extravagant for the sake of display, more venturesome, more empirical, more sober, more moral, equally averse to taking advice, but quicker to learn from foreign example, more law-abiding, but readier to make and alter laws, more indifferent to public opinions, yet contemptuous of eccentricity, more prone to wander (especially in the case of the work-people). Hypercritical and eaten up by, local and personal jealousies in public life, they are less loyal to parties and leaders,-less ready to deify theories and catch words, just as suspicious of wit and humour. They are less tolerant of grime, gloom and injustice.” The adventurous side of New Zealand’s history is exemplified by impressionist pictures of such incidents as the battles of Moutoa and Orakau, and the sacrifice of Te Kooti’s uncle in the flight from the Ghathams. The book shows Mr Reeves at his best both as historian and as man of letters. I hear at the last moment that- the book, which will appear in some three weeks’ time, is to be called “ New Zealand ” only, as Sur-geon-Major Thompson’s book, published by Mr Murray many years ago under the title oi “The Story of New Zealand,” is likely to be re-’issued.