"NEWEST ENGLAND."

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12428, 18 February 1901, Page 4

"NEWEST ENGLAND."

We are''by this time tolerably familiar with Mr H. D. Lloyd's views om New Zealand polities and institutions. Our American critic is always sympathetic, if sometimes a little discriminating in his praise, and bis latest book is therefore calculated to encourage us in our present course. ' "Newest England" is rather more than an elaboration of Mr Lloyd's magazine articles, most of which we have noticed in these columns. It is an attempt to describe our political system and to show that New Zealanders, if not "the most civilised, the most happy, the most prosperous people in the world," are certainly " the least uncivilised, the least ■unhappy, the least disinherited 1 ." "For New Zealand," 1 says Mr Lloyd, " it may be claimed that its Government and its people are ' the least bad' this side of Mars." Lest his readers should deem him blind in his love of this fair young country, the American, thinks it proper to warn them that "this. Newest England is no Utopia, no paradise." It Us far behind Great Britain and America jn municipal life. " The streets of the larger towns," he continues, "swarm at night with young men and women Avho, unfortunately, are not unemployed though their hands are idle. When the .'traveller reads the police reports of the principal Australasian, cities he feels as if he were at home in New York, London, or some other Sodom and Gomorrah." The most important chapters of the volume are those devoted to our land system, which Mr Lloyd studied with the greatest, care during his recent visit to the colony. He saw the whole process of settlement, the acquisition of the land by the Government, the division into holdings, the ballot—he was present at the Waikakahi allocation—the beginnings of settlement, and the successful result. From one end of the colony to the other he made it his business to move among the peopleand to seek out men l whose opinohs were worth having. He had the Government officials to. fall back upon for the facts and and New Zealand has certainly no reason to complain of his treatment of the subject. -, Cheviot, of course, occupies a, prominent place in his story, though a whole library could hardly be more instructive than a, couple of photographs reproduced in the volume, showing the district before it was cut up for settlement and some half-a-dozen years later. Mr Lloyd was fortunate in having good guides wherever he went. Men like Mr H. G. Ell, M.H.R., and Mr J. E. March gave him the benefit of their knowledge of movements and, achievements, and it is evident that he did not depend on the Government or on one political party for his information. On the whole, however, the volume is an appreciation rather than a cold criticism. Wherever possible, a. personal interest is given to the story, and Mr Lloyd recognises that the people, however united they may be, would be lost without strong leaders. Therefore we find the services of Sir George Grey, of Mr John Ballance, of Mr Seddon, of Mr Reeves, of Mr John M'Kenzie, of Mr Ward, and of Mr Rolleston constantly mentioned. The book helps us to realise how far- we have, progressed on the' road to socialism without knowing it. Whether we have discovered "the anti-toxin of revolution " or not is a matter for the future to decide. It is our luck, we are told, to be the most compact and homogenous, the most equal and manageable democracy in the world ; and the work of eliminating the pauper and the millionaire lias, therefore, been fairly .straightforward. The federation issue would be speedily settled if we were all of Mr Lloyd's way of thinking.