"BANKRUPT" NEW ZEALAND.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 20 September 1909, Page 2

"BANKRUPT" NEW ZEALAND.

SAMPLE OP AMEBICAN JOUBNALISM. . \ So rarely does newß items from New Zealand appear in American -paY pers that, when they do, the name strikes the eye of a New Zenlander, though it be buried in the niiddld of a page (write? the San Frainciscp,correspondent o| the '"< Press" undei Sate August 6). ,Tg see the name in a headline gives quite a sjiock.. Iny agine, then, the feelings of exiled na : tives of God's Own Country -when they saw in flaring type on the front page of 'Frisco evening paper, these headlines,— "Fads bring "woe and poverty for New Zealand" 'Oneseventh of population dependent on State for support"; "Ownership by reformers fails." It was the "Evening Post" that published the "story" (every news item published in an American paper is a "story"-. The article appeared in the form of a cablegram from Wellington, but it bore .clear evidence of liberal "filling in."- It read^thu?:— "New Zealand, long- advertised- "as the best country in the world, for the working classes, and a country freak government' prevails, has fallen .->n such exceedingly hawl times a c last that Acting-Minister of; Finance Millar purposes to introduce a Bill fort insurance against unemployment. . . • as well as to point out' to the law makers that if the situation v to bo relieved as heretofore, by enormous public -works, it will be n«n?s,siiry\ t9 negotiate another lftaiv and to increase the taxation considerably. . . . At ■present 170,000 people, or nearly one-seventh of ttie population, depend on the Stato for support, aud retrenchment means starvation .for them. . . . Both skilled and unskilled labour are afieeted, and many, workmen who are able' to raise tfie. necessary funds 'are leaving for Auj. tralia.". The message has reached hero by way of London and New York, and doubtless it had been somewhat twisted on the journey. But it was' the wrenching it got after it came "into the hands of the "Evining' Post-T that made it so viciously defamatory. It happens that the. "Post" was recently purghafiea. fey t% owner's of the " Globe "-^-a. syndicate backed by Patrick Calho'un, the millionaire bribe-giver. The combined paper] ia used by him to resist the efforts of the people to get a municipal tram system to compete witli his lines, the United BaiJ*oads. An einployoe of the "Post" had chanced to liear that Now Zealand was devoted to public ownership of public utilities. He saw the message telling of the hard times there. He presumed the rest; public ownership had b,een a fajlure.Here was a splendid argument foj Patrick Calhoun. Two nights later the «<Pos.t M used the same story in an aggravated form as an editorial/ The whole irguuient was against public, ownership, especially of tramways, Hers are some of the brightest gems of this effusion:^- --" After being advertised all over the "world as the paradise of the. working-man, N§w Zea]and is practically bankrupt. .. . Now Zealand is a fertile and, productive country, inhabited by industrious, intelligent people for the most part. Its climate is temperate, and every potentiality for happiness and prosperity is found there. Political fads alone have bankrupted New Zealand! (Last'sentonce in italics.) So widespread has this governmental faddism become that 170,000 people are absolutely dependent on the colonial administration for support. Many? of them now face starvation. . . . Now Now Zealand has her pretty decorations which cost ten dollars a liQad, and an army of starving labourers. % It -would be amusing, if it were :not sad, to think of a San Francisco'paper pitying New Zealand and pointing out a moral from her terrible plight, when throughout last -vrifltcr and well on into the spring, there wore reported to be 15,000 men idle in this city of less than half a million people! 1 "*