FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIV, 12 January 1921, Page 5

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I FORMED BY A CANADIAN •‘KEEP NEW ZEALAND BRITISH” ( First impressions may require subsequent modifications, but they are generally indelible, imd almost always accurate. Mr A. J. Brenton, president of the Albert J. Brenton Co., Led., of .Winnipeg, is busily forming some first impressions of iNew Zealand. He is also a member of the Winnipeg Board of Trade, and to that body many of ibis impressions of his smaller Dominion will be addressed, orally and in writing. In the course of conversa- | tion with a representative of The Post 'Mr Brenton described how some of the things seen and the people lie had met in New Zealand had impressed him. He comes from a city of nearly . 270,000 people—where there were but 1 215 fifty years ago, and 80,(XX) only so | , recently as 1905. It is the capital city i of a province larger in area than Hol-| land, Belgium, ami all Germany com-j :bined. It is a city with its problems, I | and of these two call for particular j mention, not because they are peculiar ; to Winnipeg. One is the decay ol j home life and the crowding into the trams ; and the other, the presence of; a truculent foreign labour element: j Now it was the low visibility of these problems in New Zealand that has greatly impressed Mr Brenton. “If they are here in New Zealand, they are not conspicuous,” he said. “They do not confront one as they, do us in Western Canada, 1 have come to New Zealand first to learn all I can about the country, its people, and its institutions, and some of the things that have impressed themselves deeply on my mind I shall certainly speak about: on my return to Winnipeg. First, let me say wo in Canada are one with you in New Zealand under the one British flag. IMPERIAL INTERESTS

“Therclorcwe ought to be interested the one Tn the otlior. Wo are closely connected by ties of commerce, j I know, but there is something more ; than that that binds us. I Jiavo already noticed here, for instance, how differently possession of money is regarded, With us in America wealth is everything. True, the shoeblack of to-day'may be the millionaire of tomorrow ; but we kick the shoeblack of to-day, while we shall fling our arms round nis neck to-morrow. That is America. lam speaking at large and generally. With you here it is different. Why ? I think it is because ■wealth is* more evenly distributed. You have fewer, if any, downright poor; and fewer, if any, fabulously wealthy. This makes for j contentment/’ _ ' '

“Another impression, too, I have formed. It is this: You have more home life in New Zealand. I know it sounds like a , platitude, but the strength of a nation lies in its home life. The decay of home life is most marked in America, which, of course, 1 includes Canada. In New Zealand, even If you do not deliberately preserve and foster home life, it has not yet appeared to mo that you empty homes at night, all going out in search of excitement, making the house a roosting-place. Well, this decay of home life, I can assure you, is a.very serious problem with us. We realise how much it means in the life of the community, its unsettling effect upon life in general, its destructive influences upon national character. “KEEP OUT FOREIGNERS” “Again the people of Now Zealand appear to me to be all British-born or born of pure British 'stock. Foreigners are few and Asiatics fewer. Well, my word here and now to all New Zealanders is, keep them out. We, in Winnipeg in particular, know what wo are talking about. We would have every foreigner out of Canada if we could—l i don’t call Americans foreigners? The.' people I mean are Poles. Galicians, Russians, all that crowd. Why, when our own boys wont to war in their thousands at a dollar a day, aye, and died for the cause of freedom, these foreigners, aliens, . enemy in fact, hung back and took their seven, eight, and ten dollars a day. Not only did they keep their own skins whole, but they took every possible advantage of j the absence of our boys. We have got ( a pretty bad labour element in Western Canada, and they are foreigners—not Canadian, not Irish, not Scotch, not English but foreigners. Well, the impression I have formed of New Zealand is that you are happily without these dangerous and ignorant elements. Lucky for you; keep it so. You seem to me to want more population. This is a rich, a fertile country with a brainy and industrious people; but you want more population. .Well,, get the best, get British. None other. They know your language; they havei the home instinct, they have respect for law and erder; they are self-reli-ant. • DANGERS OF CROWDING “Another thing and this you .can learn from our experience y keep your people away from congested areas. Jf you do that you will largely solve onp of the most serious problems confronting us in Western Canada. You in New Zealand are fortunate in having four big and separate cities and a number of separate and towns. We have a city of 270,000. H has a foreign population of 50 per cent., trouble makers. Our next tag gest city in Manitoba is Brandon, with 15,000. You see the disparity. Another impression of New Zealand, formed bv Mr Bronton, was the opportunities that are here for _yoimg mon and women to make good in .their native land;. He knew distant hills looked fair and inviting, but he was struck bv the outlets that New Zealand SLild be ahlb to afford its own young people and that in a far happier anS kintllior environment than countries could offer them. No doubt more rural population was needed m New Zealand, no doubt that here on tieq deserting the country side, still tlie prospects for young New Zcahmd within the Dominion appeared to him as exceedingly bright, if a happy, mST'Thai could not be »i W "ople It was an impression he had I formed, and it was one he felt suie j that would remain.