Nelson Evening Maìl THURSDAY. MAY 2, 1935 MAN’S EARTHLY PARADISE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 2 May 1935, Page 6

Nelson Evening Maìl THURSDAY. MAY 2, 1935 MAN’S EARTHLY PARADISE

LORD BLEDISLOE said many kind things of New Zealand when lie was here, and lie continues to say them now that he is in England. “I call it man’s paradise,” lie says of this country, and it must be conceded that he knows it from north to south as few others know it, that he is closely acquainted with its cities and towns, its agricultural and pastoral areas, its forest-country, its mountains, lakes, and rivers, and that he is intimate with its people, of both races and all classes. Lord Bledisloe’s warm expression of opinion was elicited by the remarks of a well-known soldier who visited this country ill pre-war days and is of the opinion that New Zealand is “one of the best places in the Empire to bring up a healthy, liappy family”; the problems presented by England’s overpopulated cities and the Dominions’ empty spaces being much to the fore at the present time. This country could not accommodate the many millions of people who would require to emigrate from the Old Country, if its congestion is to be relieved and the difficulties presented by its unemployed are to be overcome. It is not to be supposed that the ex-Governor-General was thinking of New Zealand as the most suitable place for Britain's surplus millions to reside in. He was thinking of this country as lie knows it, a land of limited extent, of large forest areas which will never produce anything more Valuable than the forests which grow on them, of vast mountainous regions which will never produce anything of value except their incomparable beauty, and of much second-class land which will never be useful for anything but the rearing of sheep, to which it is admirably and profitably adapted. Lord Bledisloe doubtless had in mind the comfortable and profitable farms which could be created in selected areas which at present are used for pasturing sheep, areas which no doubt are destined to be used some day for agricultural purposes when the population of this country is greater than at present. It is evident that any plan for the settlement of such areas must be conducted along lines of careful selection, not only of the land to be occupied hut of the people who are to occupy it. Wholesale migration of England’s surplus millions to New Zealand would meet with complete disaster, but the inclusion of specially selected emigrants, able and willing to turn the arable areas referred to, to profitable use, would be an asset to this country. There is no intention to repeat the experiment of Sir Julius Vogel, who filled the towns of New Zealand with emigrants who were mostly daylabourers in England and became daylabourers in New Zealand. This country cannot afford to increase its problem of unemployment, which is already great, hut may he reduced by the arrival here of immigrants possessed of some capital and capable of farming profitably those selected areas of arable land to .which lcference has been made. The “scenic loveliness” of New Zealand, to which Ixird Bledisloe refers, should be used to attract tourists from England and the United States; indeed our Tourist Department could, and no doubt will, use the ex-Governor-Geueral's laudatory references to this country for the purpose of attracting to this country travellers who, in increasing numbers are making the round tour of the world, including the Panama and Suez Canals, and embracing many parts of the British Empire, such as Australia and New Zealand. Furthermore Lord Bledisloe’s flattering description of the people of this country, their character and hospitality, should do much lo popularise New Zealand with the world’s travelling public. The people of this country will not find it easy to live up to the description which his lordship lias given of them, and should strive to deserve what lie has so generously said of them. Everyone in New Zealand knew that Lord Bledisloo’s love of this country and its people came second only to his love of his native land and his fel-

low-countrymen, hut this present tribute which he so generously pays to the land and people of New Zealand will- long be remembered and prized, since it proceeds from one who not only knows this country intimately, but is a man of the world, a widely experienced administrator, who speaks his mind frankly, without fear or favour.