KING DICK ON TOUR. Advertising the Colony.

Free Lance, Volume VI, Issue 308, 26 May 1906, Page 6

KING DICK ON TOUR. Advertising the Colony.

NEW Zealand doesn't lack for vertisement in the outside world. It is simply impossible to hide her light under a bushel. And it wouldn't pay her to do so even if she were so foolishly disposed Much of her prosperity during the last thirteen years has been due to the commanding personality of her King Dick and to the fact that he won't be crowded into- a corner or made to eat humble pie. Look how largely be is bulking in Australia just now. • « • What is it due to ? Unquestionably to the fact that Mr. Seddon has proved himself to be a statesman of the Empire as well as Premier of New Zealand. To his boldness of initiative and his courage in grappling with questions of Imperial concern. It is not the size of New Zealand but the measure of Mr. Seddon's mind and activities that makes his present visit to- Australia a kind of triumphal progress punctuated with public ovations, State banquets, and luncheons with Governors. Even the Premier of New South Wales, the wealthiest State in this southern hemisphere, did not consider it infra dig. to acknowledge that Mr. Seddon was "a leader m Imperialistic ideas and a leader whom he was always glad to follow." * • • King Dick brushes out of his way all sorts of established conventions when he has business on hand Even the editorial sanctum has no terrors for him. He has gone boldly there and arranged for a larger supply of New Zealand news in the big Australian papers. Ministers and merchant princes have alike deplored the miserably small space given to New Zealand affairs in the Australian pressi, but Mr. Seddon is the first to grasp the nettle. He is arranging too for bigger steamers and lower fares in view of the Christchurch Exhibition, he wants a new direct service with the East, he is dictating terms to France about convicts and the New Hebrides, and he finds time to interview the Japanese Consul, and to arrange for exchange visits of agricultural students between New South Wales and New Zealand. • * • At the other end of the world, Sir Joseph Ward is keeping the New Zealand flag flying very conspicuously in Rome. He didn't manage to carry his universal penny postage, but he has feted the postal delegates of the world and made a donation of £200 to the Mount Vesuvius Relief Fund. For the first time New Zealand has lifted up her voice in the councils of the nations, and they won't be able to mistake her any longer for a suburb of Sydney or a village in Fiji. If they forget Sir Joseph's speech they are bound .to remember his banquet, and we shan't be quite ignored. ° • • • There are „ other New Zealand ears also abroad advertising the colony each in his own little way. Mr. W. J. Napier, ex-M.H.R for Auckland, has managed to find time to look in upon President Roosevelt, of the United States, and urge him to de-

lay no longer to visit the eighth wonder of the world — New Zealand. And Teddy has promised to come, says it's the dream of his life, and so on. Another New Zealand exM.H.R.— J. H. Witheford to wit— is hawking around Taranaki ironsand m London, trying to float a> company with half-a-million of capital, and telling the Stock Exchange magnates "There's millions in it." « • • No wonder Sir Malcolm McEacharn, of Melbourne, returning home the other day from a trap to the Old Country, drew a rueful contrast between this insular colony and the big Continent. Everybody had a good word for New Zealand ; nobody bothered about Australia. He blamed Australians themselves foir spoiling their own show by always crying "stinking fish." At any rate, we're certainly not addicted to that habit here in Maoriland. It can't be denied that we perform pretty well on the flute. And King Dick is leader of the orchestra.