MY TRIP TO EUROPE AND AMERICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11783, 12 October 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

MY TRIP TO EUROPE AND AMERICA.

NO. I. [BY c. E. nelson, of whakarewarkwa.] Having just returned, after a six mouths' ibsence, probably some of my friends, " old ialts" included, might feel inclined to hear if the impressions made upon my mind during this my last round trip—last, I »j, as at my age, already beyond the 01iiary span of life, Charon is surely waiting b ferry me across the Styx.

Sly wife and I left Auckland on the Ist W April, and proceeded via the customary riute —Sydney, Hobart, Melbourne, Adelide, Prcemantle, Ceylon, Suez Canal, {raits of Messina, and Straits of Boni■jcio, to Marseilles ; thence through France, •here, inter alia, we visited the two celerated " health resorts," Vichy and Aix-les-■ains.

IN FRANCE. Everywhere we found the French polite, Sable, chatty, light-hearted, and amusing, ut with an instinctive hatred for evcryhing English. At that tim e, I was old, their ablest engineers were exercising heir inventive genius in planning vessels if destructionsubmarine and aerial—de.ennined to cripple England's navy ((he Channel Fleet) by the first, and the "second to drop some explosive that 'would denolsh her cities. And all this in order o tvenge Fashoda, the memory of which s deply impressed on every Frenchman's irah They are also considering a scheme «f Obstructing a ship-canal from the Bay of Bicay to the Mediterranean.

Faiilies of children arc conspicuous bv theirtbsence. One mother told me children wre so very cumbersome, and another "thalit was not fashionable to have children.'*

SWITZERLAND. In ieneva we. had evidence of the excellent ducational system of Switzerland. Here e saw a young girl of fourteen painting i oil, able to converse in English, Frenc, and German. The Swiss we met were educated, intelligent, affable, and county ; very pleased to see you visit their county, leave your money, and depart whene you came. They are nearly all pro-her, but are not so pronounced as the Frena.

HE THERMAL SPRINGS OF EUROPE.

W visited most of the large cities of Gernany, as well as the thermal springs at Wiesbaden. Bad Nauheim, Karlsbad, and Aix-ja-'Jhapelle. Here let me say that there i a remarkable general resemblance characterising all the Continental spas; Bplendi large public buildings, hotels, and kurhaues, parks and avenues with marble statueshere and there, the sprightly, gay, costly-tad beau-monde, and the chic and fascinaing demi-mondes; wealthy American lutes, bechained and bejewelled. Occasion?ly one sees the proud and dignified statelywalking officer in full dress, giving a sonuvhat military glitter to the general scene,and sometimes even you may notice the meting of a French and German officer, both n mufti, saluting each other, and then,like Bums' twa dogs, wend their way in oposite directions, to meet again some other day under different circumstances. Thes places, besides their curative benefits, are conducive to a wide and continual social intfeourse and frequent matrimonial allianes. They offer also special advantages to men of commerce who come here to ejjoy themselves while disposing of their varea. Here you hear all sorts of languages from all sorts and conditions of men and women. It is the Babel of the twentieth century. Still, the tout-ensemble charms you. or should I say that it is the environment that attracts the great throng of people from every corner of the civilised world'/ All kinds of recreation and amusements are provided to suit every imaginable fancy. There are bands of music everywhere, balls, concerts, and variety shows ; swinging, riding, driving, and autoBobiling; football, cricket, croquet, golf, cycling, and gambling. The different modes or systems or management are also nearly ikin, whilst the discipline of the employees is simply perfection. With reference to the analysis of the springs, their thera- J pentic properties, treatment of patients, etc., I have collected a number of books—French, German, and Englishtreating upon these subjects. After having visited the diminutive thermal springs of France, Germany, and America, I feel astonished at and ashamed of the continued and seemingly determined negligence of our New Zealand Thermal Springs District. Our thermal springs are almost unknown in England and the States. In a San Francisco shipping office (that of Messrs. Spreckc-ls and Co.) I noticed New. Zealand represented by an enlarged photo, of a pretty Maori girl, which was, presumably, intended as a means of attractionnot so bad, either, had she been represented as bathing in one of our multitudinous warm-water springs. Not one thing did I sen abroad having reference to our hot lakes and springs—which are even more widely known in Germany than in England. For the rest, I boldly" main- ; tain that, given carefully and scientifically \ made analyses of thermal waters on the ' spot, and properly ascertained diagnosis of the maladies intended for balneatory treatment, there is no necessity whatever to import the sp-mueh-talked-of " balneologist from Germany"-—a foreign luxury at 25 per cent. Customs duty. Why on earth should not one or two of our own young medicos j and we have some very capable ones—be ' encouraged to take up this subject and j study it? Surely, considering all'the up- ! to-date assistance and appliances, literary j and other, that may be had, it ought not | to prove beyond the penetration or capacity j of an ordinarily educated mind, and especially, considering the times we live in, as j it would prove a safe and certain monetary investment. I

GERMANY. Germany seemed to me to be one immense industrial factory, where everybody must work or go under- Here you may see a cow in harness, alongside of a horse, dragging a plough ; or a dog in traces, helping a woman to pull |ier milk-cart along. I saw women (we call them ladies in New Zealand) working in mines, also ' loading and discharging railway trucks full : of stones. All the cities of Germany ate patterns of cleanliness. The streets are swept every morning at break of day, and } kept healthy by the latest scientific sanitary appliances. Spitting in the street, or in public places and conveyances, is strictly I prohibited. Order is the German's first ' law. His sympathies are with the Boer, i but he is not loudly enthusiastic like the | Frenchman, and will tell you that his partiality is derived from irrefutable evidence. I often noticed groups of men perusing African war news, printed in large letters, and exhibited on a board outside the newspaper office. Having read about some defeat, etc. of the English, you might occasionally no'tice a smile, but generally the people walked away in silence, certainly were never vociferous or exclamatory. About this time, in the Ntueste Nachrichten, a German naval expert, critising the British naval manoeuvres, said that "a British fleet of even approximately the same calibre would be badly defeated, as Great Britain is far behind in the latest improvements in ships, material, construction, armour, and guns." For myself, I cannot speak too highly of their hospitality, geniality, and general endeavour to assist me as much as possible in my ethnological explorations.

In Germany you frequently meet a few mothers in the parks with eight or ten lusty, well-clad, well-behaved children ; you ask the mothers what will become of all their children, and their reply will most likely be, '" We will send them to France, where they have none." Should you tell them that in most countries it is not fashionable to have more than one or two children the reply is, " It's not so here. The Empress leas six."

I should mention that 1 entered Europe With my cranium crammed with statistics I relative to what New Zealand had done by ! way of assisting England in the Transvaal with men and money, but I soon found that in France it was a risky subject, and in I Germany it was best to be judiciously si- ' lent, go I shut —like closing my knife and putting it in my pocketand listened instead. All the better-class Germans know more about New Zealand than the same .

[ class of English and they would sometimes ask me some rather" embarrassing questions—e.g.. Have the Court of Arbitration and the Conciliation Boards came up to expectations? No! Why? Because two litigants never agree as to the justice or impartiality of ft verdict. Your Premier, Mr. Seddon-- great man, Dick— shaping his policy, I presume, in the direction of the greatest good to the greatest number'.' No, sir, you are mistaken, and have been misinformed. His policy is the. greatest good for all, excluding nobody. Tie is endeavouring to equalise sacrifices and alleviate the burdens of the working population. Do the working men ever strike? Yes. You know very well that they do, but it does not require a regiment of soldiers to appear on the scene to frighten them into subjection, etc., etc. I like Germany and the Germans, nil the same, specially those from the South. Affable, educated, intelligent, full of fun and dry j humour and genial sociability (Gemuthlich- j keit).

SWEDEN AND DENMARK. Leaving Germany, we crossed the Baltic and entered Sweden,. Here we saw thou-

sands of acres in sugar beet. A brother of mine interested in the manufacture of

beet sugar told me that during the first three years they made a profit of 40 per cent. They are now netting about 15 per cent. The banks pay 5 per cent, on deposits. The peasant farmers seemed very prosperous and contented. They are the ! most independent people I saw during my sojourn in Europe, and very democratic in their ideas of political administration. In one of their widely-circulated newspapers I noticed "Ten Political Commandments," in large type. The first was: "Remember to respect thyself;" the second. " Remember thou art the equal of thy neighbour;" the third, " Remember that work was made for man. and not man for work ;" etc., etc. One Sunday morning my wife visited a church to see what the service was like. The congregation consisted of more than forty women and three men. As the clergymen here are paid by the State to perform certain duties I presume the church feeling cannot be very strong. The most noteworthy thins; is the Trollhatta Canal, by which one can go from Stockholm to Gothenburg. It is a marvellous product of engineering skill, where you may see a steamer climbing or descending 120 feet, step by step, moving from one lock to another. The Swedes side with the Boers, but, like the Germans, are not noisy about it. A niece of mine, who has visited England several times, said to my wife, " Oh, I used to love the English so much, and now I cannot tell you how I dislike them. What a a cruel, bloodthirsty people you must be. How would you in New Zealand like to be treated as you seem to think it right to treat the Boers?" My wife, to avoid discussing the subject, simply said, "I'm not English. I'm Irish." That settled the matter- In Copenhagen, and Denmark generally, we noticed the same pro-Boer feeling. But after leaving Paris, and crossing the Channel from Boulogne to Folkestone and entering England, we never met ! a- single pro-Boer, though we had all along I been assured that seventy-five per cent, of the Irish, and twenty-five per cent, of the English, sympathised with the Africanders, and that the Scotch were the only thoroughly loyal people of Great Britain. Nevertheless, I believe that we in the colonies are quite as loyal as the Scots. IRELAND. From Holyhead we crossed the Irish Channel in a 24-knot steamer to Dublin. The city seemed asleep. Even in Sack-ville-street the people seemed to be under some lethargic influence. The only activity noticeable was at Guinness' brewery. Here, also, as in London, Manchester, and Liverpool, we saw a diversity of German goods exhibited in the shop windows. The majority of the waiters here, as in England, are Germans. The principal hotel in Galway, in the west of Ireland, was managed by a German, and German waiters attended. I saw Irish bog-oak souvenirs for sale which were of German manufacture, and I bought Irish poplin made in France. Nothing seems to flourish in this part of the country but the churches. Every industrial enterprise has been banished. But in the north of Ireland the population are prosperous. They build factories, and ships like the ' Oceanic, the Celtic, and the Svevic, etc. i In the south and west they build churches, ; convents, and monasteries. Under the late Land Acts tenants may acquire their land by j purchase. Nevertheless, the bone and sinew ; of the country are constantly emigrating to America. They are the most discontented people I have ever seen, nursing their old j grievances, and longing for Home Rule. As ; they say, it is impossible for a Sassenach, or Englishman, to understand them. One must admit that it is an extremely difficult and delicate task for an outlander to get at the root of the so-called "Irish problem." Bacon said that " an overgrown clergy doth speedily bring a State to necessity;'' and that is true, judging from what may be seen in Italy and Spain, where the sacerdotal element prevails, and where you find poverty and laziness, with hosts of beggar's and Lazzaroni. I think Ireland may be i included in this category. In Ireland the majority of the priests have been youths of the peasant-farmer class, who have been trained and taught at Maynooth, inter alia, that the affairs of this world are no concern of theirs, and that the sacred interests of their religion have the first claim on their ; hearts, while the temporary needs of their country are but of secondary importance. When the quondam youth emerges from the college in his canonicals he becomes the maximus interpares of his own people. Their sympathies are his, also; he is their best friend and most trusted adviser in their troubles and grievances—he is, in fact, the most important , man in the land. What Ireland needs is universities and schools independent of clerical control, as they are in most other countries, and even Catholic France has taken the power from the priests of upholding intellectual obscurantism. And, again, intelligent Catholic laymen ought to have a say in the management of the temporal affairs of their church. Then, but not till then, need Ireland expect to become , peaceful and prosper. Pro-Boerism was not ' so general as we expected to find it in the \ south and western parts of Ireland, as mostly j everybody had some relative in the British South African army. AMERICA. We arrived in New York on the 2lsfc of I August, and went South. At the Smith- : sonian Institution, the curator, Mr. T. Wil- ■ son, showed me some very fine black stone clubs, exactly similar to those formerly used by the Maoris. Subsequently we visited ■ the Niagara Fulls and the Pan-American Ex- I position at Buffalo, What interested me I most here were the baby incubators, the ' Ethnologv Building, and the view of the Electric Tower at night from the Triumphal Bridge. The camp of the Indian " Six Nations" was a fake, reminding one of Rotorua at the Auckland Exhibition.