A COLONIAL POINT OF VIEW

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12269, 13 May 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

A COLONIAL POINT OF VIEW

Under this title, Black and White publishes a sketch by Mr. Arthur H. Adams, a, New Zealander, who is rapidly making his way in the literary world. We quote: I had just introduced a friend of mine to a Man in the Strand.

'"You're an Englishman, aren't you?" said the Man in the Strand.

" No : New Zealander," said my friend.

"Well, isn't a colonial the same as an Englishman " I didn't say colonial ; I said New Zealander," replied the tall, brown, sturdilybuilt son of the South.

" O!" said the Man in the Strand blankly. He had never met that point of view before. But then he had not met many colonials. The New Zealander explained. "You see," he said, " a colonial may be a man who lives in Jamaica, or Aden, or Singapore, or the Falkland Islands, or Vancouver, or Pietermaritzburg), or Woolloomooloo ; hut a New Zealander lives in New Zealand. That's the difference. You may like to include under one title the members of a hundred different communities separated by thousands of miles from each other, and some of them occupying countries ten times the size of these little islands ; you may call them all colonials, but unless you want to hurt people's feelings—and you English are the most polite and tactful people on the face of the earth—you will take the trouble to remember that we aren't colonials— South Africans and Canadians and Australians and New Zealanders. And every one of us is as proud of belonging to our own country as a Scotchman is of having been born in N. 8., as you call the place." Then we had a drink and talked Imperialism.

"But," said the Man in the Strand, "you're proud of belonging to England, aren't you?" " Belonging The Maorilander's whole attitude expressed his surprise. "Belonging? We don't belong to anybody— ourselves."

I thought it necessary to intervene. I had been longer in England than he. " Merely a figurative expression," I said soothingly. " You know the Coronation oath spoke of His Majesty's dominions beyond the seas. That's you. You're one of our possessions, you know." " Possessions!" The Maorilander put down his glass with a bang, and absentmindedly lifted the cover from a plate of sandwiches. " What do they cover up the sandwiches li';e that for?" he asked. There aren't any flies here." "To prevent you stealing them." " What! do they make you pay for sandwiches at a public bar?" he asked. " Sandwiches containor are said to contain—meat," I said, " and meat costs money in this country." He carefully surrendered the sandwich that he had taken, and gingerly replaced the lid. "What a curious country!" he said, with a sigh. Then he turned to the Man in the Strand. "Where did you get that idea that we belonged to you?" " Well, England discovered you, and colonised you. " No, the Dutch discovered us, and we colonised ourselves."

" Well, we sent out the convicts." Then I knew that things would get broken. I put my hand on the New Zealander's arm. "New Zealand and Australia are so far away," I said, " that it is only natural that an Englishman should confuse the two. How could he be expected to know that no convicts ever came to New Zealand, that New Zealand refused to accept them, and that only a few ever landed in Australia, and that transportation was easy in those days." My colonial was soothed. He put it down to the Englishman's ignorance. " Anyway, England sent out the colonists."

"Yes, but who's there now?" retorted the New Zealander.

The Man in the Strand was true to his race. " Well, we lend you money." "So does a pawnbroker, but he doesn't claim that he owns his clients. If we didn't pay up it might bo a different thing. If you went out to New Zealand, and told my people that they were a possession of anybody else, you would be laughed at. New Zealand is for the New Zealanders. If there is one thing that we are convinced of, it is that our country belongs to nobody but ourselves."

" But you're all members of the Empire." The Maoiilandfcr's face lit up. "Ah! that's a different thing," he said. "We're all Imperialists, all proud of belonging to the Empire. It was for the Empire we fought, not for England. To us the idea of Empire, the knowledge that we form an integral part of the Empire, is a very real thing. 1 daresay we have a more vivid conception of the Imperialistic idea out there than any of you here can imagine. Why, you're ail little Engenders compared with us!"

"Then you are English, only you call yourselves New Zealanders!" " No; we're Imperialists, not English. We're New Zealanders first and proud of it, and members of the Empire second. Just as you are English first and Imperialists second."

The Man in the Strand smiled. "Let's drink to the Empire," he said. " Kia oral" said the New Zealander, as we three touched glasses.