WAKE UP, NEW ZEALAND!

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13745, 9 May 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

WAKE UP, NEW ZEALAND!

BY A. IX. SKEF.MAN". Wake up, New Zealand, cast off the bonds of sleepy self-sufficiency and realise that the hour has already struck when you must arise and be doing, if you are to fulfil the promise of your early youth ! Would that there were a Prince of Wales to preach upon this text to the people of the Dominion, and lend the weight of his personality to the sermon. Britain was already an aged crone when the heir aparcnt besought her to " wake up." It was possibly too. late then to stir her old blood to the efforts he would have had her make. But New Zealand is young; there is yet time for the callow youth to amend his ways, if but he have the grace to desire amendment. But, alas! in that " if" lies the danger. Supreme conceit can never recognise the need for self-improvement, and surely never was there a land so bestrewn with priggish bumpkins, inflated with an unalterable conviction of their own perfections, as is this land of the triple isles. So it may be no easy matter to pierce the heavy armour of the people's hide-bound complacency. Whence comcs this stultifying vanity of the New Zealander? "Behold, I made it, it is therefore good!" is the attitude of the typical country-born and criticism of his handiwork, an indication that the structure is at best but rough-hewn yet,, sets each nodule. of vanity itching with irritation, Never was there a people.more conspicuous for their irritability, more impatient under criticism, than these people of the so-called "Fortunate Isles." Like a red rag to a bull is the mildest word o' truthful comment to the Dominionist though fulsome compliments the same person can assimilate as readily as he swallows the whisky of which lie is so fond. The New Zealander looks at his country through rose-coloured spectacles provided by his own insensate conceit, but regarded with the cold clearness of unprejudiced vision, what do wc see in NewZealand ? We see a country of small things, small amis, email ambit ious, small achievements. It is not the pretty smallncss of the young child— Zealand is quite old enough to know better now. It is the smallness of the narrow bourgeois mind that has developed to the utmost bodnds of its own smallness, and has not the wit to appreciate how far short it falls ot an intellectual ideal. New Zealand is. quite convinced that it is very well educated, very highly cultured, very well bred, very well governed : and in this ingrained conviction it struts along, thinking it is playing the big drum of the concert of the Nations, while actually Friend Hodge is sounding but a weak note on the penny whistle. Time was when the Dominion had the opportunity to make a great nation, but it has always sorely lacked at the critical period the great leader, and the great intellect to frame its laws. At the present moment it is crying aloud for a, strong captain to hold the helm, for a strong j man to lift . the country out of the ruck of deadly mediocrity into which it has sunksomeone who shall build for the far future, and not for the moment's praise and prosperity.. Where in New Zealand may we hope to find the politician bold enough, or strong enough, to point out to his countrymen the things that cry aloud for remedy,' and to withhold from them the showy'luxuries which they desire.' It is easier'to make a name by sanctioning the building of a gaudy bath-house, or a smart railway station, in the big towns where the folk do foregather, than to refuse these and kindred superfluities until the great waste areas of the country have been laid open to the march of civilisation. It is , only a later generation that may hope to reap to the fullest the benefits of roads and railways constructed at the present time, and who is wide enough in his outlook to seek his praise only from an unborn generation whose voices he cannot hope to hear? Individualism is the very essence of the House of Representatives, and "Empire-building" is a phrase empty of meaning in New Zealand. So the congregation of people in the towns goes on apace; until housing accommodation becomes scarce and expensive; until means of transport for the wageearning members of the population become ridiculously inadequate; until the dangeis of overcrowding - begin to present themselves in a country that has thousands of' acres of land which have never known the plough. Whose fault is this? Partly the Government's, because it puts so many difficulties in the way of the would-be settler, and does so little to assist his operation's by good roads and railways; and partly the people's, because they are beginning to exhibit that earliest sign of moral degeneration—the fear of solid haicl work. The New Zealander is becoming a very "shy bird" where agricultural or manual work is concerned, and even industrial work in the towns lie can be tempted to do only for exorbitantly high wages, and thus it. comes about that every necessity of life is about as expensive again in the Dominion as it is in Britain. Lacking the common-sense to argue from the effect to the cause, and seek the remedy for the mischief in a removal of the cause, Labour finding even its well-lined pockets depicted with great rapidity, hastens to squeeze a lew more shillings in wages out of his employers, and so incidentally to put another 'nail in his country's coffin. High wage's and high prices for essentials are' no better an economic condition than low wages and low prices ; but this is evidently a fact that the bourgeois mind of New Zealand cannot- be expected to grasp. Or it may come to a realisation of this only through great tribulation. A "divine discontent" would go far to spur the people on to efforts that- would make their eventual mark upon the history of the world's politics, sociology, art, music, or literature. But, unhappily, the New Zealander is so firmly convinced that he is perfect, and that he has already made a paradise of his country, that he is content just to sit down and admire himself and his handiwork. It matters little to him that his present policy of kisser faire may finally involve his country in all- the hideous complications of industiral loss or moral degeneration. Indeed, he wilfully shuts his eyes to unpleasant things that would rudely force themselves upon him to disturb his peace. There are the makings of a great and beautiful nation here, had we but strong leaders and an earnest and intellectual people; but . lacking these, it seems possible that New Zealand may drift upon many a stormy sea before some yet unborn statesman lays strong hands upon its shifting helm, and so guides it into a haven of true prosperity and high renown. Wake up,' New Zealand, and be ready to respond to the guidance of such a leader, what' time lie comes amongst you 1