AS OTHERS SEE US.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18322, 12 February 1923, Page 8

AS OTHERS SEE US.

PRAISE FOR .DOMINION. AUSTRALIAN'S IMPRESSIONS. BAD ROADS THE ONLY EVU/. "A truly wonderful country,'' is how Mr. Justice E. Parsons, of the Australian Supreme - Court Bench, summed up New Zealand in an • interview m Wellington. - - . . . "I have been mainly busy at'inspecting both islands from as many points as possible, and, therefore, have not been able to form an" opinion on your social - and political affairs; but I have been deeply impressed with your natural resource®,

he said. ' ; ; Mr. Justice Parsons' visit has been made with a view toward completing the education of his two sons, and in the months that be has been here be. has "done" the beauties of the Dominion more thoroughly than many a. New to*la «Th' e that naturally impresses an Australian most, vhe said, • * ,j mountains ana your rivers. In f ew ' We have, compartively speaking, bo few. Here you have so many rivers j and you eeem tob. d«ng » HtU* them. "Your ecen»y is marvellous. , Th« visit has been an education for me, as well 'ft . for my sons. ; And OHO tj?. g which impressed me very ™ c J wa ' S forestry. At Rotorua I drove tnrougn IS mL of beeches Wuegunu, kauris, all thriving, and all planted in the pumice soil. Talking of driving, you :roads are the most extraordinary that I have ever seen. Between Rotorua Taupo, we went up some thousands^ feet in a few miles. I have wwjm such gradients. And your roads—they are mostly corners. This is the country in which to learn to drive a car. .... . On the people of the Dominion, the visitor was brief but • enthusiastic.like them. Your farmers are a fine. type. They impressed me with their BinxplicWy~""* and I use the word in its strictest sense— and their solidity. Such 5 men are the backbone of a country. But all the people whom I have met have been, very agreeable. And I believe that jour climate is frequently agreeable also. -

THE PRISON SYSTEM.

AHEAD OF AUSTRALIA.

•v •

PROBATION FOR OFFENDERS, j "In the humanitarian 1 movement of pri- J son reform New Zealand is far and away ahead of Australia," says Sir William Sow- ; den, who as an official Australian delegate," has been inspecting the prison system of the Dominion, from which he has gleaned . many valuable hints. " i You have • the advantages of the Elmira movement, which you have carried further by. the use of common sense adaptations," Sir William said in an interview ;, in Wellington. " The man who deserved - least of posterity I consider to be the a inventor of the treadmill system, by which the prisoner could see himself, hard at • work doing nothing. The cardinal-note in ; your system is the creation of something, \ which is having a wonderful result on the j morale of the man himself." . I " Another thing in which you lead is 1 the probationary system. . We have_ a system by which first offenders, subject to good behaviour, are not imprisoned, but when I saw the principle applied here to second and third offenders and that the net results are good, it was quit® an eye- , .opener to me. It is so different to the old ■ idea that if a man hits another, the law should hit him in much the same way, and it is the ideal of the humanitarian system of working on the principle that whatever , stage a man . has reached he cannot be , said to be destitute of honour, ;or in- 1 capable of responding to it. The Paparoa ; system of accommodation and treatment! ' seems ideal. Each man' has more room ! than he would get in v the bedroom of an,, average hotel, and there is plenty of light, 1 ; " There is only one thing that I can j suggest ' that might be an improvement, i and I cannot be sure ;i that something of ? the sort is not being already done. It- ; it were done, it would .have to be done guardedly, !| of course, but what seeras to me lacking is the keeping of the men in touch with what is going on in the outside world. In comparison with the freedom allowed the men in the fields, it is strange to tKink of a man with, say, seven: years' detention, being released with no more knowledge of interim events than a 1 baby. In our own : system a discharged ten years' sentence prisoner is a veritable Rip Yah Winkle in this sense."

FORESTRY METHODS.

DOMINION AND AUSTRALIA. *"'I am much interested in your methods, and have learnt a great deal through the courtesy of the officers of your Forestry Department,'' said Sir William Sowden, who has just finished a tour 'of both islands as a delegate ofthe South Australian Forestry Department, in an interview in Wellington last week. "Your system is more advanced than ours, your Parliamentary vote is . larger, { and - you have an advantage in the matter of control Our rainfall vanes more than yours. One thing in which you lead us is research into the use of by-products/ in which Mr. Entricap, your, forestry y engineer, seems to be doing very good work. *■ "In regard to reafforestation/- our .'Mr. H. H. Corbin has introduced the system of broadcasting seeds on burned land with success. , The • felled land is ' burned and scarified by means of stone jumping ploughs, which pass the stumps. A dozen varieties of seeds of eucalyptus and suitable pines (pinus insignia -does not answer kindly to this treatment)/ are 'then broadcasted. In our districts the rainfall varies very much, and in some is very scanty; The mixed seeds germinate proportionately to the suitability of the trees for /dry or moist habitats, and a number of years is saved in experimentation. "We , should give our stringybark 5 a distinctive name, instead of galling it Australian oak. 'It has proved ;as good as oak for • furniture-making, even English oak > being no better." ' K