"HOME"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21344, 19 November 1932, Page 14

"HOME"

Sir, —As an Englishwoman novisiting this country for the first time I am deeply interested in the discussion on "Home" now going on in your paper. I should have thought that England for ever and ever could not fail to take first place in the hearts of every true New Zealander, seeing that he only possesses his foothold here through the efforts and sacrifice of "Home" lives. This fact was borne in upon me when visiting the beautiful rest-ing-places of our soldiers and sailors who fell at Tauranga and New Plymouth. Surely if Mr. J. A. B. Johnston only realised this fact, he would want, in gratitude and humility, to thank "Home" for having given him the right to live now in security in this lovely and pleasant land. He owes this security entirely to the "Home ' he would so contemptuously disown. Englishwoman.

Sir,—Preoccupation with the Motueka by-election has delayed reply to Mr. T. E. McMillan, but has given 'me another cause for joy in our New Zealand—Canterbury, up to Otira tunnel, with its cultivation, its gorse; Reefton, with the gold gone from beneath the hills, but the hillsides golden with broom; the Buller Gorge; and this morning a descent, into the Stoke Valley, Nelson. I would be the last to deny debt to British literature, yet remarkably enough, I, too, picked up a book in France that I carried and read until I knew it almost by rote. Conrad's "Mirror of the Sea" it was, and Conrad's breezes could blow one's mind from the charnel house until concussion shocked it back again. Conrad was an ing Pole. But in pre-war days a host of Continental writers, Russian, Scandinavian, French, German, Hungarian, were purchaseablo and were purchased. Since the war Conrad, Thomas Mann, with his "Magic Mountain," and a profusion of young moderns, contribute from a rich store, and America brings a quota. I confess to having put a German translation, a French translation and an English novel in my satchel for reading on the journey. There are emotions common to all humanity and if the canvas; of most books is distinctly national, environmental, the theme is generally as widn as humanity. And, of course, Mr. McMillan would not deny this. A literary adventurer these days may pillage a rich world. True, for every translation, I admit, to about four or five British books. But my "Home" is the country that for good or ill made me what I am. Above all. legislatively, it seems to me that, as with other parts of the Empire, we have an individual point of view to advance. An individual who has been honoured by high position in Empire councils said to me the other day: "We frequently decide to follow Britain before we know the direction Britain is going to take! We have our New Zealand point of view, and to express that point of view is Parliament's duty." John A. Lee.