ON NEW ZEALANDERS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1523, 28 February 1901, Page 15

ON NEW ZEALANDERS

DEVELOPMENT OF CHARACTERISTICS. / In the January “Review of Reviews, ’ the Rev Joseph Berry discusses' with insight and originality the white people of this country. ’ " I ‘ The factories which will tell upon the coming New Zealander are such as these: A healthy climate, with the lowest death-rate in the. world. A population mainly agricultural. .Two-thirds'!, of the people now live in the country, > ! or in towns of less than 5000 inhabitants. The whole population live® and will continue to live- within sight or sound: cf the sea. There is-hot an inhabitant of the colony, more than a. day’s journey (seventy miles) from the sea, and nearly all are within an hour or two. .."The land is so rich and productive and food is _Sp_plentiful and cheap, that poverty will:T>e at a. minimum.- - “Again, the land is so subdivided that there is not much chance for the millionaire. New Zealand has no millionaire®, and not more than ten or a dozen of its citizens are worth more than £IO,OOO per year. Timber is so abundant and cheap that a. house does not cost more than half as much a® a, similar house in Australia, for most of . the houses are of wood. Horses are plentiful, noble rivers abound. The people are pretty generally on one social level. The .scenery is superb. Such are the facts, briefly put.

“The result is a race of big, healthy people. I have often watched an Australian cricket match or bicycle race, but I have seen nothing in the way of sport that compares with a New'Zealand football match. To see those strapping fellows, fresh from the plough or the bench, hurl themselves against one another at Saturday afternoon football is a sight with -which nothing in Australia will compare. Hospitality is a charming feature of New Zealand life. Before a stranger has time to hitch hi,s horse at the the kettle is on, and cream and scones and pasties appear on the table, as if by magic. Caste barriers are little known under such conditions; people become healthy, self - reliant, generous, independent, and self-respect-ing. Such are the prominent characteristics of the New 7 Zealanders of to-day, and, as they are the fathers and mothers of the generations to come, u 7 e can forecast without difficulty the New Zealanders of the twentieth century.

“The New Zealander loves'his country, and well he may. . It is difficult for one' who has lived there to be happy anywhere else. Should he visit Australia, Sydney may cliarm and Melbourne may interest him; but the brown Australian landscape in the summer, the absence of the rich undergrowth iii .the native bush, the. scarcity of water, and the fierce glare of the Australian sun, pall upon his taste and make him sigh for / ,' home. We might fear that a. land of •• such loveliness and fertility would be'in danger of producing an effeminate, race; but the bracing winter and the fierce - 9 winds which blow from the sea tend to prevent that. Sturdy, independent, and home-loving, the"N©w: Zealanders' perhaps in danger of becoming parochial in the range of bis ideas and sympathies. But that is not a very serious natter. “Is the New Zealander developing a dialect ? I think not. The English spoken there is purer than in Sydney or in Adelaide. _You do not, on that side of the sea, hear the “a/ pronounced like “i.” The New Zealander does not speak of ladies as “lidies.” He knows the difference between “day 5 " and “die.” Though he has no dialect, like other Australians, he is losing some good old English words'. His brook is a “creek” ; his meadow a “paddock”; his forest is a “bush”; his pond a “lagoon”; his pasture, “feed.” These changes and others we might name are not improvements. The schoolmasters would co well to bring, back the sweeter English words to their true use.”