PURITY OF RACE

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 11783, 20 March 1924, Page 11

PURITY OF RACE

NEW ZEALAND'S ASSET FOUNDATION FOR SUBSTANTIAL PROGRESS. AMERICAN DOCTOR’S VIEWS. “The mixture of pvrre Scottish and English blood in the New Zealand race, a mixture than which there is no better, is the basis for building a great country in these islands,’’ remarked Dr. Francis P. Emerson, of Harvard University, on the eve of his departure from New Zealand. Dr. Emerson was much impressed ivith New Zealand’s great resources — agricultural, mineral and olimatic—together with the pure stock from which ;he people sprang, and what he detcribed as the intelligent settlement of the country. These factors, in combination, would ensure the Dominion’s progress being very rapid. Seldom, m view of present world conditions. was a oountry so happily situated, os was New Zealand, that she could produce and export beyond her own needs, reserving ample supplies for her own people. The importance of selecting immigrants of a desirable class was regarded as an essential precaution by Dr. Emerson, who had in mind the influx of undesirable aliens into the United States and the creation of the racial problem. In America, he remarked, an undesirable class had been admitted for the purpose of filling the mills, with the result that an opposite policy had now been reverted to — that of restricting the influx in place of encouraging it. It was one thing to get a population and quite another to get rid of it. > New Zealand, however, was in a position so to control her immigration laws in tho earlier stages of the country’s development that a proper mixture of other blood to keep the race progressing could be regulated very easily. Dr. Emerson observed that everywhere he had gone he had noted with pleasure the cordial social relationships that seemed to bind the New Zealand people together. It was a distinct contrast to conditions existing among more heterogeneous Peoples. The feet that New Zealanders were very largely of the same racial drigin moist make Social conditions very pleasant, he added. The visitor had a warm tribute to pay to the work of Dr. Truby King whoso methods have attracted attention throughout the whole medical world. Dr. King’s work was ' remarkable, stated Dr. Emerson, not only because of the young life it saved but also because of the impression it made on those lives in later life Pr. Emerson is particularly interested in Dr. Turbv Kang’s work through his Dr. W. R. P. Bmenson, who is eminent in the United States for similar work in the interest of child welfare.