The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1925. COMPLIMENTS THAT ARE DESERVED

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12298, 18 November 1925, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1925. COMPLIMENTS THAT ARE DESERVED

In his farewell speech at the Rotary Club yesterday, Sir Ernest Rutherfofd praised New Zealand’s natural advantages and the hospitality and intelligence of its people. These are compliments familiar and acceptable to most of us. Our native resources, our climatic conditions, and the warm welcome invariably extended to the right people have ever been the subject of laudatory comment by visitors. Nature has abundantly blessed these islands, and it is our habit to do our guesvs well. We have said, and reiterate here, that New Zealand is too good ahd fair a land to be handed oyer to the tender mercies ol a faction which acknowledges no allegiance to our Motherland and professes or is obsessed by crazy social and political ideals. Directors of that sort we do not deserve. Sir Ernest Rutherford declared that there was “more intelligence per hundred here than in any other community he had been in.” Whether we take the words seriously or not, there is ample evidence of the truth of the assertion. , The latest and most striking proof was provided by the recent election. The trouncing of the Socialists, after all their organising and their confident predictions, was as emphatic a demonstration of sanity plus patriotism as could be desired. New Zealand is as sound of head as of heart. Government always well-intentioned, if occasionally fumbling, has held the bulk of the citizenry back from following false gods. It is over a decade since this country had to fight a really dangerous strike. Of late years, sporadic outbursts have occurred, but the good sense of the community has consistently and utterly discomfited, the reactionaries. It is becoming more difficult than ever to sell the people ot New Zealand a gold brick. In Australia, for various reasons, the political confidence man has operated with considerable success. Over here, he is compelled to struggle desperately hard to keep out of the bread line. We are relatively too sane, contented, and, possibly, phlegmatic, to walk into the traps set for us. Sir Ernest Rutherford is right. We are a sensible people, dwelling in fortunate isles. We may be a trifle insular. We may be a trifle over-complacent with ourselves. At least, we mind our own business, which is a flourishing little business, and we mind it to some purpose.