A TRAVELLER'S IMPRESSION OF NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9195, 15 August 1891, Page 5 (Supplement)

A TRAVELLER'S IMPRESSION OF NEW ZEALAND.

TO THE EDITOE.

Silt,—As a passer by in Brighter Britain"! have been struck, naturally, by many points' of difference between this young colony and the mother country, but -perhaps especially^ in your Government. ••■;.:';

I had the pleasure of listening to a debate sij» Wellington a short' time ago, through the courtesy of one of tho members, and was impressed by several noticeable points. 1. Your polities seem mainly to consist of the

ins and the outs; in England we have some reason for our Conservatives and Radicals, here the namea rather remind one of the hermit crab who lives in somebody else's shell, and tries to make it his own.

2. A delightful freshness (we will not say greenness) of politiu&l youth; id wbieh Government revelling in the exploded idealisms of J. J.

liousseau, mixed with a diligent study of the Nineteenth Century magazine, has imagined anew a colony of perfection; a colony ready to give its laßt penny to the support of the latest gospel of diluted Hume and water.

Does it not seem to you, Sir, that a country " where every prospect pleases," &c, is worthy of more careful guiding thus this ? Economically you seem to be suffering from a political overdose of Seigel's soothing syrup, administered by the gentle hands or your rulers—who Beem only too anxious, like Mark Twain's boy, to promise the country the first sixpence that comes down the river of the future on the pecuniary grindstone, while they abstract the chewing gum of the present and lure the obtuse iafant to financial ruin. Socially one or two things are noticeable; first, the air of general politeness and willingness Jo oblige on the part of everybody. There is an absence of that English aurlinesß and roughness which is so noticeable in a London crowd, and a manner more rational and refined hss taken its place.

I felt, however, quito at home when I saw the usual eruption oE shabby-hatted gentlemen in the colonial cities, leaning gracefully against every available wall. These noble fellows probably have no work to do, and wouldn't do it if they had. L:ke the noble red man, the squaws labour while the brave consumes the toothsome beer and fragrant ehng amongst his fellow Waves.

Your schools throughout the colony seem to bo excellent ia their thoroughness, some adequate reason for morality seems the one deficient feature in your youth, if tha larrikin question ia a criterion of secular education.

Dunedin itself seems to bs suffering " a sea change." You used to have your wharves lined with ships of all burdens; now the port seems emptied of all bat a few steamers, while the ocean is apparently trying to effect an amateur dredging operation gratis by washing away Caversham.

Judging by all one sees and hears one cannot but predict a future of solid prosperity to this colony, rich as it is in many ways, in its natural wealth, ia tho energy of its people; only,it should beware of irresponsible politicians with their hands in their country's pockets, and also of being made a " corpus " for the vile experiments of political charlatans.—l am, &c,

August 12.