INTERESTING IMPRESSIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23954, 1 November 1939, Page 8

INTERESTING IMPRESSIONS

AMERICA AND SWEDEN TRAVEL CLUB “AT HOME” DR C. E. HERCUS MAKES COMPARISONS America and Sweden bulked largest in the recital of impressions given by Dr C. E. Hercus (Dean of the Medical Faculty at the University of Otago) in a talk to one of the most successful “at homes ” to date of the Dunedin Travel Club in the City Hotel last night, which was attended by a gathering of more than 200. Dr Hercus has recently returned from an extensive tour of Europe and the United States. Mr W. R. Brugh was in the chair. A Great Country America, said Dr Hercus, was a most interesting and exhilarating country. One felt its distinctive atmosphere almost with the first step placed upon its soil. There was a quickened tempo of life that the New Zealander found strange and exciting, and he had the feeling that the climate of the country had a lot to do with it. There was something strongly reminiscent ol the salubrious conditions one found in Central Otago in the American atmosphere which puts people on their toes and kept them there, contributing at the same time to that noisy impatience that was typical of the States and which was graphically illustrated by the Americans delight in putting his finger hard on his motor horn and keeping it there. The generosity and hospitality of the People was amazing, hut greater far than that was the absorbing study which the nation offered to anyone, be he interested in art, medicine, or commerce. The cavalcade of skyscrapers, thqse panoramas of concrete and steel, which reminded one of the story of the man who said that the fellow who caught that fish was a liar, were typical of the American people. . Just consider, he said, a country in which the vertical roads carried almost as much traffic as the horizontal. The whole of the population of Dunedin could be accommodated in the Empire State Building, in which the lifts travelled 800,000 miles d year Then there was the Rockefeller Centre, surely the most beautiful building in the world, owned by the Columbia University, which drew the whole of the enormous rents from it. New York with its fruits of the industrial, revolt!tion, the evidences of the vision and foresight of those who had made their millions out of trade, made one wish that a corresponding vision could be developed in one’s own people at home. Perhaps New Zealand could not provide anything on so grand a scale, but it could certainly go much further along the road than it did at present. Dr Hercus referred at some length to the New York World Fair, and described the British Court there as the finest example of quiet propaganda in the exhibition, surpassing even the Soviet Court, which had caused much heartburning in the hub of democracy because of the doctrines it espoused and propagated. The Brtiish Court, he said, presented a marvellous epitome of British history, social life and development and trade and commerce. The New Deal Touching on the New Deal in America, Dr Hercus related his personal experience of it in what the Americans still called “ the deep south.” Here the civil war still rankled, and the condition of the country showed how deep were the scars left by civil war. The south had not yet recovered from its crushing and had certainly not forgotten it. But it was in the south that he was shown one of the most impressive examples of successful State interference. It was the Tennessee Valley Authority, under which vast reclamation works, flood protection and afforestation were being carried out in an effort to combat the ravages of the notorious Mississippi River. By means of eight huge dams in the Tennessee River, which flowed into the Ohio, which was a tributary of the Mississippi, flooding was being kept under control. But greater far than the prevention of this visible flooding were the measures that were being adopted to arrest erosion and farm land denudation. This was a great problem in America, and in studying the attempts to cope with it he had been very mindful ol the same problem which existed in New Zealand, where Natures sponge, the forest and the bush, had been ruthlessly destroyed. By the planting of suitable cover crops, special ploughing and terracing, particular fertilisation and careful supervision, the Tennessee Valley Authority had brought huge areas b?ck into cultivation. and had given a striking demonstration of turning the sword into a ploughshare by converting one of the largest munition works in the atates into a phosphate factory. “ I was thrilled by the achievements of the authority,” Dr Hercus continued, “ but when I got to Chicago on a visit to a relative in the millionaire class I found that big business absolutely loathes the New Deal. In fact, it loathes it so much that my cousin went out of his way to show me some of the bad effects of it. These included huge gangs of relief workers, idling, on their shovels almost in the shade of their cars, which were parked on the job. I have never seen such loafing and before I was finished I was tempted to believe that he was pulling my leg.” Wonderful Sweden Speaking of Sweden, Dr Hercus said (hat both he and his wife had returned home convinced that there was no more wonderful country in the world than Sweden, and, their affection for London notwithstanding, no greater city than Stockholm. The Swedes were a happy, friendly, gregarious people, and he felt that New Zealand could learn a great deal from Sweden Further, Dunedin as a municipality might well endeavour to follow Stockholm’s lead. The civic qrganisation of the city was staggering, and the breadth of its activities and services was almost incredible. The Labour Government in New Zealand was backward in policy compared with Stockholm The measures taken for the raising of families —and goodness knew something of the kind was necessary in New Zealand—represented only one oart of the education New Zealand could gain from this marvellous country, Early marriages were encouraged, neoplc had inducements to increase their families, cheap housing was common and successful, and the country had evolved an ideal method of caring for the old. The Swedish people still believed in the doctrine of hard work, and realised that work was not just something to be avoided. They worked hard and nlaved hard, relying on the principle of the complete and full dcvclonment of man as a unity, and the result was an almost model race. Dr Hercus was heartily thanked for his address.