A NEW ZEALANDER ABROAD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2690, 4 October 1905, Page 66

A NEW ZEALANDER ABROAD.

IMPRESSIONS OF A RHODES SCHOLAR.

Mr J. Allan Thomson, the fir=t New Zealand Rhodes scholar at Oxford, writes to his father, Mr G. M. Thomson, of this city, giving some interesting particulars of a students' conference in Wernigerode, Germany. Some extracts from his -letter will doubtless prove of interest. He writes : —

"My last was from Berlin. I left there on Monday, August 7, and' travelled to Wernigerode, in Harz. ... I arrived at Wernigerode in the afternoon, travelling with a man, Humburg, whom I met at Zeist. On proceeding to the registry office at. the conference I found 1 I was to live at the same house as he, and as he spoke good English, I was consequently quite at my ease. We stayed with Fraulien yon Dormburg, a l very good German family, I believe. However, our intercourse with them was limited to an hour in the morning over coffee. We had our other meals afc' the m-eeting-ho'Xise, and had a key to come' in with at night. .. . At Wernigerode there* were nearly 100 students, mostly Gevinan, but visitors were there from Holland, England, Scotland, America, and France. They had very long meetings and speeches, and seemed to enjoy them very much. "The student movement has made very little headway in Germany, largely, I think, because Mr Mott has never had a hearing. He is always prejudged by the students. They had some very keen discussions at some of the meetings; unfortunately my acquaintance with German was too new to follow them or many of the speakers. I got to know the principal words used, but could not follow the sentences. They had Dr Torrey speaking a good deal ; he spoke in English, so I could follow him, chiefly about the Holy Spirit, and exactly the same doctrine as I heard in Dunedin. He has, at anyrate, the merit of being steadfast in his speeches. He had a good deal of influence over the students, but did not find them so pliant as Americans. None professed to have received the gift of the Eoly Spirit. ... In private he seems to be an agreeable man. I had the pleasure of travelling with him from Wei-ni-gerocle to Nord Nansen. and received the benefit of his German, in changing words, etc. . ...

"An interesting characteristic of the German religious type, as distinguished from the English, is that the German cannot reconcile playful cheerfulness and exuberance of spirit with true religion ; consequently they had no games or sports as we had at Conishad 1 . When we went to the hills il was only to hold another meetiug beneath the pine tr-ees. I gave them one evening a short account of student work in Australasia, prefacing my remarks with some geographical facts. Gundert. one of the secretaries, whom I met also at Zeist, said afterwards that perhaps I might also* have usefully given them a lesson on the ethnography of the region. I replied that I could give them a Maori ha'ka (we were out in the pine woods). He said he and Humbm'g, and Mr and Mrs Mann, who had all been in England and understood the English students, would like to hear it very much, but it would cause offence to the other students.

" Another interesting fact came out, and that is that nearly all the German university clubs, including, I think, the Christian Union, have made rules expelling any member who accents a Rhodes scholarship. They do so on the grounds that Rhodes was not a lover of peace, and that he caused the South African war. I shall try and get more accurate information about this, and let the trustees know about it

" I had also a lonsr discussion with Humburg. and since with others, on the relations between Ens'land and Germany. He thinks that the English wish to pick a quarrel with the Germans and to " down" them while their fleet is still small. I think the English desire .nothing more than peace. The Germans recognise that the English are a quiet neople, that they are bettor business people than the Germans, but thov think they are always trying to exalt them&eh cs : that they are intriguing in and for every port of the world; that they are moan in first. inciting the Japanese to go to war with the Russians and then taking advantage of Russia's weakness to invade Thibet, etc. They think the Czar a weak and insignificant man. but think no end of their Kaiser. They are especially proud that he is a sailor. I hope the meeting of the King and Kaiser wiH do some good, for there is great need of an understanding. By the way, 'hey DO hate Chamberjain, but they admire hi§ strength,

"To get back to Wevnigerocle : while there I managed to learn a little more German, and also to see a little of the Ilarz. I found a mo=t interesting quarry, Lut, unfortunately, did not have my camera. I had an afternoon trip in a train up the Brocho, the highest hill of the Harz, about 3700 ft. From it I got a good general view ot Iho district, but as the horizon was cloudy f could not see much ot the plains towards Hanover and Berlin. The great beauty of the Harz consists in the forests. They are all artificially and regularly planted in rows, but when the trees are bie: one does not notice this. The pine is the chief element in rho forest, but here arid there are birches rind rowans. In places there are large mounds and huge granite boulders, covered vvltJi moss and a blue berry, the eidel br-rry I send some seed . . .

'" The journey from Wernigorodo to hero was very fine. We travelled by a private company line . . . cvosoing right over the Harz."