AS OTHERS SEE US.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 33, 23 September 1911, Page 8

AS OTHERS SEE US.

New Zealand entertained an angel unawares last year. Mr Walter C. Kelly, who is described by the American newspapers as “a famous Virginian Judge,” has just completed a tour of the world, and ■ he has been telling his countrymen all about New Zealand, which he .visited-, -in' ■ 1910. His criticism is sweeping in its severity. “New Zealand, is. a country you read a lot about because it is supposed to be advanced,” he.says. PI was there Inst summer—that, is, summer in New Zealand, and winter hero—and I’ll never go there any more. No doubt New Zealand is a prosperous country in spots. It is a country where the women vote. And it is entirely under the domination of Scotch Presbyterians. Heaven save us from the kind of laws they have in Now Zealand! They haven’t been able to stop the sun shining yet, but they’ll try to do it.” Mr Kelly adds that the Dominion owes its existence to the poverty of England and Scotland. Its people arc “so afraid that they may happen back into their old starvation state that they are the tightest wads on the habitable globe.” The ordinary New Zealander, in fact, would not “pay five cents to sec King George and Queen Mary in a double trapeze act.” Having disposed of New Zealand, Mr Kelly turns to South Africa., which lie describes as a “land of mineral wealth and whiskers,” and “a desolate wart on the face of nature.” A Cape Town resident asked whether he did not think the city nicely laid out. “Yes,” replied the American, “that’s on; but why delay the burial?” Put Mr Kelly liked Australia. Ho found that its cities were “regular placer.,” and that the average Australian war; “broad-minded, a. bustler, and a sportman.” “J met Hill Corbet ,of the Sydney ‘Referee,’ ” says the Judge, “and what he did to put me in t ho way of hospitality almost put me nut of business. Tlio thou-

sands of Americans who met Corbett when he was hero to attend the catastrophe at Reno may sire him up as a type cf the Australians.” Pcrhans the real trouble in New Zealand was that Mr Kelly did not meet a Li!i Corbett, remarks an exchange.