AN HONEST AGENT

Taranaki Daily News, 14 December 1926, Page 9

AN HONEST AGENT

NEW ZEALAND QUITE ENGLISH. “After coming to the end of New Zealand on a glorious summer day, I realised that I was in one of the finest spots in the British Empire,” said Mr. Hugh J. Ward, when asked for his impressions of New Zealand and New Zealanders by the Southland Times. “In speech, in physique and in mentality New Zealanders are among the finest people on the earth. As an observer of physiology, sociology and psychology, I am convinced that New Zealand is as much British as any part of the Empire.” * Mr. Ward remarked on the similarity in speech between New Zealanders and Englishmen, and said that English was spoken in the Dominions without ewank or affectation and with an honest accent unaffected by local conditions. The physical fibre of New Zealanders was exceptional, as men and women seemed to be upstanding, and, generally speaking, more handsome than merely pretty. They were an honest British type and were going the right way to make their little islands in the South Seas an ideal community. New Zealand was slow in growth, but at heart it was right for idealism—that was, British idealism. If the Dominion continued with her ideals she would in time teach a lesson to the civilised world.