AS OTHERS SEE US

Taranaki Daily News, 11 July 1929, Page 2

AS OTHERS SEE US

TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND ENGLISH BOYS’ IMPRESSIONS. “A REAL HO' <1 FROM HOME.” A series of articles giving their impressions of New Zealand has been written by members of the party of English public school boys who made a visit, to the Dominion recently during the course of a world tour under the auspices of the School Empire Tour Committee, and published in the London Daily News. “Throughout our voyage on • the lonic,” stated one of the boys, “our director and several New Zealanders among the passengers continually warned us not be expect anything like home comforts and ways; for the country, they said, was young and still very undeveloped. We expected, then, to find a country in a halfsavage state.

“Our first day in Auckland removed all such ideas from our minds. As we were taken by our hosts and hostesses to the various private houses where we were to stay the night, we felt that we were coming to a real home from home. The scenery was different, and the houses a little different, 'but the people were the same, and their manner of living like our own. WARMTH OF THE WELCOME. “Auckland is a fine, modern city, the streets are wide, and the buildings, which may not be constructed above a certain height, leave plenty of breathing space. In the last 15 years the population has almost doubled itself, but there is none of the congestion of English cities. “Hospitality and generosity are strong characteristics of the New Zealanders. We have been received everywhere with a warmth that surpasses anything that I have experienced, even at home. The way in which all, even down to the humblest, have put themselves out to please a pack of schoolboys from England is really wonderful —and I am not saying this out of politeness. Owing to the lateness of our ship our stay in Auckland had to be curtailed, to the great disappointment of both hosts and visitors. Next morning we went on to Waitomo.

TRIBUTE TO RAILWAYS. ’ “The rumour that New Zealand railways were primitive proved entirely false. The carriages are comfortable and the refreshment rooms at wayside stations are better than those in England. The scenery we passed was varied. We saw mountains and plains, cultivated fields, half-cleared country, forests and virgin bush. “That evening we were shown the Waitomo Caves. In parts they resemble those at Cheddar, but we have nothing in England to equal the glowworm cave. Going through it was like passing under a sky filled with ten times the ordinary number of stars. We spent the night in a luxurious hostel, and the next day drove through some wonderful hill country to New Plymouth, the capital of Taranaki. After a description of the visit to New Plymouth and Mount Egmont, the boy concludes by saying: “We people from Home have much to learn from our simple-living, greathearted kindred in this very British country. I know I shall always have the happiest memories of this pleasant land.”

CHIEF CITIES COMPARED. Another boy describes his stay in Wellington. “Immediately we reached the city,” he said, “we felt ourselves in some place quite different from Auckland. It is, as far as I can see, a typically New Zealand town. There is an atmosphere of business and smartj ness about it, with an inexplicable ! ‘something’ that just prevents it from being like London. “Auckland, on the other hand, is much bigger, and, according to some people, more picturesque. Lying between Australia and United States, it has a slightly American touch. In Christchurch we met a typically English town, and Dunedin is said to be very Scottish. So there are four types of cities in New Zealand. The two in the South Island are more or less familiar, and between Auckland and Wellington there is such ft difference that it is hard to compare them. “Wellington makes a fitting capital for New Zealand, not only on account of its geographical position, which places - it in the centre of the two islands, but also because it is the centre of business and trade. There are some very fine buildings, one of which is constructed on the idea of the beauty of the straight line. It certainly looks a very imposing affairs, for the impression of height which the architects contrive is majestic. A DEMOCRATIC .PEOPLE. “Going round like this we had opportunity to observe the state of living of the New Zealanders. The complete democratic feeling is most pleasing, doubtless a corollary to there being no violent extremes between rich and poor, a disease which is erippling the United States. In Wellington every fourth person has a car, really a most astounding fact when the figures are reckoned at 120,000 people resident in the citv and suburbs. “When I first went there I wondered how and why a big busy city should go out of its way to entertain a party of schoolboys. But the welcome we received there convinced me that the citizens' were really glad to see us. We were constantly showered with affection, which came so readily that I am sure if the other Dominions and the Commonwealths have it for us, this British Empire of ours of which we are so justly proud, will last for ever.”