IMPRESSIONS OF N.Z.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1371, 24 March 1923, Page 2

IMPRESSIONS OF N.Z.

Li:i> TO EXPECT TOO MUCH. BUT there are consolations. (From a London correspondent.) About eighteen months ago Mr A. R. Flint, a man very well known in Derby, went out to New Zealand with the view of settling down there with his son. After a residence in the Dominion extending over ten months, he wrote a letter to the Derby Daily Telegraph, and this communication is being followed by others, which are regarded locally as of importance, because they give facts as Lo the conditions of life in New Zealand —climate. social, political, and economic, as they present themselves to his observant mind. There are, in fact, few phases of life out there on which MiField does not touch in informative fashion.

Dealing lirst with the climate and the land, Mr Flint is disappointed because it does not come up to the expectations that are set forth in official handbooks. “One heard so much of ‘God's Own Country,’ of record sunshine, of wonderful land fertility, and marvels of sport and scenery, that h was inevitable that reality should fail to realise the preconception produced by those colonial enthusiasts, who so often let pride of their own country make them tempt the immigrant from his home by their glorious word pictures and selected illustrations,” he writes. 'Not that 1 am entirely disappointed or sorry 1 have come here, but 1 am sure'that I should have liked New Zealand far better. and with no effort, had I expected less of it. . . . You will remember the impressions we formed of the climate —after reading official descriptions and records. 1 have explored New Zealand from Whangarei and Dargaville in the north to Dunedin in the south in search of the ideal climate which we pictured, and find if nowhere —not even in the opinion of New Zealanders, though all of them seem to think it exists in some different part -generally in their own district. Thus I have been assured that the finest climate in the Dominion was possessed by South Canterbury. I spent four weeks there in January, the equivalent of the northern July. During that month there was only oin evening when there was not a fire in the hotel lounge. True, we had bursts of brilliant sunshine, when light summer clothing would have been welcome, but these were alternated so rapidly with bitterly cold patches that clothing of medium English winter weight was the only kind which could be worn with safety Nor is this kind of weather confined to the south. . . . Here, even in the north, although we may be basking in sunshine, or grateful for shade, we keep some extra clothing handy for the inevitable swing of the wind into the south, from whoso Arctic regions it travels unchecked and without any warm belt of sea water to mitigate completely its rigours. Nevertheless the sunshine is glorious. There is a clearness of atmosphere unknown to you people at Home. The moonlight and starlight are also wonderful.

These are the consolations for changeability. Whilst the weather is good it is incomparable. When it is treacherous we pay only that compensation demanded for all the joys of life by that exacting creditor, Nature.” About the Land. “As with the climate so it is with the land. We were led to believe that New Zealand contained some of the most fertile agricultural and pastoral land in the world. The truth of the matter is that there is very little really good land in the Dominion. This statement requires considerable qualification. There is much land here which is capable of giving a higher return in the value of its products than the best land at Home, but judged solely by the value of its soil contents it is infinitely inferior on the average to our English pastures and meadows. During the boom in dairying many farms changed hands at £IOO per acre and over, the record being £225 per acre for a Taranaki farm. I have seen some of these lands, and I venture to say that the same land would not fetch £SO per acre, even if it lay beside Nestled factory on the Derbyshire and Stafordshire borders. There are two reasons—the first that these prices are boom prices; the other that the constant alternation of sunshine, rain and wind, with the use of artificial manures, gives a growth of grasswinter and summer—inconceivable to the English farmer. . . Nevertheless the land can produce sufficient to maintain land values which will compare very favourably with those at Home. There is land which will carry two dairy cows to three acres, and do them well. 'Phis, too, without any necessity to grow winter feed or to house the stock. At Home a big range of cowsheds is an indispensable adjunct. Large sums have to be spent on cake and much winter feed grown, with the incidental labour of feeding under cover. Here the dairy farmer needs only his residence and

a milking pail. It is true he must spend more on artificial manures than does the English farmer, but this amount bears no comparison with the costof housing and feeding stock in volved during an English winter.’ Fair Treatment for Produce. In a later letter Mr Flint deals with the “Meat Pool Revolution,” and he says: “Having started the ball rolling, New Zealand will have to go further. She was forced to make a move bv the unfair treatment which her produce received in British markets. You know well how much rubbish from other countries is palmed off on the public as prime New Zealand Jamb and mutton, but you know little.of the huge profits made between a producer and the consumer. 1 received a local paper from you dated November last in which a butcher was advertising Canterbury lamb at Is 2d a lb, yet J am assured on inquiry that the producer of that lamb received old at

the most —probably considerably less! If New Zealand can succeed in cutting out much of the huge intermediate profits, both her farmer and the British consumer will benefit. I think she will have to go further yet, even to the extent of taking some control of the actual retail distribution on the British markets; and this not only with regard to meat, but also to butter and cheese. Let me ask you if you have ever heard of butter being sold in England as New Zealand butter? I never bad, and I ought to have done so if it was. Shipload after shipload of butter goes from here to England. It has water pumped into it. is mixed with oilier inferior stuff, and sold as ‘fresh butter.’ Jf sold pure, it is the finest butter the world produces. If labelled ‘New Zealand’ it would build up a reputation which would push foreign butter off the market. but New Zealand is deprived of her goodwill by Die greed of the English wholesale man. There is a simple

remedy to band, and I think when Die time is ripe New Zealand’s rulers have Die brains and ‘guts’ to take it. They can iheinselves control the wholesale distribution, and sell only to retailers approved as agents, who will handle and display the produ e to Die credit of the Dominion in such manner as the Dominion shall determine." Obstinate British .Manufacturers. Before Mr Flint left Derby lie bad met many New Zealand men who were on active service, and lie found “they were gentlemen every inch, and every one of them.” Now that lie is resident among them hr writes:--

“I was much surprised to lind how genuine and general is the patriotism which exists over here, t say without hesitation that Die New Zealander had far more love for and pride in Die Empire than the average resident at Home. To belittle ourselves is an English habit. We are so fearful of being deemed boastful that we deprecate our good points, and in so doing often decry all those cherished institutions which make our home so dear to us, and of which in secret we are proud. Notwithstanding all our selfdepreciation, we have been so confident. of our ability to hold our own that we have recklessly made a pathway for our own downfall. We have not yet fully realised that necessity for ‘team work' which is the foundation of real patriotism. The day lias now arrived when we must pull together in business as we do in sport. Just as we strive for combination in footwork, so we must in trade. To allow the foreigner to control one single line of manufactures which we might retain shows a loo]; hole in our defence which may concede a goal. To fail to supply an open market on our colonies shows a want of intelligence in our attack which can never lead 'to triumph. When I look at an ironmonger’s shop w’indnw full of American tools I feel as I do when I see a player recklessly give away a penalty from which a goal is inevitable. When I hear of merchants over here who cannot get goods made as they want them in England, and yet have the right things flung at them by the Yankees, I know my team still suffers from the “swelled head’ which prefers to re'ly on reputation rather than rigorous training.

“That New Zealanders are more aptriotic than the people at Home is shown by deeds as well as by words. Even now, at Home, the public care little where an articles comes from so long as they can buy in the cheapest market. When I left you the British public were buying German goods in large quantities. I have failed to trace a German made article for sale in New Zealand. We find here that the surest recommendation of any kind of goods offered for sale is the label ‘British made.’ On every hand, however, 1 find regrets that so many goods have to be purchased from America, owing to the difficulty of getting English manufacturers to make what their customers want instead of what it suits them best to manufacture.”

Taking the motor trade as an instance, Mr Flint says; I saw the official figures for a six months’ period ending some time last year, and as nearly as I can remember, 1 27 British

cars were imported, as against over 2000 Americans, and about 000 Fords! Most of the 2000 Americans were cars costing £7OO to £9OO each, a price at which surely our British manufacturers can compete. Bear in mind a'lsO that New Zealand penalises herself with a tariff preferential to British goods, and that no one regrets more than the colonial here that he is compelled to go outside the Empire in order to purchase goods which should be made within it.”