AMERICAN EULOGIST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19516, 20 February 1926, Page 5 (Supplement)

AMERICAN EULOGIST

NEW ZELAND—LAND OF GREATEST PROMISE. ASTONISHES EVER NEWCOMER. In the “ Christian Scicnco Monitor,” of December 9 last there appears a con tributed article on New Zealand, which should make every reader of it eager to repair to so blissful a country and bask for ever after amid the chaste joys of a paradise on earth. The article is :n short, one glowing tribute to the Doth. U’cn and its people, its industries,, its progress and its institutions, and its prosperity. The writer has looked with enthusiasm on everything he has seen in New Zealand, and has found it all so good that he cannot discover a fleck to tarnish the golden haze through which he views it. All New Zealanders agree that New Zealand is the best little country on earth, but there are one or two statements in the article which will be news even to New Zealanders. It is headed: “New Zealand, Where the Best are made Happy and Welcome,”' and proceeds:— New Zealand differs from Australia in many respects, and should in no manner be regarded as a s’.mliar country. While the latter is acquiring an aggressive independence that may well be regarded by the Home Government with some concern, New Zealand is and ever will be, one of the, most loyal units in the British Commonwealth of Nations. For that reason, among others, New’ Zealand is being sought by the best class of English immigrant. But the comparatively few who are coming, is but the proverbial drop in the bucket, to those who arc needed, and for whom there is so much room. “Sen-1 us your best,” is the Dominion’s urge 1o Britain, “and we will make them happy!’ ’

Nor is there much similarity in other regards, between New Zealand and the island continent across the Tasman Sen. 3 he fierce competition, the clamour for material advancement, the greed for material gain, in all of which Australia to-day seems to be vying with America, have hardly developed yet in New Zealand. Wellington is a quiet, placid city, of the smaller English pro vincial type; and Auckland, though larger and vastly more energetic, is yet markedly English in most of its charac teristics. Land Waiting the Plough. New Zealand’s natural richness impresses the new arrival, that and the vast empty spaces awaiting only the tiller of the land. Crossing the North Island, from Wellington to Auckland—and this is less than half the exteni of the Dominion—one traverses many miles of rich meadowland, heavily-tim-bered tracts, lovely valleys ami fait hillsides, all lacking any sign of human activity. Not here is the necessity for the long ami painstaking and costly development which has, for example, made a Californian desert to bloom like a Pamassan vale. It is all but in com plete readiness for the husbandman, ready ami empty, a land of promise and opportunity beyond computation, one of the world ’s great nations of the future. While hundreds of thousands mass themselves into cities and herd cattlelike, for what purpose they would be at a loss to say, here is almost a virgin land, abundant in its possibilities, smil ing in its invitation, simply waiting for that invitation’s acceptance. Even to-day New Zealand is a wonderfully productive land; and the evidences of that at once confront the newcomer. The Dominion claims world leadership, in its dairy products, for example, and has plenty of proof with which to up hold that claim. Its butter is already famous throughout the world. Fresh, in its golden richness, it is available in its low price to every class at home; tinned, it is capable -of shipment into every climate. Only Imports Costly. Is it any more credible that £5 to £7, or 25 dollars to 35 dollars, secures a suit of pure New Zealand wool clothing, well tailored, of ironclad durability? It is true, and more. Everything that New Zealand produces is so cheap that it seems quite as if the continuous advance in the cost of existence through the last 20 years had passed this land by. Only in the imports, few of which are in any way essential, does the increased cost, so burdensome in the outside world, reflect itself in New Zealand. A land of promise! Why, this is the greatest land of - promise since the Genoese sighted the palm fronds of a West Inddian isle! Ami how incredible that almost the entire world,- even Great Britain itself, knows so little of it! Queen of “The Great South Sea,” of Elizabethan navigators, New Zealand is developing a commonwealth that will astonish the world, as it astonishes every newcomer to-day. Its Government has already done things that others are noting as examples of righteous progression, and that they will emulate to-morrow. It owns its railways ami most of its public, services and it makes them pay. while maintaining good and dependable operation. Its educational system embraces the best of modern methods, which it extends even into its far-set sea islands, with ample provision for native instruction. Its parks, school playgrounds and municipal arrangements for the comfort and pleasure of its citizens are superb. Either the Government or the municipality owns the principal docking facilities at the larger ports, and maintains them at the very highest degree of efficiency, with every modern engineering appliance. Tramways are carefully operated, and equal to the needs, and transportation, accidents aro all but unknown. In Ihe larger cities and through the country there is an elaborate system of motor omnibuses, operated, except about the tourist resorts, at a very low tariff. Taxes arc probably lower than in any part of the British dominions; yet in Auckland, for example, nothing in the list of so-called modern improvements is lacking. Though it is a new country, one might say the newest of countries, there is a fine and lofty tone to New Zealand’s social life. That is, of course, largely due to the character of the citizenry, to the solidity of the almost pure English stock. Yet the moral atmosphere is safeguarded in every reasonable way, though without, the obtrusive imposition of anything in the nature of “blue laws.” Naturally, any community’s best moral safeguard is lhe character of its people, ami in New Zealand that high character reveals itself in many ways. The remarkable cleanliness of the Press is one of these. It is almost wholly free from sensational news of any sort, cither relating to New Zealand or to the rest of the world. Incidentally, there are no Sunday newspapers, nor arc there more than a few necessary Sunday transportation facilities.