Visiting Writer Sees N.Z. As Sport Mad; Prefers S. Island

Wanganui Chronicle, 1 November 1950, Page 5

Visiting Writer Sees N.Z. As Sport Mad; Prefers S. Island

LONDON, Oct 30.—Mr. Arthur Helliwell, of the publication “The People," whose first article regarding New Zealand caused strong protests in the Dominion, says in a second article: “New Zealand’s national disease is not D.T.’s. It is sport, with racing the worst symptom. There is hardly an afternoon when one of the radio stations is not broadcasting a complete running commentary on a whole race meeting, and with a population of less than 2,000,000, New Zealand invested £25,000,000 on the totalisator last year. Add to this the turnover of illicit bookmakers—they’re illegal, but flourish like gorse—and you have a picture of people obsessed with finding the winner of the 2.30 and only bothering to stop discussing prospects to chat about Rugby football. Yet to suggest that all this is overdone is to raise a hornet’s nest. I have been told more than once that my foolish views are a product of a Britain that hasn’t learn.d how to live. REAL WORK OUTSIDE THE CITIES “If the present generation were to work a little harder and play a little less, I believe they would have more to sing about. In fact, you have to get away from the four big cities to find real work being done." Mr Helliwell added: “I am still convinced that New Zealand could de with a little more of the ambitious, I competitive spirit I found in Canada, ’ and a little less enthusiasm for beer, ‘ sport and horse racing. You see more ! drunkenness in New Zealand streets j than anywhere in Britain, and that is I largely because of the ridiculouslicensing laws that impose a 6 p.m. I closing lime on pubs and induce mc.i! to drink more lhan they can carry* between leaving work and getting} home.” ; “BY THE WRONG DOOR.” i Helliwell, writing under a Christchurch dateline says: “Someone should have told me. It seems that I came into New Zealand by the wrong door. As I wander round; the almost too English centre of this neatlyplanned little city, I feel as though I am in a different country from the New Zealand I saw in Auckland. There, life was raw and the people illmannered and unreceptive to an Eng-| lish ‘Pommie.’ Here I find charm, friendliness and an atmosphere like] home, with welcome written on the I mat. And. in a real way it. is a differ-! ent country, for Christchurch is ini New Zealand’s other island. “Between the North Island and the I South Island there is a strip of watei i which does more than separate the I two islands. It forms a gulf between’ two kinds of people. In booming,! thriving Auckland, I found the New! Zealanders tough and rather incline ; to give the go-by to settlers from the; Old Country. Down in this otherj island they have a kindlier outlook. They still talk of England as 'home,’ and an unseen hand of welcome seems

to reach out to the emigrant in search of a new world. “I found that far more emigrants make out in the South Island. Oddly enough, they tell me that the ambition of many businessmen in Christchurch and Dunedin is to make enough money to retire in Auckland. I can’t share their enthusiasm for the other island, but frankly I am faintly sceptical, too, when emigrants on this side of the water tell mo they found a ‘land of tomorrow.’ ” Mr. Heliiwell’s second article deals mainly with his experiences in Christchurch and other parts of the South Island, and is much milder in vein than his criticism of, for instance, Auckland. His story under the caption “One Country—Two Islands —And What a Difference” is prefaced by a paragraph which says: “Helhwell has discovered the truth about New Zealand. It is divided not only into two islands, but into two ways of life as wel'. He started this Dominion tour in the North Island and last week warned all British emigrants against it. But now he has crossed over to the South Island ana found himself in a different and much more attractive country." On another page. “The People” printed a shortened version of a reply from New Zealand House to Hclliwoll’s first article.

Mr George Bernard Shaw, aged 94, who had two operations in September, is “much weaker, according to reports from his homo at Acot St. Lawrence. Up returned home earlier this month alter he had been in hospital for nearly a month. He had a?, operation for a broken thigh as the result of a fall in his garden, and a kidney complaint, but his home said that despite a weakening in his general condition ho had “a fairly good night” on Monday. Daily reports since his operations had earlier indicated that he was making good progress.