A German Critic.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 11, 17 March 1909, Page 2

A German Critic.

By

Dog Toby.

A Book on New Zealand. /TTY R MAX HERZ has given us a Q I I book on New Zealand that con4 ) A / tains much that is shrewd and / yet misses some of the most salient features of our national character. His resume of the history of the colony is one of the best we have had, being painstaking and accurate as is most German work. He deals very exhaustively with the origin of the Maori, and has some very interesting remarks on the geology, climate, flora and fauna, and structure of our islands. ■ He dives unstinted praise to the beauties of our scenery. and shows a keen appreciation of tha many natural advantages that we enjoy. So far his book gives a very interesting and, on the whole, a remarkably correct account of New Zealand. It is when the doctor comes to discuss our national failings and our national weaknesses, that many people will be found to disagree ■with him. The " Pleasing Ceremony.” One of our chief characteristics is a childish dislike of adverse criticism, and a passionate love of fulsome flattery and adulation. When Brown leaves his position at Swampy Creek to take up a similar position at Muddy Flat, all his friends and acquaintances, his sisters, his cousins, and his aunts, assemble in state to present him with a silver-mounted brush and comb, suitably inscribed, and to make flattering speeches about his many excellent virtues and good qualities. The people may Be overjoyed to see him go, he may be a person devoid of any of the many excellences so freely attributed to him; he may even be an utter fool — these things matter not one jet, the "pleasing ceremony, ” as it is called, is de rigeur, and no man escapes it unless Ire is leaving the district to go to gaol, in which case the authorities do not usually give sufficient notice of their intention to effect an arrest to allow of his fellow townsmen getting up a testimonial. Occasionally a man who resided in a town for some time feels that he is already sufficiently indebted to the townspeople without calling on them to make any further presentations, and so he leaves quietly and unostentatiously, and the regret at his departure, though privately expressed, is often more sincere than that voiced at publie farewells. Wriat We Lack. But the worthy doctor, being safe back again in Germany, and publishing his book in the German tongue, through a Berlin house, probably feels that he is safe in drawing attention to the spots in our sun. He deplores, first and foremost, our lack of any sense of humour. Mr. Pember Reeves says that we are suspicious of wit and humour. As far as a sense of humour comes from a sense of proportion, it is probably true that as a nation we are deficient. We are, as Mr. Reeves reminds us. very averse to taking advice, and we have so accustomed ourselves to flattery, and prophesying smooth things in such an easy and popular road to success, that we really do believe that all the silly things people say about us are true, and instead of taking al! their flattering speeches with the necessary grain of salt, we take them quite literally. and hence we magnify trifles into events of the greatest national importance. Dr. Herz, after giving several examples, says that we have no conception how infinitely comical some of oar actions appear if estimated at their true worth. Both as individuals and as a nation we are what might be called “ touchy,” we give a local application to the most general statements, and it is quite possible that wbe.a the commandments are read in church, not a few of the congregation think the clergyman is "getting at" some particular members of his flock. Very few of our newspapers ever contain humorous article.-, and most of our jokes are imported from America. And yet some of our country people often possess a

keen sense of the ridiculous, and some ol the most genuinely humorous remarks 1 have ever heard have come from New Zealanders. But you must go out-back to realise that we still possess people who appreciate the comical side of life. Freedom in Democracy, Dr. Herz points out that though we are ail confirmed democrats we have no more freedom in o:r democracy than in an oligarchy or an aristocracy. He says that New Zealand socialism is the domination of one class, much worse than a bourgeoisie, is that it is uneducated, without foresight, and fanatical. There is no tyranny that can be compared to the tvranny of a majority. As an Irishman wittily put it, you can shoot a private landlord, but you can’t shoot the State. IX e are all possessed with a craze for making other people good by Act of Parliament, and we set no limit to the powers with which we endow legislative measures. That we still possess a certain amount of freedom is probably due to the fact that there are so many laws that no one remembers them, and so we don't bother about them. Gambling and legislation may be said to be our two national vices. The Foundation of Colonial Life, How differently the doctor might have written had he met the real New Zealanders. the men and women who brave the perils and isolation of out-back settlements that they may lay the permanent foundations on which our country's prosperity is built. Brave, sturdy, "self-reli-ant. these folk go about their work silently and faithfully. They resemble the giant stones on . which our great breakwaters ;i re built, unseen themselves, but alone making possible the superstructure that rests above.