Notes

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 24, 11 June 1903, Page 18

Notes

Fiji's Governor The New Zealand Methodist protest against a Catholic Governor in Fiji o'ervaulted its purpose. Those who framed and passed this foolish and busybody protest were not prepared for the strong and emphatic lesentment with which their impertinent interference with Go\cnior Jackson's religion was received by the whito population — Catholic and Protestant — of the islands. A letter leceived by us a few days ago from the Right Rev. Mgr. Mackay, at Suva, bears testimony to tho popularity and success of the representative of tha Crown whose religious faith was deemed to unfit him to be Governor of Fiji. ' During the voyage,' saya the Monsignor, ' I have conversed freely with Fiji residents of various creeds — Anglicans, Free-kirkers, Presbyterians, etc. All were quite unanimous in asserting that there never was a better Governor in Fiji, that he is a model of even-handed justice, sympathetic, enthusiastic in promoting its interests and watching over its general welfare — in a word, the very jewel of a good Governor.' Imported Experts What is the matter with New Zealand brains and hainds ? Are the brains of bran or, the hatnds less deft than those of the average white ? They are not, we weon Then why tho craze for imported experts of various brands and divers calibre that seem to have possessed tho soul of some of our State Departments ? There are some branches of applied science — such as, for instance, electricity and bacteriology — that are, at worst, but slightly affected by climatic or other local conditions. In such as these the ' imported man ' would, from the outset, stand on practically the same level as aj New Zealand expert of equal attainments. But there are other important branches of science and industry which depend, directly or indirectly, to a great extent on soil, climate, etc. Such are, for instance, dairying, horticulture, agriculture, fruit-growing, forestry. In these important and growing branches of our trade and commerce, it would take the foreign expert years of patient observation — perhaps years of costly blundering;— ibefore he could hope to find himself working on equal terms

with a New Zealander in whom a similar degree of theoretical and practical knowledge of his business is wedded to an intimate acquaintance with local conditions of climate and soil. For this reason we have always considered it as a serious error to import dairy and such-hke experts from Canada and other countries where the climate and tho conditions of work are widely different lrom those that prevail in New Zealand. In the first place, the risks of securing an ' inferior article ' iiic- .suJl.LH.nlly serious— for 1 ost imnriiM Is anri such-hke recommendations are painfully fallible. In the second place, their expert knowledge is lopsided and limping until they know the temper of the soil and climate in wthich they have to work. And very possibly, when they have reached the stage of real usefulness, they are prepared to flit to fresh woods and pastures new. We are, therefore, pleased to learn, from an utterance of the Minister of Lands at the Otago Winter Show, that the Government has it under consideration to make a beginning of a common-sense course of action by sending a few of our most promising young colonists to Denmark, Canada, and other dairying countries to learn the best methods, with a view to their introduction into New Zealand.