Lecture on New Zealand.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3, 19 January 1905, Page 29

Lecture on New Zealand.

On Monday evening, November 21, the Very Rev. Dr, Watters, S.M., President of the catholic University School, delivered a very interesting lecture on New Zealand in the Father MaUiow Hall, Dublin. The lecture was illustrated by limelight views. The chair was occupied by the Very Hey. Father Aloysius, O.S.F.C, and on the plattorm were several prominant citizens. The Very Key. lecturer said that down in the Southern Seas, 14,000 miles from our shores, lies the island group called New Zealand. Discovered by Tasman, the Dutch navigator, m 1&12, the islands were visited and surveyed In 1769 by Captain Cook. N.o European settlement was made until 1814, and not until 1810 was any systematic colonisation begun. The country is probably of volcanic tortnation, for it lies in the zone of eartih wares and volcanic eruptions. Some active and many extinct volcanoes are e\idonces ot this theory. New Zealand is the home of the Maori— a Polynesian race with a slight strain of Melanesian blood. In physique, intelligence, personal beauty, and natural virtue they stand head and shoulders above average savage people. Some years agio they numbered o\er 100, 001). Now, with the advent -of the Pale Face, and in tfpite of laudable ellorts to conser\e the race, the Maori population has dwindled to 13,113. There is, to my mirtd, little hope of ultimately conserving this race in its own land yefc with the advent ol the Caucasian, the savage with the curse of human kind does the ewl it would not, and too easily assimilates tbe vices, while it rejects the virtues ol the invader. It a complex problem. Like tho British Isles of the northern hemisphere, the islands of New Zealand bit in lovely grandeur under ihe Southern Cross ; unlike the United Kingdom, New Zealand is happy in ha\ing no history. That is yet to be made. May its history bo less flecked with lines of national wrong than the records of the older country show. Sixty years! ago New Zealand was a mere possession, a colonial toy. Sixty years of Steadtast Industry, of Strenuous Toil, of keen foresight and generous, broad-minded statesmanship, linding its expression, more especially of later years, in a singularly able and sympathetic Government of the people, by the people, for the people, have created in this little country of the far South a tail world all its own, w r here every man worth his salt has a. chance, where no effete ascendancy broods aa an ifltmbus, where a broal liekt is open to man ; energy, grit, amd industry, where any man and every man may carve his way to allluencc a*l inilucncc, an 1 that, too, amid conditions that commend themselves to every lover of fretv dom. Compared with our own country, which r after all, for Irishmen stands pre-eminent 3 ' First flower of the earth, First gem of the sea, New Zealand has many points of resemblance. The soil is pastoral and agricultural. The climate is Soft and equable. Densely wooded hills look down in vefldant luxuriance on bcoad plains and rushing rivers. Hard late and criminal legislation ha.ye compelled many a son ahd daughter of Ireland to make this country ttfieir home, and in new conditions and with a fair field and

no favor many of them have forced their way to the front. Still must New Zealand be for lrisn lad and Irish lass at best but a land of adoption, and even from out. tone select circle of prosperity they ever ca/.e with straining eyes on that ' fair land and rare land ' they were perforce compelled to abandon. ' Ttnsn is -Mie- 1 patriot's boast, where'er you roam His ftrst best country is at home.' No other land can, even in the most favored conditions awake the thrill of sympathy or send the bounding ptilse of patriotism coursing through the veins ; no other and, whatever its charms and chances, can o.er hope to forge auoh lini:s as bind the Irish-born to Ireland. Kviles must they ever be, who on a foreign soil seek the birthright that has been denied them in Ireland The secret of the prosperity of Mew Zealand, trtie secret ci content, peace, satisfaction, lies in this— that its people go'.ern themselves. To their chosen representatives in Parliament the people submit Wie problems o! public policy— the greater good of the greater number. The Government bestirs itself to respond to the mandate of the people, to reduce to practical solution the will of the people. Over their own country where they lire move, and have their being, they brook no irresponsible control. The Government of toe day is in touch with the people, is responsible to the people, and dare not llout the reasonable demands of the people when aihrmod by their votes. There are still inequalities and want of balance, and unfair incidences of taxation en the Catholic minority. This very divorce in matters ot education has evoked the best qualities of the Catholic people, who, in New Zealand as in other colonies, are mainly and practically the Irish people Still " hope goes before," There is no reason wny an enlightened people should not, with tine best results for the State at large, salely and with advantage kovern themselves. The Church in New Zealand has 110, DUO Catholics, 1 Archbishop, and 3 Bishops churches, schools, colleges, convents and orphanages' Kvery well-spring of Christian charity is drawn on to minister to these thousand ajid more ills that flesh is heir to. Our midnight, continued the lecturer is noonday in New Zealand. Our winter is their summer Further north is hotter, further south colder. There is no twilight—" With one swoop comes the dark " I may not bring this lecture to a close without a tribute to the kfndly, generous, open-hearted people of New Zealand, amongst whom my strenuous years of life were haopily passed. The pictures I have shown you call troin the recesses of memory— where such things are sacrdily stored— the vision of strong arms and generous hearts*, and loyal wills that uniformly stood by every good cause. Struggling themselves— most of them— to carve a path to livelihood and further the scattered children of Irelanl rallied round the sacred cause ot (. hnstian education, of which I was a humble exponent, determined to perpetuate beyeni the seas a t any cost, at any sacrifice, t,he priceless heritage' of religion, that when all else was torn from them it alone remained irnduninished, unimpaired, because, forsooth, it stood not witlin the powers of a ruthless unscrupulous alien to rob them of the Faith of tfoe'lr fathers. And it would be ungracious, in a lecture li c thi^, did I not gratefully recognise tiie steady sympathy and valuable in a cause not their own that in /'owing stream were lavished In dark and difficult times, in times of strain and stress, by crowds tf frienUs who saw not eye to eye with me in Faith or nationality. Ttoe strong bright faces are before me as memory carries me once again across the seas to the last frontier of tne globe, and shall remain a trefesure sweet, abiding, precious— a proof strong and resistless of the best elements of our common humanity,