Beautiful New Zealand
. . . . Socialist Republic
Editor's Note The following
article was received by a local
resident from a relative in New
Zealand. It has so much of inter
est in it that the Gazette Times
was granted permission to print
it. The author reveals his iden
tity, needing no explanation from
the editor. '
By BLACKWELL SMITH
The two green pastures . studded
with volcanies , and garnished with
glaciers tha1 contain the southern
most city of the world are known
as New Zealand, until recently a
very vague name in the minds of
Americians. A New Zealander told
me of an experience in America
which shows how vague this idei
may be in he average American
mind. The New Zealander, a col
onel, with a very handsome set Df
insignia, was riding in an Ameri
can bus when his neighboring pas
senger inquired of him what coun
try he represented. He told her,
whereupon he overheard a whisper
from the seat behind, "What coun
try did he say?" Answer: "Switzer
land." The New Zealand colone,l
"Pardon me, I said New Zealand."
Confused inquirer: "Well, will you
kindly tell me what is the differ
ence?" Now some hundred thousand,
plus, of American marines, soldiers
and sailors have seen New Zea
land and told their friends and rel
atives. New -Zealand's magnificent
part in the toughest combat in this
war has become widely known.
New Zealand's very large contri
bution of supplies t0 our Pacific
forces, on reverse lend-lease, has
been gven some publicity, though
not enough to do justice to the sub
ject. Walter Nash, the first New
Zealand minister to the United
States, has been very popular here
and has written a good book on
New Zealand for American con
sumption. Peter Fraser. prime min
ister, has been publicized in his re
cent trip here. Thus, New Zealand
doubtless has begun to register with
Americans more generally than
heretofore, but I shou'd like to ac
celerate this process for two most
fascinating experiences await the
traveler to New Zealand.
Not only is New Zealand proba
bly the most concentratted collec
tion of beautiful nature, in rela
tively small compass, that the world
can furnish, but it also is the most
understandab'e and worthwhile test
we are likely to find in real life as
to what happens in an Anglo-Saxon
socialist republic.
When Lend-Lease asked me to
spend six months in New Zealand
last year in charge of their prob
lems in that area, the public ser
vice that I could perform came,
frankly, third as the reason for my
acceptance. I wanted to know how
come a conservative group of Eng
lshmen and Scotchmen had set up
a socialiist way of 'iife, and I want
ed to know how it worked.
Likewise the romantic vision of
live volcanies capped ith snow and
"glaciers pouring almost into the sea
from 2,000 feet mountain ranges
through tropical-like foliage lured
me for the sheer feast of beauty
that I expected.
Both reasons for the trip, as well
as some I hope public service
well justify the six months spent.
Admittedly, the test tube tria1 of
socialism in New Zealand is not
fully applicable to us because the
country is almost exclusively ag
ricultural, relying almost entirely
on England for ils outlet and, due
to lack of natural resources in the
mineral and heavy industry lines,
likewse depends on importst for its
industrial necessities.
There remains a great deal to be
learned, since the type of people
there are closely akin to ourselves,
we also being an agricultural na
tion though we often forget it, and
the small size of the country per
mits observation in a way that a
larger one does not.
1 became acquainted with a sub
stantial sample of the leaders of the
country, both in government and in
business, and saw all parts of the
country and visited much of the
activity there.
The appreciation of the country
that I can convey by words will
leave much to be supplied until
the reader actually visits New Zea
land, as he wil1 do easily by air in
some two-week vacation after the
war, but a word picture may be of
some help, so I will try a condensed
version.
In the first place, as already in
dicated, nature has been very kind,
so far as beauty is concerned. As
you come in over the country by
air, and see it spread below you
like a relief map, the most start
ling first impression, even in the
New Zeland winter, is the all pre
vailing green. Green mountains,
covered by forests of native ever
green trees, found no where e'se
in the world, are green the year
round except as they may be coverd
with snow. The native growth of
smaller size is likewise green the
year round, with few exceptions.
Where the trees and shrubbery
(called "bush" in New Zealand)
give way to pasture land this like
wise is green. Every hill, lying at
the base of lhe mountains, that is
not too steep for a sheep, has been
stripped of bush and planted to a
variety of perennial grasses. Since
these are kept mowed by the sheep
and lhe cows, a love'y effect is
thereby produced. t
As the plane swings low and you
begin to pick out detail, one of the
first and most fascinating observa
tions is the giant tree fern, the
"punga", which is found throughout
the country in every little draw or
crack in the landscape. It also
makes up a good part 0f the bush.
Its fronds may be as much as 18
feet long and six feet across and it
may stand 20 feet high.
What is not green is blue or white
except the houses which are all red
or green, as seen from the air.
The sight of the mountain tops is
more spectacular than most moun
tain scenes in the world, because of
the fact that the mountains stand
out sheer in their complete majesty,
rising from the sea level to altitudes
of 8,000 to 12,000 feet in a single
continuous rise. There is no high
intervening plateau. Many of the
snow fields are perennial and term
inate in the valleys in the form of
glaciers.
The most spectacular of the gla
ciers are on the west coast of the
southern island, where they reach
down to a relatively few feet above
the sea, giving the impression of a
vast frozen torrent pouring off of
the ice fields at the .top of the 10
and 12 thousand foo1 range and al
most reaching the sea before being
warmed enough to turn to water.
The bush luxuriates a!l around
the lower terminals of these glaciers
on the west coast, so that you have
the startling experience of almost
tropical growth, with dozens of
types of fern and evergreens, at the
.base of the glaciers.
The sea is always near. Its color
is always blue. At no place in the
country is the sea more distant than
80 miles and ong blue fjords reach
in from the sea through lhe hills to
make spectacular beauty.
The beauty spots of the country,
when approached on foot, close up,
are found to be well populated wilh
unique birds. New Zealand, when
first discovered by the white man,
had no four footed creatures and
no snakes nothing but birds. For
tunately, il still has no snakes, al
though many deer and pigs popu
late the bush, descendants of gene
rations improted in the ast 100
years.
Returning to the irds, there has
.been nothing so thrilling of its kind
in my experience as the call of the
bell bird in a quiet corner of the
bush at dawn or twilight. These
birds are not spectacular to see,
being smallish brown creatures, but
they pour out liquid bell notes in a
simple three note arpeggio, which is
more beautiful than any note made
by man or his instruments.
I cou'd go on endlessly about the
naturad beauty of the country 'but
I am only seeking to give you back
ground and to whet your curiosity.
Coming to the socialistic side of
the picture, we have the strange
spectacle of a group of conservative
Scotchmen seeking to recreate
and doing rather well at it their
homes in the British Isles, and end
ing up with a socialist republic.
Immigration vs planned and de
veloped and towns laid out before
leaving England. The two countries
are almost an inverted duplicate of
Eng'and in size and shape and pop
ulation with the hardy Scot at the
southern tip as in the northern tip
of the British Isles. Of course, the
population is not as large as in the
British Isles, consisting of one mil
lion six hundred thousand people,
largely contained in the four major
cities, Auckland, Wellington, Christ
church and Dunedin.
In the early years of the history
of New Zealand, beginning in the
1890's. on!y a few years after major
immigration had begun, the state
commenced its long series of social
developments. The laws were passed
which have given New Zealand its
name for advanced social legisla
on. Labor conditions were protected
by labor administrative machinery
and special tribunals provided. In a
long series of laws, all of the haz
ards from the cradle to the grave
have been dealt with. There is un
employment relief, hospital and
sickness benefit, free medicine, free
doctors, universal purchase of all
agricultural produce by the state,
state ownership of utilities, includ
ing railroads, radio, pawer, etc.
It was not a labor government not
an extreme leftis1 group that did
these things. Most of them were
well established before the govern
ment came in, in the middle of the
depression.
The question is sure to be asked,
as I have asked myself, again and
again, what caused this trend to go
so far in a conservative country
with conservative people. I can give,
no sure answer, .but I can give my
belief.
These people have been so con
servative that they have thought
mainly of security and have pro
gressively dealt with all forms of
risk that have worried them. Ac
cordingly, it became possible for
their politicians and statesmen to
offer always new proposals to give
new elements of security. The cost
of this, has naturally mounted in
proportion to the total income of
the country, to the point that the
current administration, in wartime
has reached roughly 90 percent taxa
tion of income over $12,000 per
annum.
It is not difficult to see why risk
taking and industrial expansion
have slowed down in light of this
New Year
Old Creed
Lend more to end the War
BUY BONDS ! ! I
PETERSON'S
Heppner Gazette Times, January 4, 1 945 5
taxation, because, as - in America
and other countries, the enterpriser
has the privilege of pocketing his
own 'osses. The advantage of his
success is restricted to a very lim
ited smtall possibility, if he is al
ready prosperous, since new pro
jects are unavoidably hazardous.
Accordingly he chooses to leave
well enough alone.
There remains the question of
how it was worked and here there
are two standards which produce
entirely different answers.
Coming from America with its
vaunted high standards of living,
consisting of modern gadgets in
large quantity, one is tempted to ob
serve the success of the New Zea
land experiment in terms of gad
gets. On this basis, the experiment
is not nolab'y successful. Few New
Zealanders enjoy the things that
go with domestic refrigerators,
washing machines, vacuum clean
ers, toasters, mixers, etc., Very few
homes have central heating. Light
ing gixtures and furnishings are
simple. Homes are usually small
cottages of one story.
Many have automobiles, almost as
high a proportion as in the U. S.
Lkewise, with radios. The state
owned radio keeps the air full of
classica1 and popular music, largely
devoid of advertising.
Railroads are notoriously small
and non-modernized though I per
sonally found them rather pleas
ant when there was time enough
to cover the ground that way.
Much travel is in cars that are
made up of rooms like our apart
ments. Dimensions of the track and
of the cars are small so that some
one 'ike the writer is always bump
ing his head, but motion is not so
swift as to make the jiggling much
worse than our good trains.
Food is obtained, largely in the
form of "tea", at stops along the
way, the meal hours breakfast,
"morning tea", "afternoon tea",
and "tea" (meaning our dinner
hour.) Our Santa Fe Harvey House
FOR SALE
1 1 -room house 2 baths; first floor
newly decorated; new linoleum; full
basement with furnace; good cook
stove double lot, with outbuildings,
good fence, trees and lawn.
Price $4,000
Turner, Van Marter
and Company
For the new year that lies ahead we offer not a
new line of merchandise but a tried and con
stant policy the same personal consideration
of the varied needs of our customers.
HOUSE OF FINE JEWELRY
type of setup is only different in
that their food supplies consist
mainly of tea, sandwiches.' meat pie
and "cakes". The countryside is al
ways lovely, so that one who is
not in too great a rush can enjoy
their trains.
Modernization along this line h
divided in two for the two islands
The Cook straits, 60 miles wide,
prevent continuous rai1 travel
throughout the country.
Considerable air travel facilities
are available and more will be, of
course, postwar.
Continued on Page Seven
A Good
New Year's
Resolution
To eat at the
HEPPNER CAFE
just as often
as possible
throughout 1945
Yours for
Better Eats
HEPPNER
CAFE
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