HAPPY NEW ZEALAND.* NRw Zealand has now her home-bred historian.
Mr. Reeves is no globe-trotter, no temporary resident giving his passing impressions of climate, scenery, and people. He is a ready writer, racy of the soil. From boyhood he drunk in his country's varied natural beauty. During early manhood he mixed largely in her affairs, and has even left his permanent mark upon her Statute-book. And from being a Cabinet Minister, holding the portfolios of Justice, Labour, and Education, Mr. Reeves, at an age but little over forty, is Agent-General for the Colony in London. We measure our words when we say • The Long White (Loud (do Tea Ron). By William Pember Reeves. London: Horace MarshalL [es. net.] that the writer has produced a book which is remarkable for its freshness, force, and general accuracy.
In adopting The Long White Cloud for the title of his book, Mr. Reeves pays a graceful compliment to the aboriginals• As the old Maori " pilgrim fathers" paddled their long canoes across the Southern Pacific they saw the thin vapour streamers hiding, yet revealing, the mountains of their new home. To their simple poetic instinct the scene suggested the name, Ao Tea Roa =" The Long White Cloud." And we decidedly think that the freshest part of the present volume is that which gives the impressions of Taniwha, who went on board Captain Cook's ship, the 'Endeavour,' while she was lying in Mercury Bay in 1769. With some of his play- fellows, wrapped in the flax cloaks, little Taniwha went on to the magic ship. Their sharp brown eyes noted everything.
The leader of the " Goblins," Kapene Kuku (Captain Cook), was easily made out ; he was a tino tangata, a very man.
Grave and dignified, the Captain walked the ship, and, coming up to the boys, patted their heads, and held up a large nail temptingly before them. While his companions were awe- struck, the bolder Taniwha laughed outright, and was at once given the prize. The children, adds Mr. Reeves, "forthwith agreed amongst themselves that Cook was not only a tino tangata, but a tino rangatira, a combination of a great chief and a perfect gentleman. How otherwise could he be so kind to them, and so fond of children, argued these youthful sages ?" This young chief was but eight years old when this episode occurred, but years after he told his story to Governor Hobson, by whom it was carefully preserved, as was also the following account of the punishment of the Maori who stole a piece of calico :- "They paddled away. The Goblin went down into the hold of the ship, but soon came up with a walking stick in his hand, and pointed it at the canoe. Thunder pealed and lightning flashed, but those in the canoe paddled on. Then they landed ; eight rose to leave the canoe, but the thief sat still with his dogskin mat and the Goblin's garment under his feet. His companions called him, but he did not answer. One of them shook him, and the thief fell back into the hold of the canoe, and blood was seen on his clothing and a hole in his back."
From this almost prehistoric period the transition is naturally easy to the time when the British Government had to engage in a grim life-and-death struggle with the Maori race. In this conflict the aboriginals did not always come off second best. For proof, take Mr. Reeves's graphic account of a battle in the latest war :- " A third encounter produced the most heroic incident in the Colony's history. Three hundred Maoris were shut up in entrench- ments at Orakau. Without food, except a few raw potatoes ; without water ; pounded at by our artillery, and under a hail of rifle bullets and hand grenades ; unsuccessfully assaulted no fewer than five times,—they held out for three days, though completely surrounded. A flag of truce was humanely sent by General Cameron inviting them to make an honourable surrender. To this came the ever-famous reply,—' Enough 1 We fight right on, for ever I' Then the General offered to let the women come out, and to this the answer was,—' The women will fight as well as we.' At the close of the third day the besieged garrison charged at quick march through the English lines, actually jumping over the heads of the Fortieth Regiment (as they lay behind a bank), and, though con- fronted by a force of Colonial rangers, half of them got clear away, and among them the celebrated war chief Rewi."
The necessarily compressed account of the settlement of the white population in the Colony is, on the whole, very well done. We must, however, take exception to the author's treatment of the Parihaka episode. Mr. Reeves hardly puts the native Minister's conduct in the proper light. He does not make it perfectly plain that Te Whiti—the so-called Maori " prophet "—was deliberately and defiantly harbouring the notorious murderer, Urohi. To rescue this miscreant and to bring him to even-handed justice was the sole object of the expedition. The end was effectually attained, but though Mr. Reeves has modified his former statement, he has even now scarcely gone far enough to win the palm of perfect im- partiality.
The writer is at his best when he deals with the recent factory and land legislation of the Colony. He is in warm sympathy with Mr. John Mackenzie's policy of " bursting " up the big estates, and on easy terms enabling the " peasant- proprietor " to settle and thrive on the same. The Cheviot property, for example, was a fine tract of 84,000 acres, on which till 1893 some 40 human beings and 60,000 sheep were found. This was bought by the Government, cut up, and opened by roads. A portion of this was sold, the remainder let under perpetual lease, and within a year of purchase a thriving . yeomanry, numbering 900 souls, owning 74,000 sheep, 1,500 cattle, and 500 horses, were at work on the erstwhile thinly peopled estate.' The latest information on this novel experiment goes to prove that it is not quite the complete success claimed for it. Nevertheless, New Zealand has reached that stage of agricultural development when such a scheme of settlement can be fairly tried. It may be well to add that the Ministry of which Mr. Reeves was a member introduced the Land-tax, of which the main provisions are these :—On all land over £500 value one penny in the pound is paid. An additional Land-tax begins on holdings worth 25,000. Starting at one-eighth of a penny, by progressive steps it rises until, on estates assessed at £210,000, it is two- pence. This graduated tax brings in £80,000. The penny Land-tax brings in about £200,000, and the Income-tax some 270,000. The Income-tax is not paid on incomes under £300 a year. Between this and £1,300 the tax is sixpence all round ; over £1,300 it rises to one shilling. Joint-stock companies pay a shilling on all incomes. By means of this double mesh, the colonist of Maoriland can hardly escape paying his fair share towards the revenue of his native or his adopted country. There is also an- Absentee-tax for those who choose to reside in the Motherland, and leave the land uncultivated in the land of their adoption.
But it is in regard to the factory and social legislation that New Zealand has recently plunged most into the region of experiment. Much of this new law-making bears the impress of the author's own hand. Writing of his own Factory Act, Mr. Reeves says :— " Under its pivot clause all workshops where two or more persons are occupied, are declared to be factories ; must register ; pay an annual fee ; and submit to inspection at any hour of the night or day The factory age is fourteen ; there are no half- timers, and each child under fifteen has to undergo an education test before being allowed to go to factory work Women and children under eighteen may not work before_7.45 or after 6 p.m., nor more than forty-eight hours a week."
A word must be said as to the Arbitration Act. In each industrial locality a Board of Conciliation is set up, composed equally of representatives of employers and workmen with an impartial chairman. Disputes between Trade-Unions and employers are referred to these local Boards, to which com- plete powers are given for taking evidence and compelling attendance. The award, however, is not enforceable by law. Hence, there lies an appeal to the Central Board of Arbitra- tion. This is composed of a Judge of the Supreme Court who sits with two assessors representing Capital and Labour respectively. The decisions of this Court are final, and may be enforced by pains and penalties. This Arbitration Court has been in active operation for over three years, during which time thirty-five Labour disputes have been dealt with. It is, as yet, too early to pronounce definitely upon the success or failure of the experiment. Some accounts represent the Act as oppressive and injurious to the true interests of the Colony. Others claim that it has been an unqualified success.
On the subject of the woman's franchise, the author is of the decided opinion that "it has not broken up existing parties, unsexed women, or made them quarrel with their husbands, or neglect their households. It has not interfered with mar- riage, or society, or the fashion of dress. Nor are the ladies clamouring to be admitted into Parliament." Mr. Reeves has a most interesting chapter on the qualities—physical and mental—which mark the British population of the islands. Half are native born. Under their new, sunny, and pleasant surroundings a more general air of cheerfulness and content- ment prevails, while the sturdier characteristics of the race— energy and. enterprise—are by no means wanting. In the opinion of the writer, the time is not yet when New Zealand can, or should, be self-contained and self-sufficing. The Colony gains by the regular and deliberate importation of British experts :—" Every year a small but important number of these are engaged and brought out. They vary from Bishops and professors to skilled artisans and drill-instructors. Whatever they are, their quality is good, and they usually make New Zealand the home of their families."
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