all cases been examined and taken on their merits, and not
otherwise. They are the outcome of a belief which, though much
more boldly trusted and acted upon by the Progressives than by the
Conservatives, is not now the monopoly of one political party. The
leaders of the rival parties, the robust Mr. Seddon and the kindly
Captain Russell, both admit one main principle. It is that a young
democratic country, still almost free from extremes of wealth and
poverty, from class hatreds and fears and the barriers these create,
supplies an unequalled field for safe and rational experiment in the
hope of preventing and shutting out some of the worst social evils and
miseries which afflict great nations alike in the old world and the
new.

To sum up the experiments themselves, it may be said that the Colony
has now reached the stage when the State, without being in any way
a monopolist, is a large and active competitor in many fields of
industry. Where it does not compete it often regulates. This very
competition must of course expose it to the most severe tests and
trials. Further progress will chiefly depend on the measure of success
with which it stands these, and on the consequent willingness or
unwillingness of public opinion to make trial of further novelties.

Chapter XXIII

THE NEW ZEALANDERS

"No hungry generations tread thee down."

Some 785,000 whites, browns, and yellows are now living in New
Zealand. Of these the browns are made up of about 37,000 Maoris and
5,800 half-castes. The Maoris seem slowly decreasing, the half-castes
increasing rather rapidly. 315,000 sheep, 30,000 cattle, many horses,
and much land, a little of which they cultivate, some of which they
let, support them comfortably enough. The yellows, some 3,500 Chinese,
are a true alien element. They do not marry--78 European and 14
Chinese wives are all they have, at any rate in the Colony. They are
not met in social intercourse or industrial partnership by any class
of colonists, but work apart as gold-diggers, market-gardeners,
and small shop-keepers, and are the same inscrutable, industrious,
insanitary race of gamblers and opium-smokers in New Zealand as
elsewhere. At one time they were twice as numerous. Then a poll-tax
of L10 was levied on all new-comers. Still, a few score came in every
year, paying the tax, or having it paid for them; and about as many
went home to China, usually with L200 or more about them. In 1895 the
tax was ra