strength and pride of New Zealand. It is that
which makes the list of crimes light. Criminals and paupers are less
often produced than let in from the outside. The regulations relating
to the exclusion of the physically or mentally tainted are far too
lax, and will bring their own punishment. The colonists, honestly
anxious that their country shall in days to come show a fine and happy
race, are strangely blind to the laws of heredity. They carelessly
admit those whose children to the third and fourth generation must be
a degrading influence. On the other hand, the Colony gains greatly by
the regular and deliberate importation of English experts. Every year
a small but important number of these are engaged and brought out.
They vary from bishops and professors to skilled artizans and
drill-instructors; but whatever they are, their quality is good, and
they usually make New Zealand the home of their families.

With wealth diffused, and caste barriers unknown, a New Zealander,
when meeting a stranger, does not feel called upon to act as though in
dread of finding in the latter a sponge, toady, or swindler. Nor has
the colonist to consider how the making of chance acquaintances may
affect his own social standing. In his own small world his social
standing is a settled thing, and cannot be injured otherwise than by
his own folly or misconduct. Moreover, most of the Islanders are, or
have been, brought face to face with the solitude of nature, and many
of all classes have travelled. These things make them more sociable,
self-confident, and unsuspicious than the middle classes of older
countries. Such hospitality as they can show is to them a duty, a
custom, and a pleasure.

The Islanders are almost as fond of horses and athletics as their
Australian cousins. They are not nearly such good cricketers, but
play football better, are often good yachtsmen, and hold their own
in rowing, running, jumping, and throwing weights. Fox-hunting is a
forbidden luxury, as the fox may not be imported. But they have some
packs of harriers, and ride to them in a way which would not be
despised in the grass counties at Home. There are fair polo teams too.
They are just as fond of angling and shooting as the race elsewhere.
Capital trout-fishing, some good deer-shooting, and a fine supply of
rabbits, hares, and wild ducks help to console the sportsman for the
scarcity of dangerous game. As might be expected in an educated people
passionately f