Page:Letters from New Zealand (Harper).djvu/361



September 2nd, 1907.

In my last letter I alluded to the different conditions of parish work here and at home. This is due to the general state of prosperity with which the country is blest; the absence of slums, of abject poverty, of a submerged tenth, or criminal class. It is not easy for chance visitors to realize this. Not long ago, at the railway station, I met a passenger by express, a Londoner, on his way through New Zealand for a holiday tour. "I have come down," he said, "from Auckland, and am making for the South on my return to England, and I haven't come across a single instance of destitution; so different to my experience in London as I go to my business in the city. What is your population here, and what is your experience"

By way of illustration of this, I said, "It is close on Christmas time, and though, of course, we have some comparatively poor people here, I really don't know a family to whom it would be a great boon if I sent them a Christmas dinner."

"Well," he said, "is that good for you? You have no one to pity."