Page:The empire and the century.djvu/509

. But he is the reverse of an Oriental ascetic, and he does most steadfastly believe that healthful surroundings, good food, good pay, and a fair margin of leisure, give the best chance of happiness to the common workaday person. The notion that New Zealanders, as a people, have as an ideal some elaborate State Socialism may be dismissed. They are not enthusiastically steering towards a Cooperative Commonwealth. They are not even—consciously—Fabian Socialists. But they find in practice that by collective action they can do many things which they wish to do. They are, so far, satisfied with the chief experiments they have tried, and are unconsciously coming to look upon themselves as members of a cooperative company with unlimited liability, but practically limited risks.

As a democracy their Colony is sometimes compared with democratic Switzerland. There is, however, this material social difference: the yearly sum which the average New Zealander is able to spend is more than twice the annual outlay of the Swiss; it is more than four times that of the average Russian. Yet scarcely 6 per cent. of the male bread-winners in New Zealand enjoy incomes exceeding £200 a year. And among this favoured 6 per cent. the average of income is barely £600. Such a handful are the very wealthy; indeed, the annuity does not claim to possess a single millionaire. This aurea mediocritas does not mean that there is neither poverty nor anxiety, any more than the fact that the death-rate is the lowest in the world means that there is no mortality. What it does mean is that the competent farmer, skilled mechanic, and able-bodied labourer have usually a more hopeful life than in other countries. Generally, the diffusion of comfort in all classes is a pleasant sight, and, as there is no luxury on a large scale, the contentment of the man of small means is nowhere disturbed by the contrast of flaunting wealth.

The wooden cottage, which is the ordinary abode of