NEWEST ENGLAND.
Kewest England. By Henry Demarest Lloyd. (Gay and Bird. 103. net.)—The title of this book is happily chosen. The writer's aim is to show that New Zealand is in very deed the Britain of the South,—only more so. All that is best from the old land has been carried to the new ; only the principles of political, municipal, and social action have been extended, to the greater happiness of the people. There is piquancy in the fact that the author is an American democrat, who went to New Zealand for the avowed pur- pose of seeing for himself the signs and proofs of the development of the Southern democracy. With open eyes, with tireless energy, audit must be said, with fairly calm judgment, Mr. Lloyd has pre- sented his report in a book of three hundred and eighty pages on this "experiment station" of advanced legislation. While the cautious British reader will bear in mind Carlyle's dictum that the eye sees only what it brings the power of seeing, and will note that the writer everywhere sees through American spectacles, yet, so full are the data, he can easily form his own opinions on the New Zealand Government's co-operative system, compulsory resumption of large estates,workmen's homes, perpetual leases, village settlements, tramp labour homes, life insurance (to which is recently added accident insurance), Compulsory Arbitra- tion Court, State bank, woman's franchise, and old-age pensions. On all these points the reader is in a position to form his own opinion without being unduly led by the author's eulogies of public men and his undisguised raptures over the triumphs of the Liberal legislation. On a matter which is now to the front in the old land, it is pertinent to note that New Zealand's latest move is this:—" For the purposes of providing workmen's homes, the Government may now compulsorily take land in small parcels up to 100 acres in towns of 15,000 people, or within 15 miles of their boundaries" (p. 174).
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