The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-11-01
NEW ZEALAND
WAYS ODD
TheCustoms Differ
Much From
Ours.
POSTMASTER CAN
MARRY AND INSURE
The Government Cures Drunkards.
Everybody Bets Women
Vote.

New Zealand can boast of other
things as remarkable as it's labor laws
that compel shopkeepers to close on
every legal holiday and either Wednes-
day or Saturday afternoon, and fix the
lowest wages that can be paid to any
one at SIPS per week. For example,
everybody is polite, extremely, almost
painfully polite.
A train steams into the station at
Wellington, the islands capital.
Wellington, please the conductor
gently announces to his passengers.
After thanking the conductor for get
ting them safely to their destination,
the travellers disembark
This way to dinner, please" the sta
ton attendants politely sing.
The train makes ready to start.
. Seats, please; but don't hurry is
the trainmen's admenition.
And the conductor waits five minutes
after the gates are closed for everybody
to get comfortably seated before whist
iiH6 " liz ui1NCi ~ obci I'
Even law-breakers are treated with
unctuous consideration. The policeman
carries neither club nor firearms with
which to hurt any ones feelings. When
ever he finds himself compelled to make
an arrest he almost begs the prisoners
pardon and invariably takes him to
jail in a cab. There is no rough hand
ling; even the prisoner is courteous.
The time lost in being ceremonious is
made up by the New Zealander by word
trimming. No one says I'll make a
memorandum of it," it's always "Tll
memo" lone pound sterling is uni
versally boiled down to 'quid. and
even Premier Seldom calls a shilling a
bob
This cutting of words is carried to
such an extreme that stranger really
needs the service of an interpreter the
first week or two he is on the ISLAND.
The right man for the traveller IL trou-
BILE over the language or anything else
to seek out is the postmaster.
New Zealand's postmasters come
pretty near being the whole thing.
They are registrars of births and
deaths. They collect all taxes. munich
pal and governmental, and all customs
and internal revenues.
They insure their fellow citizens in
the Governments life insurance COM
pany, and receive their deposits in the
Post Office Savings Bank Of New Zea-
land. also a Government institution.
This bank has PIP. 436 depositors, and
the money deposited by them aggre-
gates $32,000,00o. Over one-fourth of
the islands population keeps it's money
in this institution.
But it is as performer of wedding
ceremonies that the New Zealand post
master is most fondly regarded and
most famous. There is neither fuss nor
furry in the ceremony that the post
master performs; neither Goes it cost
a penny.
A month beforehand the swain fills
out a declaration of intention in the
presence of a postmaster. At the ex-
piration of thirty days he and his
blushing bride seek out the official, and
in the presence of two witnesses, sign
their names in a court register and to
their own marriage certificate.
And that's all there is to it. Custom
doesn't even demand that the bride
shall let the postmaster kiss her.
IE pOSl.ildSlSI WIZ lHC ICIOi u
for marriages is a maiden lady in an
interior town. The lads and lasses of
her district will have none of preach
ers because it is a tradition that every
marriage at which she officiates is a
happy one.
New Zealand postmasters hold their
jobs long enough for tradition and coun-
tryside saws to grow up around and
about them. Once New Zealand post
| master, always a postmaster, for only
misconduct on his part can separate
him from his life's job.
New Zealands leading utility man is
| easily the postmaster; his closest com
petitor is the railroad station agent. AS
the Government owns the railroads, it
demands of its agents that they attend
to all the wants of the people that the
postmaster can't conveniently look
after.
Hence, when a farmer decides to sell
poultry, he carts a few hundred fowls
to town and turns them over TO the
station agent. The agent kills them
and dresses them, freezes them, packs
them in refrigerator cars, and sees
them started on their way TO Auckland,
wellington, Australia or London. The
Government acts as the farmers COM
mission man, free, all the way through
The government tries in every way
TO encourage the farmer. 1t will lend
him money at low interest, and sell him
rich land for a few dollars an acre. 1t
even forbids the railroads to whistle at
country road crossings, so that John
Dobbinss easy-going mare won't get
frightened and try to run away.
One governmental undertaking is the
sanitarium and hospital at Rotorua,
the islands chief health resort. 1t is
for the benefit of all INDECENT persons
throughout New Zealand.
If a man has broken down under the
strain of too much work, or has con-
tracted a bad case Of govt or rheuma-
tism, and has not money to pay for
treatment, the Government gives him
three months of free treatment in the
sanitarium, with free access to all the