What You Should Know About the Homes of the Lebanese Overseas: New Zealand

What you should know about the homes of the Lebanese overseas

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New Zealand lies in the Pacific Ocean. It is made up of two islands separated by a small gulf, and its area is about one hundred thousand square kilometers. Its capital is Wellington, which is its second city.

New Zealand is divided into nine provinces, inhabited by one and three-quarter million people, in the proportion of 900,500 males to 864,900 females — a curious phenomenon, since in most other countries women outnumber men. Hence there is no marriage crisis in New Zealand, and a girl there is born as honored and cherished as a boy.

The climate is temperate, inclining to cold in the southern provinces because of their nearness to the frozen pole. The visitor is delighted by its green plains stretching away on every side; their spring and their breezes ripple past, refreshing and delighting. The flowers scattered here and there only add fragrance to the air; the enchanting mountains meet the beholder's eye, and the forests at the foot of the mountains and on their flats compose a beautiful artistic picture — and these forests are no small wealth for New Zealand.

Livestock abound in New Zealand, and this is counted among its greatest resources. The curious thing about it is that the animals are left in the wide fields and the lush pastures with no keeper over them and no fear of the attacks of beasts of prey or of theft.

The New Zealand people is a mixture of several peoples, in which the English element predominates. The original inhabitants of the islands are the "Maori," who have become the minority there, their number not exceeding fifty thousand. They are distinguished by their strength and courage, but their mingling with the peoples who migrated to the islands has fused them and made them lose many of their customs and traditions.

In order to raise the islands' standard, the government has taken to encouraging immigration by the various elements — the planter, the farmer, and the man of wealth. And, careful to preserve the morals of the rising generation, it took a firm decision to expel criminals, the dissolute, the feeble-minded, the diseased, and those of weak constitution. It has likewise encouraged athletic games of every kind, and every year festivals are held for all branches of sport in all the large cities.

New Zealand's geographic position fits it to be among the most fertile islands of the Pacific, in view of its natural and mineral wealth. Thousands of acres have been set apart for pasture, and they are exploited by the most modern methods. Its mineral wealth consists of gold, coal, silver, and iron.

As for its trade, most of its exports are sent to England, and the rest is divided between the English colonies and the United States. But New Zealand has been fortunate in able specialists and technicians who guard its wealth from decline; thus we find that its exports exceed its imports by millions of New Zealand pounds (roughly the equivalent of the English pound), and we find the New Zealand people living in ease, prosperity, and security, confident of the fate of its currency, which is the sinew of the state. Its principal industries are butter, cheese, condensed milk, chilled meats, tanning, and the weaving of clothing; many other industries come second in importance.

(To be continued)