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Editorial
The Spirit of New Zealand

The experiment made last month of producing the New Zealand Railways Magazine as a national monthly of general New Zealand as well as Railway interest, has met with a most cheering response from the reading public. So great was the demand for copies that within two days of publication the publishers had to draw on our reserve stocks to meet repeat orders from book-sellers, and considerable difficulty has since been experienced in meeting the demands of the buying public for copies of that issue. The response from contributors has also been remarkable, shewing that there is a vast reservoir of writing and sketching talent and knowledge regarding New Zealand subjects upon which a monthly publication such as this, with a truly national outlook, can draw when attempting to present to New Zealanders the story of the life and colour of their own land.

Do distant fields look greenest, and has a prophet no honour in his own country? If so, appearances may be wrong and local judgments defective. Misconceptions of this kind, where they exist, are usually due to a lack of adequate knowledge—a blind faith in the highly-coloured tales of Munchausen-minded travellers from foreign lands and in the alleged giants and mighty men of other places. To anyone who knows his New Zealand, there are records of human effort, of genius and skill, of industrial and productive efficiency, of research, invention, daring and enterprise, of self-sacrifice and public-spirited effort, of physical, mental and spiritual achievement available in regard to this country which, taken together, are certainly not surpassed by those of any country in the world. In placing dependable information upon matters such as these before New Zealanders, this Magazine hopes to reveal more and more the spirit of New Zealand to its people, so that, placing a just value upon their own land, they may have a true appreciation of their relative position in the world at large.

By this service the Magazine will strengthen still further the vital link between the railways and the public. While retaining its original purpose as a source of information upon railway affairs to public and railwaymen alike, it will also go out in ever-increasing numbers to the general public because of what it can do to encourage a sense of country and a patriotism based upon sound knowledge of New Zealand's worth.

The general warm-hearted response to the April issue indicates that there is already a large body of patriotic New Zealanders who see in the Magazine a means of strengthening and extending their interest in national affairs and amplifying their knowledge of their country's historical and geographical features.

Its further success in this direction will be the measure of its worth to New Zealanders. But in presenting the physical attractions of New Zealand, the glory of the Alps, the healing qualities of Rotorua, Te Aroha, Helensville or Hanmer, the traditions and folk-lore of the Maori race, the grandeur of New Zealand lakes and rivers, fiords and volcanic peaks, the Magazine is also doing a service for those beyond New Zealand who have in this journal an additional source of reliable information concerning what is coming to be universally regarded as the choicest and most varied scenic country in the world.

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