Date: 1909
Source: Lenin Miscellany, vol. 28
Pages: 308-313

SIEGFRIED. "NEU-SEELAND"
André Siegfried: "New Zealand". Berlin 1909.
(NB chapter 28: "Imperialism").
Very useful sketch with broad economic[,] political scope. Peculiarity of "imperialism": insularity. They do n o t  a d m i t  t o  t h e  c o u n t r y  t h e  y e l l o w
r a c e .  F e r o c i o u s  restrictions [e.g.: 100 pounds sterling! ! — p. 190] on immigration generally. Country at the edge of the world (4 days from Australia!). Country in size almost equal to Italy, yet population — less than 1 million people! ! ! (9 0 0,0 0 0 — p. 189; 929 thousand in 907, p. 234; 1/7 of France) ((magnificent climate etc.)).

"Snobbery" of the population (chapter XXI): servility before the nobility ("Sir" — honorable title, before which they crawl on their bellies), before English monarchy, court etc. and so forth. Growth of population v e r y  w e a k .

Country of hide-bound, provincial, stupid, selfish petty bourgeois, who exported to themselves "c u l t u r e " from England and lie on it like a dog in the manger. (The native peoples — Maori — were slaughtered; by fire and sword; a series of wars).

Example: persecution of immigrated (1893, 1898—) A u s t r i a n  (NB) workers (p. 191): the "workers' party" conducted the persecution.

Women's equality. — Struggle against alcoholism. — Clericalism: intensified religiosity; a multitude of sects.

Against union with Australia: we stand for ourselves. We are "the best country on earth" 293 (!!)...

"New Zealand imperialism" (p. 294)... Its "peculiar form" (ibid.)... "colonial jingoism" (295 ibid. 296), which m a y  b e  called "Australasian imperialism" (295).

Two currents of imperialism (both entirely compatible):

1) Great-Power imperialism (participation in the imperialism of Great Britain).

2) "Local imperialism" (295) — its own separateness.. insularity.

Protests against the presence of the French in New Caledonia — against the occupation of Samoa by the Germans (297) etc. Irreconcilable enmity on account of this, from the standpoint of "Greater New Zealand"...

In June 1901 New Zealand annexed the Cook archipelago.----------

New Zealand = the most "loyal," faithful, colony of Great Britain.

NB

NB:
"local imperialism"

State debt: 51.2 million pounds sterling (out of 66.5) — English capitals

Trade — 66% with England.

Ultra-patriots in the Boer War (307) . . . (sent troops against the Boers)...

Premier Seddon — representative of Australasian imperialism. "An imperialist of the purest water" (310)....

(died 10 June 1906. Was premier (1893— 1906) (p. 71))

His 1st visit to England — 1897 " 2nd " " " — 1902

NB
social policy
+ imperialism!

NB

41

NB

NB:
bribery of workers with social reforms by imperial- ist bourgeoisie "The champion of s o c i a l  p o l i c y  in him (Seddon) began to recede to second place and ceded the first place to the i m p e r i a l i s t  and protectionist statesman" (311). Although a reformer (for reforms in New Zealand) — in England he curried favor with the Tories. Conservatives praised the "socialist Seddon" (311). "The Times" 18 June 1902: praise for Seddon, radical, democrat, imperialist!! (citation p. 311).

Growth of the idea and practice of preferential tariffs...

Their "socialism": "The New Zealanders are practical and opportunistic to the point of cynicism" (67) — and the workers too (67), they are entirely "conservative," they have something to "preserve" (ibid.).

(Seddon — representative of the "workers' faction of the Liberal Party" (68)).

Laws protecting labor — Factory inspection — and for home work — working day of 48 hours (law of 1901) for m a l e  [workers]; 45 hours for f e m a l e  [workers] — minimum wage etc.

Compulsory arbitration courts etc.

The "key" to all this — protectionism (140) and industrial p r o s p e r i t y ... ((Under free trade it would not have been sustained))... Pensions for the old (65 years)...

Creation of small peasant landownership; purchase of large estates (plundered etc., villainously from the Maori etc.) (distribution in small parcels) — this is "democracy, not socialism" (175). ((Correct!!))

"Converting large landownership into small! This is what the F r e n c h  r e v o l u t i o n  did too" (175)....