New Zealand: Sooner than Apopo

New Zealand is a land of diverse and gentle beauties, from the semitropic grasslands and steel-blue lakes of the north to the magnificent fiords, mountains and waterfalls of the cooler south. Life, too, tends to be placid for New Zealand's 2,590,000 inhabitants. Cradled in the arms of a welfare state, they have practically no unemployment, easily buy houses on government loans and are cared for with "womb-to-tomb" government benefits. The Maori word apopo, the equivalent of Latin America's mañana, symbolizes the New Zealander's belief that much, and perhaps all, can best be left till tomorrow.

Perilous Balance. As might be expected in such a country, New Zealand has problems, and solutions cannot be put off until tomorrow. One big problem is a dog-chasing-tail economy: with little industry of its own, the country depends heavily on exports of its butter, beef, mutton and wool to balance the steady flow of imports that its people need. The balance has become so perilous that New Zealand has decided to make some major changes in its economy. Last week the government approved the creation of a native steel industry that will refine ore from New Zealand's black sand beaches. The steel mills, to cost $156 million, will save $56 million a year in imported steel costs and become the largest industrial project in the nation's 125-year history.

The steel complex will use low-cost power from another new project now abuilding: a grid of power plants that will generate electricity from such unusual sources as boiling springs and a water raceway that runs underground for nearly six miles through the rocky soil of South Island. Parliament will soon extend the country's territorial limits from three miles to twelve to protect New Zealand's infant fishing industry, which is being trained by the Japanese to catch tuna and by the Australians to harvest oysters. Hoping to form a kind of Tasmanian Common Market, New Zealand is renegotiating its trade agreements with neighboring Australia, which supplies 20% of all New Zealand's imports but takes only 3.5% of her exports.

One Wide Yawn. With all its natural attractions, New Zealand hopes to attract more foreign tourists. Only 113,000 visited New Zealand last year (15,000 of them Americans), and most of them have to fly prop planes from Australia or Fiji to get there. So far, there has been little reason to come: most New Zealand hotels are dilapidated, service is poor, almost all bars close at 6 p.m. daily, there is practically no night life and a New Zealand Sunday is one wide yawn. The government is determined to improve matters, hopes that it can raise tourist income from $27 million to $40 million within a few years. Next month, for the first time, jets will arrive from Sydney to land at Christchurch airport; by year's end the all-new Mangere airport will open outside Auckland and Air New Zealand will begin flights to North America.