“Well, as Zelania, by every feature of her nature, suggests action, her people are exploring every field of industrial enterprise. Though wages are high and the market for most of the manufactured goods very limited, there has been reasonable success in many branches of the arts productive.
“Of course, the chief of these industries,” he says, “relate to what might be called raw pastoral products: meat, wool, butter, and cheese. The list of manufactures include some twenty general classes, covering over one hundred sub-classes.
“As a rule, the manufacturing plants are fairly well equipped—the machinery for the meat and dairy works being especially up to date. The wages of the 41,000 persons employed are, high. Nearly £8,000,000 are invested in plant, and the annual output amounts to £17,000,000. Certainly these facts speak strongly for the enterprise of so new a people.
“But, Zelania, ’twas not thy ‘riches’ nor thy trade,
’Twas not thy fields, thy fruits, thy wool that made
Thee loved of gods and men, nor gold; nor stately domes.
’Twas ‘justice,’ inscribed on the portals of thy homes.
For thou first learned that men and women must be great,
Else folly only boasts the grandeur of a State.”
SCENE VIII.—Act IV.
THE MORAL SIDE.
Relating to the moral side of Zelania’s progress, the notes were very full, but the story will be briefly and chiefly told in the less chaste style of Marmaduke:—
As a rule, the people of Zelania, if the great discoverer is correct, enjoy excellent health—or should enjoy it—though we rarely “enjoy” anything that is very common. Of course, Zelania has not yet evolved a type, though she has begun her task, for while the Zelanians are of excellent stock, the “born Zelanian” is said to be superior, both in physical fibre and mental perception, to the average person of the Motherland. Nature, Mr. Oseba thinks, will preserve the “sorrel hair,” the white skin, the florid complexion, the fine shoulders and the firm “understanding.”