"For NZers the state is an instrument rather than an oversoul... a pork-barrel from which a member might extract pickings for his constituents."

"New Zealanders [use the] state for their material well-being without too curious an interest in the philosophical implications of their actions, as they [have] since the beginnings of their history....
    "For [New Zealanders] the state [is] an instrument rather than an oversoul.... a pork-barrel from which a member might extract pickings for his constituents."
          ~ W.H. Oliver, from his book The Story of New Zealand 

NB: tenses changed.

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