HENRY GEORGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 118, 19 May 1892, Page 12

HENRY GEORGE.

LETTER TO SIR GEORGE GREY.

The following letter was added to the Grey collecbion in the Free Public Library :—

Maryborough, May 2lst, 1890. —My dear Sir George,— Jb was a great disappointment to get your despatch lasb evening. I regret to leave tliis part of the world without seeing New Zealand, bub I still more regret leaving it without seeing move of you, so much -so that had 1 realised it at the time ib would have determined me to accept Mr Shine's offer. However, 1 tun glad that I have at least met you, and for the rest of my life you will be to me nob a name bub a living personality. I never mob a man whom I wanted so much to know, and from whom I felt that I could draw so much knowledge and information. Our external standpoints have been so different, in many respects so opposite, and your oxperienco so rich and varied whore mine has been deficionb, as to make thab which wo have in common intensely attractive, and now thab I havo seen your face and graspod your hand, and hoard how those among whom you havo lived speak of you, I feol for you that affectionate admiration with which the younger man looks up to the older man with whose views and aims and struggles iio sympathises. Bub your faith is mine. We are really " living in eternity." Ib may bo thab we shall meet again in this world, bub if not thero must bo some place and time when " good mon shall know each other." And for the present it will bo a good deal to me to at least have mob you here. Your telegram, which I received here on Sunday, and for which I heartily thank you, at once determined mo I would exceedingly like bo visit New Zealand, but the reasons against doing so now aro even stronger than I feel them. This trip has been a very hard one—constant speaking and travelling, with all the faculties on tho strain, and I begin to feel ib. My wifo, too. though sho has stood ib remarkably well, begins to show that she needs rest, and while 1 have no advices from Homo thab call me Micro, and while ib may be that 1 shall not bo specially needed, yeb it may happen that my presence before the importanb Congressional (and somo State) elections that come off this year will bo exceedingly useful. Wo leave Maryborough this p.m. for Brisbane. I speuk hore Friday (other engagements are also mentioned). Unless letters and telegrams call me homo more speedily, we will take about thrcto weeks to London and a couple of weeks in England, where I will nob do any speaking if I can avoid ib, but want to see Michael Davitb and a few of our friends. 1 havo not been able to keep track of what has been going on there, but it looks to mo a3 if tho dky of reconstruction of political lines had about come. What a tremendous fight ib is wo-have entered upon with all the ijforces of Conservatism and of Socialism against us. Bub I have a perfect confidence in tho result, whether thab come quicker or slower. I think my trip has been really useful. I wish L could go through tho country speaking to tho pooplo, without admission. I don't like lecturing, and havo never rogularly engagod to do it; but it is tho only way in which I can make such a trip. In Now South Wales, South Australia and Queensland, circumstances favour us, and I look for a step in advance in each of theso colonies. In Victoria I think somo opposition to protection has been aroused which will take form and excite discussion." Mr Henry George also expresses a wish that Sir George may leavo behind him somo record of his life, so interesting and so instructive thab ib ought nob bo bo lost to the world. He says :"I am sorry that I could nob have made my trip through theso colonies more one of observation than of speaking. There is much in their institutions thab interests, and much that to a a certain extent perplexos me, tlieii" centralisation, their prone'ness to State administration and their fixed Civil Service. It is hard to form an opinion by inquiry of men who are used to one sot of institutions and havo hardly thought of any other. But, it seem 3to mo that tho people aro remarkably well satisfied with tho structure and workings of their Governments. The permanent Civil Service seems to have undoubted good features, bub as to" how far tho tendency i 3 to harden into a' bureaucracy I cannob clearly toll. I henrd Sir Henry Parkes's speech- en "Federation," bub it seemed to me that what ho had in his mind was rather tho formation of one -big colony than true federation, and, so far as I can observe, there ia no strong doEire for it among tho people, though there may bo onough acquiescence to bring ib about. There is bo much, however, that I would like to talk over with you, bub I musb stop my pen. I look forward to the letter from you and hope that though both of us are too much pressed for much correspondence I shall have tho pleasure of hearing from you again. * — Yours sincerely, Hknkv George.