MR. FOSTER FRASER:

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 94, 18 October 1909, Page 2

MR. FOSTER FRASER:

Mr. John Foster Fraser, the journalist and traveller, is back again in Wellington after a tour 01 the South Island. He was met on his arrival yesterday afternoon from the South by Sir Joseph and Lady Ward, members of the Navy League Executive, and the Scottish pipers. Last evening he was entertained at supper by Dr. Findlay, Attorney General. To-night he gives his first lecture m Wellington in the Town Hall on the subject of "America Up-to-Date." Ihe chief characteristic o£ Mr. Fraser has always been his capacity for assimilating, comparing, and. generalising, on whatever ..comes under his observation. As an old observer and a commentator he had a few interesting remarks for a ! Tost representative this morning. He ' noted the comparative hardiness of the I Zealander, whom ho regards as | more like an Englishman than is the,' Australian. There is very much of the ' samtj kind of pusb and perseverance and determina.tion here as at home. The con- i trast with the Australians was noted especially in the manner 91" railway servants. Here there was rnort. of the brusque independence, characteristic of the United States, than of the extreme courtesy noticeable in Australian railway officials. Naturally in oU|o Mr. Fra*«r weald b« itruck with th* SeotehnaM «f th» P«opl« and th« ru»tom*. OUgo xrt» to him raora Scotch than Scotland. Th» South Island he found in many districts not at alj unlike parts of England. With the power running to waste in water Mr. Fraser was impressed. He considers that New Zealand is splendidly equipped by nature for a great industrial oountrj. '