GENERAL BOOTH.

Evening Star, Issue 9834, 24 October 1895, Page 3

GENERAL BOOTH.

TO THE EDITOB. Sir, —The head of the Salvation Army says that he has recoived £112,000 for the purpose of starting an over-sea colony, and has a deficit of £60,000. He did not explain the matter fully, and perhaps one of his local staff may do so. It seems thut his former Bupporters in the Home countries and in America decline to give him extra capital for his over-sea schema. This should cause no surprise, as, with all his experience and capital, he has not even taken a site for a colony. And yet the bulk of his ventures in England are said to be self-supporting, while his properties there would command an enormous figure.—l am, etc., John* Bull, .iux. Dunedin, October 21.

[Major BirkeDshaw informs us (and Adjutant James, editor of the ' War Cry,' confirms his statements) that the General, at the inception of his scheme, asked the British public for a sum of £11)0,000 and a further contribution of £30,000 per annum. In answer to this appeal a sum of £112.000 was forthcoming, and during the five years that have since elapsed £68,000 has been contributed, as against the £150,000 asked for. Of this total a sum of £26,000 was reserved for the purchase of land required for an over-sea colony. More than £112",000 has been spent in the purchase and fitting up of properties which are used as shelters, workshops,etc.,including theHadleighFarm colony in Essex, which alone cost over £50,000. The total expenditure on the scheme has reached, as stated by General Booth, £230,000, and towards this amount only £170,000 has been contributed by the public, leaving the Army social wing in debt £60,000, this sum being largely covered by mortgages. Moat of the institutions started are in a fair way of becoming self-supporting, but the only one at present on a payable basis is the Blackfriars shelter, out of which a very small profit is made. The scheme is not yet in thorough operation, but had the General received the £30,000 per annum he originally asked for, he is still of opinion that he would have been able to carry out the whole of his plans. The £26,000 reserved is still regarded a3 a charge on the Army funds, and as soon as a aite has been decided upon the General is prepared to expend it, with any further amounts that may be necessary. At his Wellington meeting the General distinctly stated that he had no intention of asking the people in this colony for a single farthing for the Army's work in England, but merely wished to enlist their sympathy in the social work carried on in the colonies.—Ed. ES.]