PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL ASSOCIATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11530, 17 March 1898, Page 3

PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL ASSOCIATION.

The usual meeting of the committee of this Association was held on Monday. Several members drew the attention of the committee to the fact that no steps had been taken to increase the accommodation in the reading-room of the Public Library, and testified to the overcrowding of the room in the evenings, and to the consequent unhealthy state of the air in the room. The following letter was received from Herr Michael i'liirscheim “ Wellington, March 11, 1898. Mias S. M. Henderson, honorary secretary Progressive Liberal Association, Dear Madam, —I thank you and your Society very much for your kind letter. I would have written sooner, but I am already hard at work for our great cause. I am happy to find that there is a body of men in this colony with whom I can so thoroughly sympathise as I do with your Society, for there is not a single point in your programme to which I cannot heartily subscribe. The immediate work before me is not directly a political one. Much can be done outside of politics, fortunately, for the political mill grinds rather slowly, anyhow for my impatience. I want to sea something done in preparation of Point 3 of the programme, which does not need the help of the Slate, which can be done even by the citizens. In a few days I shall send you my first circulars, referring to the establishment of an Exchange Bank on a co-operative basis. I hope you and friends will help me in recruiting for the new enterprise, which, I hope, will further the cause of Democracy more than anything done for years. I ask only for conditional adherences, unconditional only at the time when enough members are enrolled and the rules are satisfactory, I do not intend to travel much; I am not a good sailor. Yet I hope some day to have

the pleasure of meeting you and friends. Mr Singer joins with mo in sending our best wishes and thanks. —Fraternally yours, Michael Flukscheim.”