OUR KIN ACROSS THE SEA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7800, 20 November 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

OUR KIN ACROSS THE SEA.

[BY J. C. FIRTH.]

INTRODUCTORY,

A recent business tour through the States of California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Minn#* sota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Colorado,- Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Kansas has afforded me an opportunity of making a fuller acquaintance with our " kin across the sea in the United States, by personal contact, patient inquiry, and close investigation of their characteristics, politics, and achievements, than my previous knowledge Of America institutions, and literature of various kinds, had given me.

I may say that I entered upon this inquiry with a deep interest in the social, industrial, and political problems which our AmericM* kindred are endeavouring to solve under different conditions, and on a grander scale, than has been attempted by any nation of ancient or modern times. My interest in the solution of these great questions was none the less, inasmuch as I felt that the people of the United States . were doing, though as yet en a greater scale, very similar work to that which the Australasian Colonies, and indeed the whole English colonial world are engaged in. Though an Englishman to the core, I felt that as a Colonist I had perhaps more point ß of contact, possibly, in some respects, * deeper sympathy, with men of the saw® race, who are engaged in what has been vfell termed "the heroic work of colonisation" than with our countrymen wbe stay at homt at ease.

Thackeray, in the "Virginians," wrote many years ago, that the "foolish exactions, petty ignominies, and the habitual insolence of Englishmen towards all foreigners, all colonists, all folk who dare to think their rivers as good as English rivers; the natural spirit of men outraged by our injurious domineering spirit, set Britain and our American colonies to quarrel; k and the astonishing blunders of the system adopted in England, brought the quarrel to an issue which I, for one, am not going to deplore.' A century of misunderstanding and ill-will between England and America followed. Happily, a second century opened with a more friendly feeling between the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race. The settlement of the Alabama difficulty; the tragic death of President Garfield, calling forth as it did, an electric flash of sympathy throughout the English world, did much to make Englishmen and Americans feel, that they were once more "kin." Nevertheless, Americans complain that the demeanour, of many Englishmen passing through the United States, still betrays too much of the old insular insolence. Without being blind to their errors or follies, our American cousins have a right to expeot a more generous sympathy for their failures, and a more genial appreciation of their successes than is at all times accorded them by Englishmen. It is with something of this latter spirit, that in the following papers, I shall endeavour to pass in brief review, some of the vast and varied questions which presented themselves to me for consideration.

In dealing with these greater subjects, if I incidentally touch here and there upon smaller matters, it will be because I think that, not infrequently, trifles go far to make " the sum of human things." If now and then, I laugh at a folly, note a peculiarity, critioise a custom, or denounce an abuse, it will not be, I hope, in a censorious spirit. It may, perhaps, be asked, How can a man get a fair idea ot a great nation by traversing 8000 miles of its railways, and spending a few days here and there in some of its great oitiea? I may ask, in reply, How is the work I have set myself to do, to be done? It may be suggested that a carriage and ; a pair of fleet horses would have secured a more leisurely survey. That may be eb. But would suoh a method not have required a lifetime, with the result of a library fcf books, fall of figures, and small dry details ? And when so accomplished, would not suoh a record of a people living under high pressure, become; in this living, throbbing age, antiquated and useless ? I think so. If lam to contribute my small effort towards the general weal, 1 must use the " opportunity as it serves, or lose my ventures." In doing so, I must necessarily mike not a few mistakes. and draw some conclusions perhaps not always just. These, if such there be, will be due, not to ill-will, but to imperfect informat on.

Still, if i have conducted my enquiries regarding the politics, the enterprise, the achievements, the laws of health, the conditions of life, and the moral and sooial pulsations under which a great and kindred nation is working out its destiny—if I have done this, not in a severe, - finding spirit, bub with a generous consideration for the failures whioh, in my judgment, may have been made, and with a frank acknowledgment of the successes whioh have been achieved, I may not unreasonably hope that my delineations of " Our Kin Aoross the Sea," will be aooepted by them and others, in a spirit not very different from that in which they have been made. It is due to myself to say, that in traversing the various States of the Union I visited, I have had numberless conversations and discussions with representative men of all olasses—Governors, Senators, politicians, bankers, capitalists, physicians, lawyers, manufacturers, merchants, ranchmen, farmers, and working men of various kinds. I have, in many cases, when the more important questions were being discussed, intimated to the gentlemen taking part in the discussions, that the result of my investigation* would appear in the columns of a leading New Zealand journal. I may also state, that many of the opinions in these articles upon "Our Kin Across the Sea" are often the opinions of the various representative men who have taken part in the discussions I have conducted. The conclu* sions I have formed, though sometime* dissented from, were quite as often accepted as fair and honest. In every case 1 endeavoured to conduct my enquiries and to express my oritioiima with perfect frankness, yet, I trust, with the courtesy and consideration with which 1 was met on every hand. , In concluding this chapter, it only remains for me to say, that I venture to hope our American kinsfolk will under' stand, that the object of these papers is not to indulge in flattery or fault-finding, is not to wound the sensibilities of a great, and in many respects a noble nation, but to see, after a very humble fashion, whether the American, who is none other than a second, and in some respects, an improved edition of his English kinsman, may not afford an example, and, it may be, a warning, to his younger brethren, who, throughout theEnglish colonial world are treading in his footsteps for weal or woe. !