MR. W. L. REES IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9189, 19 October 1888, Page 6

MR. W. L. REES IN ENGLAND.

As much general interest attaches to the colonisation movement on which Mr. Bees is engaged in England, we publish, by permission, the following extract from a private letter received from that gentleman by last mail, giving an account of the initial steps which he has taken in connection with the object. The letter is dated from London, the sth of September. Beginning with San Francisco.he writes - > • I saw Craighton, who was much pleased with my ideas on the labour question and at my attempt to redress the ! grievances of Malietoa and Samoa. We found San Francisco a city wholly given to idolatry, under; its other name, covetousness, v everything . being-overlaid; by and founded upon the \ almighty dollar" // Even on Sunday evening i the churches were empty, and the theatres') full. We stayed a day at Salt Lake City/ 1 as I J wished to inquire into % the [ economic' i aspect of Mormondom. In this respect the : " settlement Jat Utah has > been ! eminently; > \ satisfactory. '; Co-operation has been carried? j further '-" there -than in any other», place /L -: know of in the world. ; Its results are very: 1 great. '■ , ;.- j ' - Crossing the Rocky Mountains we were astonished and delighted at the * glory: of ; the scenery. V We stopped at Denver, a city; ' of 100,000 inhabitants, and theri pushed on' * to Chicago and New York. The country ; through which we passed is very beautiful : and fruitful, and gives a wonderful ■ idea of ; the capacity of the States for settlement. ' I went to Washington and saw the President, having a long interview with Mr. Bayard, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, on f Samoan matters. - Mr. Bayardwas very kind, but held out little.' hope of American interference, although his sympathies are with Malietoa and his people. . We crossed in the Umbria to Liverpool in six days and a few hours, landing at Liverpool on Sunday morning. Proceeding to London by train I was surprised and shocked at the spectacle of tens of thousands of acres of hay, cut and rotting upon the ? ground, while ; the' wheat, barley, and oats were in ' many I places beaten down by the violence of the storms. This summer has ; been to the ; English farmer simply one lonf tale of loss and disaster. j \ On arriving in London I was immediately invited 'by' a gentleman. J intimately ; ; connected with the Ministers and with Scottish landowners, to meet him, with a view to proposing some plan for the settlement of the .:-: Crofters 1 of ; the Western Islands. Through this gentleman' I;; entered into communication with ; the Marquis of Lothian, the Secretary for '■■-. Scotland, who was so : much pleased with the suggestions made that he intimated to me the desirabiUty of my obtaining an official introduction to him as Secretary for Scotland through; Lord Knutsford, as Secretary for the Colonies. I therefore called upon Lord Knutsford, whom I was fortunate enough to find just as he was leaving London, Parliament having risen. The Secretary for the Colonies is most pleasant, agreeable, and courteous. He asked me "many questions as to the position of my district and with me inspected the map as to the locality where I proposed to place settlers, and expressed himself as very favourable to a system cf colonisation which afforded mutual; help to; the settlers.; He then gave me a long letter of ; introduction to the Marquis of Lothian I was I again fortunate in catching Lord Lothian 1 immediately, before -he <■■ left to attend a j Cabinet meeting. ;He was prepared ior my visit," and entered with very great interest into the whole question. Lord Knutsford I; had given me an hour of his time, and the I Secretary for Scotland repeated 5 the opera-; don. ; When he ; fully understood the proposals which I intended to; make/ namely, that Government should give a 3 per cent. guarantee, he stated '."..' that Mr. Goschen objected to guaranteeing interest on loans as being a new departure in . principle, to which Lord Lothian answered that it was, no new departure, inas. ihch as the Government had guaranteed the interest - on the Indian railways. _ . .' ; The Marquis of ; Lothian,ybefore I left him, understood pretty clearly the ; general scope of my proposals, and suggested ; an opinion that if I .were successful with the Crofter settlements I oould carry the same principle into effect in reference to the overcrowded agricultural and other population, of the United Kingdom. S Since that time Lord Lothian has requested me to have all the details of my plans ready for a ' Parlia-; mentary Committee which the Government will move; for when the Houses meet in November. { The Scotoh people, however, i do : not intend <to let the matter:: slumber. Throughthe influence of some of : the Scotch.leaders; I had a long interview last ( week with Mr. Goschen's ; private ; secretary rat the Treasury, and he also expressed his concurrence with the proposals which I made; •." The interview was arranged because Mr. Miluer was going I that night to ' join Mr. Goschen in Switzerland, so that he might be able to inform the Chancellor of the Exchequer as to the general scope of j what I proposed. Mr. Goschen will return in about a fortnight, when lam to see him. In the meantime, a committee has been formed in London (outside and independent of New, Zealand people and interests altogether), I with the view of helping me in the work of cooperative colonisation. II am debarred by the strict ; rules of the Trades and Labour Congress from attending their meeting now being held at Bradford, as a delegrate from New Zealand, but I am in communication fof a friendly : character with Mr. Broadhurst, the late Under-Secre-tary of State for t Home Affairs, who is the representative working j man, and I have little doubb that I shall be able to secure the assistance ■of . the Trades and Labour Unions throughout Great Britain. ' j The Central Co-operative Board has 'invited i mei to attend ■ its meeting upon the 19th instant, with a view to ; explaining my. ideas on co-operative colonisation, and the secretary to; the Wholesale Co-operative Society, as' well as to the I Board, Mr. B. Jones,) informed me that if I did 'indeed establish a co-operative colony, he thought 1 there would be very little difficulty in opening the; i whole ■■■ of the co-operative stores as a market for our produce, besides which, if I could arrange financially for money to be obtained at short notice, that the co-operative 5 bodies - in •" Great Britain could easily support the movement to the extent of one or two millions of money; ; The English papers are very favourably inclined i towards : this : movement, and I have been interviewed by very many representatives of the leading provincial press. v\ It has been arranged that " Wi Pere and ! myself shall attend meetings to be publicly called in Edinburgh ! and other places throughout Scotland. I send you a species of prospectus or plan, which has been agreed upon between myself and gentlemen generally representing Scotland, which shows the basis on which we intend to build. - ' I have been very busy getting my book through the • press. A few days more will complete the printing. : A very long-established literary society (the Balloon '-'' Society) are taking great interest in my work. I delivered an address there a fortnight ago, -which was very well reported in ■ i some of the papers. They are now circulating invitations very , widely to a > lecture in ,*theirt hall by ■> Wi Pere on Friday next, the subject being "A Maori Message to England." The society has also been kind enough to issue 10,000 leaflets with an advertisement of my book, in connection with an advertisement of their own. .- ■■•».' <. , ■—11—raw— *—mmm —— I j I ■ ;