GENERAL BOOTH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12859, 6 May 1905, Page 6

GENERAL BOOTH.

ARRIVAL IN AUCKLAND. AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW. THE GENERAL'S EMIGRATION i SCHEME. Gexe»al Booth, the founder and the official head of the Salvation Army, accompanied by his chief secretaiy (Commissioner Nieol), arrived in Auckland from New Plymouth yesterday morning. On the arrival of the s.s. Takapuna at Onehunga, the General was met by Brigadier Cain, Major Twyfoixl, and about 150 members of the- Army, and others, headed by the Newton Army Band. On stepping on to the wharf the General and the Commissioner were warmly welcomed, and after a series of introductions were taken to a private carriage and driven to the, Salvation Army's Officers' Home, at Parnell. THE GENERAL AND THE PRESS. A representative of the Hkbald asked permission to accompany the party in the carriage, and ta interview the General on tin way lo the city, but was told that' he, could not be seen till later on in the day. However, by the courtesy of Commissioner Nieol, the reporter was later on introduced to the venerable leader. The General shook hands in a most cordial manner, remarking as he did so, And so you are the enterprising journalist who wanted to accompany me. in my carriage, eh! Well, yoiu enterprise has only been exceeded once .0 my knowledge, and that was when a New York reporter did not ask, but opened the door of the carriage and got in, 1 only hope you newspaper men are as anxious to get to heaven as you are to get. news." "We are necessary evils," remarked the pressman. "Oh, 1 won't- say that. Some of you are not bad sorts. There's Nieol there, he was a newspapoi man at one time, and does a little now, and I tell you I've hopes for him."

" It is very good Oi you to talk to me after such a tiring journey/' remarked the reporter. " Now, now, I don't want compliments," said the General. At least not from the press. I always look upon the newspapers as having a duty to do, and ] help them to do it without any need of thanks from them. iiut as you say, I am tired. I came through from Wellington in New Plymouth yesterday, find at no less than seven places I was met by the Mayor and councillors and a largr gathering of people, arid welcomed on my visit. Mothers brought children for me to bless, and newspaper men were there to take down all 1 said." A STRIKING PERSONALITY. General Booth is 76 years ot age. He has been actively engaged in Christian. propaganda work since In* was 15 years of age. Vet it will be seen that after 60 years of strenuous labour, his intellect is as quick and his mental perception as vigorous as ever it was. He certainly looks older and gniyei than on his previous visit to New Zealand, but his walk is firm, if measured, and thougn his shoul ders are somewhat round, his body is reinaikably straight for a toiler of so many years. The General's personality is truly ieffected in the Army wherever you meet it. Quick-witted, food tempered, keen-

eyed, quick to take a joke, and smart at , repartee aie some of the features of the t character that strike you at once as being i closely associated with the wonderful organising power of the man. OBJECT OF THE VISIT. •'What is Hie object of your visit?" I queried the reporter, as an opening ques- i tion. "I came out here to see the Army . methods of working, and to ascertain • ! whether their work is going on along the : lines originally laid clown, or if they have | improved or those methods. So far I ! call say thai in New Zealand I have found j things very satisfactory all the way up I from the Bluff', and that the work is both I vigorous and progressive. J also wished | to see my old friends, and to have a j general look around in the. interests of Army work. The people of New .Zealand j have given me a must cordial reception, from the Governor and Premier right j down, and the pleasure of my. visit has j been everywhere increased. 1 might say i that Lord Plunkefc volunteered to contri- | bute £25 a year during his term of office to local Army work, and the encourage- i meat our methods ate receiving eveiywhere is in every way satisfactory.'' THE EMIGRATION SCHEME. "Are you likely to extend your scheme of emigration to Ne*». Zealand, and Australia''' 1 the. General was asked. '•Well," lie replied, "as to Australia, I cannot answer you yet; I have not commenced my campaign there. But in New Zealand they do not understand the value of men"and women. I can accomplish my purpose. 1 feel sure, with countries where emigration is better desired. 1 have made inquiries here, and have been told I hut the population is increasing at a norma) rat*, and as far a;, 1 can see the people are quite satisfied. Now, in the Argentine and Canada it i-> altogether different; there men and women are wanted. I do not want to send people where they are not wanted, and so 1 arrange to send them to Canada and the Argentine, There are tiany reasons why 1 would prefer to keep them under the British Hag, but if that can't always be done, then 1 must send them to the next best place. 1 do not intend to send out people indiscriminately, but when the. Government co-operate with the Army plan* we send the right people to the right places. I have just sent a shipment of 1000 people to Canada. and I guarantee that not 10 of them will turn out failures. 1 am not in despair now, for there are promising signs that the report of Mr. Rider Haggard will be adopted by the British Government. What I want the British Government to do is to expend a sum of two million pounds, and to put the services of a troopship at the disposal of the Immigration Department, when we would soou supply the countries that want population with the people they wish to [ have. I WHAT THE SCHEME ALMS AT.

"My emigration schema," the General went on to sity, "is not a mere Hooding ot count ries with 'pauper immigrant:. Our idea I i- that the Government co-operate with us j in providing land for settlement, and money to assist the settlers, and that the. new ! arrivals be compelled to pay for these advantages on a regulated Male. I do not propose that they receive all the blessings j of their more fortunate brethren without limit, but that they 'be helped to obtain a i better position in the world, and that they, I pav back the cost of iheu uplifting. If such I a scheme was inaugurated, successful immigration would go on without limitation. i In many districts in England the people are •I shy at, immigration. They have no money ! and very low wages, and consequently a miserable existence; but, a* they are . guaranteed no better tit present if they go ■ to distant lands, they hesitate to leave their ' homes. In the rural districts of England ' there are thousands of good, ablo, honest men and women, who would 'be valuable i citizens in any country, desiring to better t themselves, and these can be got if the Governments will only co-operate with, us. ; It. is not the overflow from the slums of i London that' 1 desire to send, though there are many able-bodied men and women to be found there, 'but the better built youth and maidens from the provincial district*."

i THE KING AND THE GENERAL. j " Sometime ago you had an audience with the KiugV , , •• Yes. and I found His Majesty deeply j interested in my work. When 1 obeyed the command to visit the King, His Majesty met me with open door, shook hands, gave me a seat,, and just talked as man to man. Both the King and the Queen are deeply interested in Army work, and Hei Majesty proved from what-she said that she had an

intimate acquaintance with our methods. She told me that our work was a noble one, and thai she wished it success and permanence. Nothing could exceed the good feeling that exists between the King and the Salvation Army. I value that audience very much, and hope to see. the King and Queen again very soon. While 1 was in Wellington," the General remarked, in conclusion, " I received a cablegram asking me if 1 would consent to become a vice-president of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and, needless to say, 1 cabled an answer that I agreed." ADDRESS BY THE GENERAL. THE WORK OF THE SALVATION ARMY. General Booth addressed a meeting in the Baptist Tabernacle lust evening. The building was crewded to the doors, hundreds bein"' unabls to gain admission. The Hon. E. Mitchekon (ex-Mayor of Auckland) presided, unci on the, platform were the Mayor (Mr. Arthur M. Myers), Mi. F. E. Baume. M.H.R., Mr. S. McCarthy, S.M., Mr. J. Fundi (Mayor of Grey Lynn), and several o'".ers of the Salvation Army, including Commissioner McKie, Lieut.' Oilmour, Lieut.-Colonel Kyle. Brigadier Cain, Majoi Iwyford, Major Albiston (Wellington), and Ensign Rainier, and a larg* number of ministers and private citizens. Around the front of the gallery was displayed the following welcome: — "The New 'Zealand forces unite in praying God's blessing on your tour. We extend a loving welcome to our beloved General.'' Scattered throughout the hall were the uniforms of a large number of soldiers attached to the city and the country corps. When the General stepped on to the platform he Mas received with volleys of cheers, which continued till he was forced to wave his hands for silence. Commissioner McKie opened the meeting with hymn 106, after Inch Commissioner JCiccol offered• prayer. The chairman then asked the Mayor of Auckland to welcome General Booth to Auckland. Mr. Myers, who was received with applause, said that it was with very great pleasure he, on behalf of the citizens of Auckland, extended a warm welcome to General Booth. The work he had accomplished by his powerful organisation, the Salvation Army, was sufficiently familiar to them all, and it was a pleasure to him to welcome its founder, whom the King had been pleased to recognise as a general, to this fair city. (Applause.) THE GENERAL'S ADDRESS. On rising to speak the General was received with the wildest enthusiasm. Cheer after cheer rang through the building. He said that although they had been told that the Army had been going about its work for 39 years, there was still a great deal of misapprehension and prejudice as to it« methods. Some time ago he had been told that' a high official in England had asked a clergyman to give his candid opinion of ttje Army. " Well.'' said the clergyman, "to tell you the truth. I don't" like it. But to toll you another truth. 1 think that, if 1 don't like it, God does." These prejudices were not only confined to people in high places, and to people of wealth, they were also common among the people for whom the Army toiled. Why, only a. few weeks before he left Engi land he had been told that a policeman dis- ; covered a drunken woman in me of the back | streets. The night was cold, and she had j been convicted time and time again. So the I policeman, seeing the state she was in, said Ito her: "Where would you rather go? To

the lockup or the Salvation Army:' The old inebriate gurgled out: " The Salvation Army." To the shelter the policeman took her. She was washed, and put to 'bed, and slept on till the next morning. When she, awoke sb»: asked where she was. "You are with us.' said the matron. "And who i.« us?'' said the old woman. " Why. the Army, of course,' was the answer. "Oh, am 1 : then let me get out of this as quick as 1 can. or I'll lose my reputation." (Laughter.) These weir- two examples of the prejudice that was brought against their methods, of working. But, thank God, there »'» another side. The last time he was in America a man had said to him : "I don't know much about religion : I am too busy to bother much about creeds and doctrines, but when I turn religious I'll take the religion nt the Salvation Army!" And, continued the General, be hoped that that opinion was not confined to America, but that- there also was a share of that feeling in New Zealand. (Cheers.) They did not want to go tlieepstealiiitr into other folds; they sought to gives a religion to those who had none, but when they stole a sheep he hoped it, was a good one. and that it was returned tenfold. (Cheers.) Bit what was the Army? He had often been asked this question." It was a. combination of men and' women, God-fearing men and women, banded together to uplift those who needed tiplifting, and helping those wno needed help, Pleaching the love of .Jesus Christ to all men. How did the Aimy come about? In the first place, it was not manufactured, nor was it made to order. It was a growth, an evolution. Some said that it was formed no that General Booth and some of his followers could obtain notoriety, and get their names into the newspapers, or themselves into gaol. But it was nothing of the kind. It was the result of a desire to reach the. masses, to reach those unfortunate men and women who were at the bottom of society— the lowest in happiness, in health, in morality, and in religion. Sometimes it readied the rich, .'but not often; more often it reached their pockets, and thank God that it did, (Atmlausc.) But even if it did not reach the rich themselves, it often reached their children, and saved them front a drunkard's grave, or a convict's cell. The world was their field; they were fishers of j men in the true seme of the word. They had a bit' fish-pond to work, and sometimes hooked peculiar catches. More often it was jut oidinary tish. but now and then up ame a whale, and even a shark. (Laughter). In this field In- Army preached religion. That wi. its mission. It taught people to be honest and tine, and that if ihev were not so they would go to the devil. He did not know what everybody thought of that idea of religion, but he himself thought it was a very good religion. 'I he Army was labouring tor the drunken, the dissolute, and for those who had become the despair of the whole world. It was: a thin line that divided virtue from vice, and it was a line that was easily crossed; their work was D retrieve failures. It was the old religion of belief in God, of love fin Christ, and of doing good, and he knew of no better religion than that. WIIAI Till: ARMY IS DOING. The Aimy Hag was. the sneaker said, now living in 49 different countries, and had its soldiers working in every country ill Europe, except Russia, where they had '■ been unable to get. in. But, added the General, they would get in some day, even if they had' i. fly in. He had preached | from a wheelbarrow a 'bus. a cab, a train. and even a motor tar. and he niigh' preach in Russia yet from a- flying-machine, and when he did it would not only be to the people, but to the rulers as well. The Army preached in 32 languages, and had officers who .spoke two, three, and four, and vet thev were termed an illiterate sect They had 7500 societies. B'OO officers, who were 'Again supported by 50 000 lay officers, ! who earn their living by the sweat of the brow ; there are 27 War Or"* printed in 17 different languages, and circulating one million copies a week. They fed something like 200,000 men, women, and children every week, and sheltered 20 000 homeless men and women every night. Why, he read yi the papers' about the British Government being turned out-. What if they were turned out'.' Right close to Parliament House the Army had A shelter, and Mr. Balfour or Mr. Chamberlain count! come along there, and always be welcome to a bed. (Laughter.) The Army hud 125 rescue homes, 650 reformatories, 19 fat in colonies, while last year they helped 2000 eases by the Prison | Gate Brigade, and put them on their way ito earn an honest living. He would api peal to the audience to help this work. J (Applause.) | After the collection had been taken, Mr. I V. li. Baume, M.H.R.. moved a vote of i thanks to the General, far his able speech, I which was carried by exclamation. The j General briefly replied, and the meeting I closed with the singing of the Doxology.