A ROUND-THE-WORLD TOUR.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4208, 17 November 1900, Page 7

A ROUND-THE-WORLD TOUR.

IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA. After a tour round tho world which occupied about six months, air Thomas Dwnn, senr., has returned to Wellington. When interviewed yesterday he gave a. ‘‘Times’’ reporter some particulars of what he saw during his journeying*. Mr Diuin made his way to London byway of Samoa, Hawaii and North America, and he came back to New Zealand via the Suez Canal and Australia. He is 'veil acquainted with the United States and Canada, and the observations which he made there, and at Apia and Honolulu, which he Sad previously visited, had the advantage of being in the nature of comparisons, and therefore of more value in some respects than first impressions. Apia.” said Mr Dwan, beginning at the beginning, ‘’seemed to have gone back since my previous visit to the town. The Samoan professes not to like his new German master. He says ‘Give me Englishman ; give mo American.’ What of the future H Well, rest assured that if the, SpreckcK American mail contract includes Pago Pago, then goodbye to Apia. The Germans will, in that er.se, have to put on mail steamers of their own. Pago Pago, Tutuila Island, is Ihe best harbour in the South Seas, and the island belongs to the United States.

‘■i had been in Honolulu about six times before. On my former visits Hawaii was a kingdom. I know the progress that it made then, and 1 must

say that since it became an American possession it lias gone along with rapid strides.. The English houses are beginning to find tho value of being under the rule of the United States, and they now acknowledge themselves to he satisfied with the change. The sugarplanting monopoly is being broken up, and other branches of tropical agriculture are being developed. •‘•They had an outbreak of plague in the Asiatic quarter of Honolulu, but the Americans stamped.it out in a way that no native Government would have done. The doctors, under advisement, as they say in America., decided that the only effective remedy’ to be adopted v/.-.s that of purification by fire. They resolved to bum'down the Asiatic quarter. A nice calm time was selected, InrV the fro could; not be stopped until it had run into some stores tiic houses. Claims were put in, and after some, negotiation an amicable arrangement was come to in regard to insurance money.

“ The Americans arc trying to secure the trade of Hawaii for their own ves scls, and this caused; some little difficulties in regard to passengers. Eng lir-Ti vessels arc not alloweu to take cai go and passengers from Honolulu to San Francisco. A petition was got up in regard to this on the steamer Moana, on which I travelled. It was addressed te the Premier of New Zealand. I did not sign it, as the matter was an international one. “ On arrival at San Francisco all tee passengers had to pass before; the Health Officers. Those from New Zealand wore allowed to go ashore at cure, but- those from Sydney had to go into quarantine for three .day’s, while we did the block in Montgomery street, whereat they, swore, and not softly.

When in San Francisco I was made a life member of the -Geographical Society of California. The only other New Zealand member is our Premier. They had him clown on the register as ‘Sir’ Richard Sedclon, an error which I enabled them to correct. •‘Under the Navigation Act, which subsidises American shipping, the commerce of San Francisco is expanding at a great rate. I visited the navy yard at Mare Island, where the Oregon and other big warships were built. It is an immense establishment. ‘Tn San Francisco I remarked the development of the use of electricity, which is very noticeable everywhere in the United States. They are about to substitute electric for cable traction for trains in San Francisco. All wires except those for tha trolley ears are bein;: put underground. For this puposc square tiles ara used. iThe tiles are pierced by four -oles twojor throe inches iu diameter, and they ’’ are sunk beneath the surface of the streets just as drain-pipes would he. I found this system adopted' in other parts of the United States, and also iu London. “ Lower California had enjoyed a bounteous season. It was said to have been the greatest- season for fruit ever known there. Thousands of cars loaded with fresh and dried fruits were sent East. Some of it went- to Great Britain, where it- was landed in' ten or twelve clays. “ Crossing tire American Continent tha temperature was nearly 100 degrees right through, and on the alkali plains the mercury went up to 120 degrees in the railway cars. When 1 was in Chicago four years ago it was a city of 870,000 people. Now its population is in tho neighbourhood of will be the greatest city in America. It has got background!. It can extend fifty miles in different directions without hindrance. You don’t- see more people to the square mile, so to speak, than you saw there four years ago, but you find that the city has grown outwards in a remarkable way. “Ex-Mayor Swift waited on mo at Clifton House. He said, ‘You should come over here and live with us. Chicago will be the greatest city in the Union.’ T have no doubt,’ I said, ‘butI think I have as good a city as you have to make a little money in.’

‘'Cramp’s yard's at Philadelphia are the, biggest shipbuilding yards 1 have ever seen. While there I inspected two of the Spreckcls mail steamers, which aro going to run a fifteen-knot service for us across the Pacific. Philadelphia, which, is a most beautiful city, is a home of the electric automobile, which cannot be approached by the oil-driven vehicle of England and France. By invitation I went to the Baldwin locomotive works, from which railway engines are sent to all countries of the world, including New Zealand. Buffalo has grown tremendously since the Niagara Falls were harnessed to its machine shops. Some men talk of transmitting the power to New York. It is not likely that will bo done for some time to come, but they will get it to Rochester, at all oventy. ‘•ln Canada, in compaiiy with Alonzo William Spooner, an oil king, I visited Port Hope, near Toronto, where we wove boys together. At Pctrolia, in the oil region, there were miles of shafting in motion. In reply to inquiries, 1 learnt that the oil had ceased to flow, and now required to ho pumped, hence the shafting for the transmissiou of the iifrossavy powor. “ They wore remodelling their oleetric services in New York, as elsewhere. New York, of course, grows in greatness by virtue of the shipping which enters its harbour from every part of the world. But for its shipping, it would not be able to look at Chicago.” Whilst in the United States. Air Dwan visited some of the great battlefields. in order to view the monuments put up to the memory of the soldiers who fell in the Civil War. He did this

in accordance with a request made by the Veterans’ Association here. He also made inquiries on the subject of such monuments when in London. Mr Dwan spent a specially interesting time in Ireland, and afterwards visited the sights of London, Paris, Rouen and Naples. He has come, back in excellent health and spirit'--, and has been warmly welcomed home by his many friends.