"Czar" Reid of Newfoundland.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 7213, 18 May 1898, Page 4

"Czar" Reid of Newfoundland.

(Sketch.). If you happen to be a rich man, a Scotchman, and have the gift of knowing a good thing when you see it (which is by no means a common - gift), there are infinite possibilities in the out-of-the-way corners of the earth. The case of Mr K. G. Reid, whom Mr Beckles Wilson a year ago christened the " Grand Duke of Newfoundland," and whom the newspapers are referring to as " Czjr Reid, is an illustration of this truth. Mr Reid, who left his native land when a mere youth to seek his fortune, found it, and at the age of between 50 and 60 retired a millionaire. The story runs that one day, while in the drawing-room of his palatial residence in Montreal, a visitor drew his attention to Newfoundland. He described it as one of the most remarkable instances of ill-luck, considering its advantages and resources, of any country on the face of the globe. Here was an island, one-sixth larger than its sister distressful country, Ireland, which from coast-line to coast-line, from whichever point one started, did not possess a single settlement, a house, a factory, a foot of railway, or even a roadway. All the population were fishermen or traffickers in fish, 3nd inhabited the towns and villages along the shore. Although it was known", on the opinion of geological and metallurgical experts, to contain coal, iron, and copper in great quantities, yet no one had taken the trouble and expense of exploiting it. There it was, as it had been for two or three hundred years, waiting for colonial public spirit or outside enterprise and capital to remove it from its abject poverty and wretchedness. Into the causes for this state of things it is not necessary here to enter, except to observe that the French Shore question and a race of narrow-minded politicians wers two of This aspect of Newfoundland impressed Mr Reid. He began to see great possibilities in this neglected colony. Soon afterwards a new Government came into power in the colony, determined to have a railway. As soon as Mr Reid heard of this, he offered to build it. They wanted a short Hue j he offered to build a one—right across the island,_iu fact. The colony had no money," and its credit was not of the best, as many of us can remember The contractor agreed to bnild the new road for 15,600 dollars per mile, and to take their bonds in payment. At last the great enterprise approached completion, and, as a railway's utility is closely connected with its owning rolling stock and being put into, running order, Mr Reid again stepped into the breach and invited a bargain for the operation of the railway. His digressions into the interior had convinced him that Newfoundland was by no means a bad country. A.s the colony again had no money, he offered to take it out in land. He figured out tie cost of opeiafclons at L 20.000 sterling annually ; so, in consideration of being given two and a half million acres of land (nearly a third of the island, by the way), he would operate the railway for ten years. The Government agreed on the spot. Indeed, it was generally understood in the colony at the time, and is m some quarters to day, that the contractor was getting the worst of the bargain. Mr Reid thus became the largest private landowner in- the world, and lost. time in discovering a pretty accurate idea, as far as a large staff of experts, who have just finished a two years' labor, could ascertain it, what was the value of his new territorial acquisition. Being by this time not only territorial magnate, but wholesale mine-owner as well, he proposed another deal with the colony. He would pay them a million dollars cash, and operate the road for fifty years, if he were granted a monopoly of railways and telegraphs and the ownership at the ex--piration of that time. This proposition, embodied in a Bill, passed the House of Assembly unanimously, and has been signed by the Governor. This completes one of the greatest deals, on a commercial footing, in history. Newfoundland becomes, henceforth, practically Reid Island. And now that this once penniless Scotch lad has got his island to play with the tenth largest island of the globe—what is he going to do with it ? One of his intimate friends answers this question — " Mr Reid is going to make Newfoundland one of the richest and most prosperous communities on the face of the world. If his health holds out—and at present ho is not v.ery robust—his energies will not be limited in any one direction. He has j'ast spent fifty thousand pounds on a stcsmer to connect his railway across the Gulf with the Canadian Pacific. He will build fast steamers to cross the Atlantic in three or four days. He buys the St. John's Dry-dock for three hundred and twenty thousand dollars. He will build palatial new hotels all over the island, seven new steamers to ply to Labrador, an electric street-railway in the capital, and probably establish a Keid University on non-sectarian lines in St. John's. He will establish immigration bureaux in all the capitals of Europe, and arrange for the sale of tourist-tickets for the finest shooting aad fishing to be had anywhere. And, above all, cod-fish will give way to copper, because it is now known, that a great portion of Mr Raid's territory contains the mostvaluable copper deposits ever discovered. In short, Klondyke is not in it with the boom which Newfoundland is now about to enjoy.