AS OTHERS SEE US.

Poverty Bay Independent, Volume I, Issue 74, 14 November 1885, Page 2

AS OTHERS SEE US.

Mr H. C. M. Matson has been giving his experience of England in a letter to the Christchurch Press. He says:—“ In regard to New Zealand, I find people generally ignorant of it. I have addressed as many as four or five meetings in a week on several occasions, and have always given my audience some account of New Zealand and its ways. But people find it difficult to credit some of the facts of colonial life. They will hardly believe that capitalists can obtain 6 or 7 per cent for their money. ‘But, ’it is asked, is the security good ? One gentleman came to me to say that he had a friend who wished to invest 1000. and thatthe banks in the Colonies had offered him 5 per cent for it; ‘but were the banks sound ?’ A lady, the wife of a church dignitary, wanted to know who was king of New Zealand ! That mutton should be 2d or 2*d a pound completely astounds people who are paying tod and is a pound and so on. As to New Zealand mutton, I learn from many sources that it is winning its way into general use ; and this reminds me of a kindred subject—wheat, I hear that one reason why the price of wheat is so low is that many shipments arrived at Home in a soft or sweating condition. The wheat was, it is said, put on board damp. It is to this fact, I am told, buyers avoid New Zealand wheat. Surely, if this be the case, the evil can be remedied.”