MR W. COURTNEY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 9966, 30 March 1894, Page 2

MR W. COURTNEY.

Mr Courtney has juht returned from Scotland, says a London correspondent writing on February 'Jth, where ho has been ever since Christmas, lecturing in the principal cities and county centres Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen &g. These lectures are free, but a " silver collection " is usually taken towards paying the cost/of the rent, gas, limelight, &c. As Mr Courtney progressed North he found that though the audiences were large tho collections waxed small, in Dundee particularly the usual reqaest for silver was ignored, pennies .md half-pennies taking the place of sixpences. At Aberdeen Mr Courtney resolved to try and prevent a recurrence of this catastrophe. He, therefore, said he hoped he should not have to write to New Zealand of Aberdeen as he had had to of Dundee, that their silver coins were large and flat and brown. This slender pleasantry following on an interesting discourse, proved completely successful. The Aberdonian pride had been touched, and the collection was one of the largest ever taken in that particular part, jlr Courtney will now lecture for a month in the suburbs and the Home counties, returning to Scotland for another tour before quitting the country finally on June 28. Mi* Courtney declares this is his very last settlerhunting expedition, but — as the sceptic in " A Pair of Spectacles" says — "I've heard that tale before,' 1 and hope it may not be truer now than it was on the Taranaki agent's visit a year or two ago. Really Mr Courtney is now in the prime of his usefulness as an emigration agent. People know him to have been tried and proved, and are anxious to go out under his wing. His party of June 28th will be the largest he has yet engineered, and many start before then. Seven, in fact, went by the New Zealand Shipping Company's boat yesterday. It would pay your Government well to keep Mr , Courtney going regularly at this side picking up eligible emigrants and lecturing.