"Czar" Reid of Newfound land

Thames Advertiser, Volume XXIX, Issue 9060, 8 June 1898, Page 3

"Czar" Reid of Newfound land

■ —_+ If you happen to be a rich mar, ;. ■Scotchman, and, have the gift of know, ing a good thing when you see it (which is by no means a common gift), there are infinite possibilities in the out 0 the way corners of the earth. The case of Mr R. G. Reid, whom Mr Beckles Wilson a year ago christened the Grand Duke of Newfoundland, and whom the newspapers are referring to as Czar 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 diawingroom. of his palatial residence in Mon treal, a visitor drew his attention to Newfoundland, He described it as one of the most remarkable instances of illluck, considering its advantages and resources, of any country on the face of the globe Here was an island, onesixth 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 rail-

way, or even a roadway. All the population were fisherman or traffickers in fish, and inhabited the towns ami 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 wrechedness. 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 were two of them.

'This H-pectof Newfoundland im pressed Mr Reid. He bogan to see great possibilities in this neglected colony. Soon afterwards a neVGovernment 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 line; he offered to. build along one—riijlit across the island, in fact. ' The colony had no money,' and its credit was not of the best, as many of us can remom ber. The contractor agreed to build the new road for 15,600 dollars per mile, and to take their bonds in payment.

Al 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 bargaiu for the operation of the. railway. His digressions into the interior' had convinced him that Newfoundland

was by no means a bad country. As the colony again had no money, he offered to tat eit out in land. He figured out the cost of operations at £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 in some quarters to-day that the contractor was getting the worst of the bargain, Mr Keid thus became the largest private landowner in the world, and lost little time in discovering a pretty accurate idea, as far a large staff of experts, who have, just finished a two years'labour 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 expiration 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 is he going to do with it ? One of his intimate friends answers j this question :—•' ,; " Mr Held is going to make New-1 fouudlaud one of the richest and most prosperous comuiuuities ou the face of the earth. If his health hold out— and at present he 13 not very robust— his energies will not be limited in any one direction. He has just spent fifty thousand pouuds ou a steamer to connect his railway across the Gulf with (he Camdian Pacific. He will build fast s.earners to cross the Atlantic in thr e or tour days He bays the St. John's Dry-dock for three hundred -\nd twenty thousand dollars, fie will build palatial pew hotels all over the island, seven new steamers to ply to Jjabrador, an electric street railway in tjie capital, and pro* bably establish a Reid University on noiwreptar-ia-n lines in St, John's. He will establish immigration bureaux in fill the capitals of Europe, and WWijje for the snip of tourist-tickets for the finest shooting and Ashing to be bad anywhoro. And, abovo all cod fish will give away to copper, because it is now known that a great portion of Mr field's territory contains the most valuable copper deposits ever discovered. In short, Klondyke is not in it with thp boom which Newfoundland }8 now about to enjoy.

At the Police Court yesterday,-before Mr Bush, S.M., a first offender, okrgtd with drunkenness, was convioted, cautioned, and dwbws«4