L. W. REES, THE NEW CRUSADER.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 237, 28 March 1885, Page 4

L. W. REES, THE NEW CRUSADER.

"Lajtd, Capital, astd Labor."

Mr W. L. Rees is the youngest son of Dr James Eaos, of Bristol, and wasborn ia that seven-hillod city, on the 16th December, 1836. In his childhood ho visited different parts of the .United Kingdom, having- lived near Hampton Court, in Jersey, Guernsey, Ireland, and London. In the year 1851, Mr Rees went to settle in Australia, and having resiled there up to 1857, was selected in that year as one of the Victorian team in tho match against New South Wales. He also formed one of tho Victorian team in the subsequent matches in 18oS and 1866. Having a taste for muscular Christianity, Mr Rees entered the Congregational Ministry in 1861, but not being satisfied with the laurels already gained in the cricket field and the pulpit, he studied fcr the law, and was called to the Australian bar in 1865. In the following year he came to Few Zealand and settled upon the West Coast He removed to Auckland in 1869, and was elected a member of the Provincial Council, wherp his oratorical talents, and his clear, incisive, argumentive style, soon secured him a pi-ominent position. In 1874-75 he acted as Provincial solicitor, and in 1876 he was elected a member of the General Assembly. In that capacity he took a very prominent part in all tho great debates on leading questions, his legal knowledge, energy, and pluck rendering him a formidable opponent in party warfare. He was intimately associated with Sir George Grey for several years, to whom he remained consistently loyal, and whom he aided in carrying out many important reforms, notably liberalising the franchise, and remedying abusesin the Native Land Laws. Since 18*77 he has worked in the same direction out of Parliament, and from his experience of the incessant strife connected with attempts to establish a satisfactory system of administering the vast areas of unused native lands, he ! now desires that they should be dealt with on the co-operative principle ; that they should be made available to and utilised by the idle multitudes of Great Britain, as .well as the unemployed in New Zealand. To this end he has started what may perhaps appropriately be termed "The New Crusade," and his recent lecture on " Land, Capital, and Labour" was intended as the first gun opening the campaign in Auckland.

[We had intended to insert a portrait of Mr Rees to accompany this, but were disappointed owing to an accident that occurred to the engraving at the last moment, when there was no time to remedy it.]

On Wednesday, the Ist of April, that popular knight of the hammar, Mr R. C. Greenwood, will hold his last grand land sale at the Theatre Royal, where anyone will be able to obtain a farehold for £10 in that delightful suburb, Ellerslie, as this will positively be the last chance for anyone to purchase eligible villa sites. A large attendance is expected. Salvatiox— That's' the word. Salvation from paying extortionate prices for the articles you consume. This can be found by every working man in Auckland who reads his newspaper, which tells him that by taking your ready-money to Eaton's Co operative Store, Hobson-street, where the profits made by middle men are never charged in the prices of the goods sold. Eaton is his own middle man — the middle man between the producer and the consumer. This is why he can sell so cheaply. Go to Eaton's, therefore, with your ready-money, and save enough to invest in the new Building Society, by means of which you can get your own houses and save the necessity of paying rent.