OUR LONDON LETTER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8870, 2 November 1907, Page 3

OUR LONDON LETTER.

From Our Owh Correspondent; LONDQJSti-'September 20. ~. The Rev. Mr'thohison, of Dunedin, left for last Saturday. ; He has been over here studying the conditions and problems of the liquor traffic, and his present journey is to continue them over there. While over here he has visited some of the leading cities, and circularised the may«» of many more. The general the replies he has received is ' altogether in favour of insisting upon a higher standard of character in the licenses of public houses. Of all the mayors circularised only one was in favour of total prohibition as a | remedy for the existing evils. He interviewed many of the leading men in the liquor trade and gathered that they, too, would welcome any steps 1 that would secure a good class of i licensees. Mr Thomson has extended ( his investigations to the British ( and thinks that, with the ex- i ception of a few very expensive < hotels, which are quite in a class by themselves, they cannot compare in comfort and convenience with the hotels of New Zealand. A traveller I staying in an average British hotel gets less comfort, and pays a great 1 deal more for it, he would in 1 New Zealand. During his trans-At-lantic trip, Mr Thomson will visit - Maine, one of the prohibition States, and will study for himself the effect .. of prohibition laws upon the liquor question, and the "morale" of the people. The Hon. W. Hall-Jones, who has been.renewing old acquaintances and I revisiting old scenes in his native town, Folkstone, has greatly im- r proved in health since his visit to the • sea-side. Messrs W. J. Jones and F. Jones, of the Oamaru Mail literary staff, who have been spending some time in Scotland, left on Thursday for Paris. As mentioned in a former letter, this is the beginning of their •way home, which will be via Brussels, Antwerp, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, Constantinople, Venice, and the larger Italian towns. 'Thev will join the Bremen a 4; Naples. Mr G. S. W. Patterson, of Auckland, has just left London for the dominion, via Canada and the United States. He left Auckland last New Year's Day, and in the interval has been renewing acquaintance with the Far East, travelling through Japan and the interior of China to within fifty miles of the frontier of 'Tibet, and afterwards by the Trans.Siberian railway to St. Petersburg. On reaching London he crossed over to Ireland to see his relatives in county Roscommon. Of the many ' countries through which he has passed, Mr Patterson says that /Siberia impressed him most. He has been twice through Canada, and thinks it a country of wonderful possibilities, but Siberia beats it. The latter country is amazingly fertila. and is going to have a magnificent future. His trip from Vladivostock to St. Petersburg is, he says, the most interesting he has ever taken. Mr Geo. Butler, of Timaru, writes ;me from Atherstone. So far he has' •confined himself to visting the chief cities and their places of public interest, art and other galleries, cathedrals, the remains of old castles, etc., both in the north and. south., . So far. .*as appearances go, he says, England -looks lovely just now, and i 3 very 'interesting from various standpoints, ibut the unrest which is apparent in the lower order, or poorer glasses, towards those occupying higher positions is not a satisfactory feature, -and does no 1 :, in his opinion, tend to promote trust and confidence in the future. He was greatly surprised at • the order and cleanliness of our great (too great) cities. He visited Engi land nineteen years ago, having spent, twenty-three years in Canterbury before that date. He returns there on the Ist of November by the Omrah, to Sydney—thence . by the inter- • colonial steamer. Mr Arthur*McKee, of Wellington, '.left Liverpool last Friday for the dominion by the Coronia via New York. Proceeding via Canada and :Sydney, he expects to reach Wellington about the middle of November. 5 Among the arrivals in Liverpool a few days ago by the s.s. Fifeshire was Dr. T. F. Macdonald, the presit dent of the White Race League of New Zealand and Australia. He :spent a da;vat the Trade Union Congress at BeU;», and was cordially received by the leaders of the congress, .and invited to take a seat on the .platform. ' He attended the congress, not to speak himself, but to get the measure of English thought upon the questions of the day. On Friday he , crossed over to Paris to spend a fortnight with- Prince Krapoildne, the eminent social revolutionist, I who is an old friend of his. He will , shortly return with the Prince and ; Princess Krapotkine, and will then be in a position to open his campaign with a few lectures on Australian matters. Dr. Macdonald -has set himself a big task in this country. He has come to awaken the people, by means of lectures and articles, to the danger which threatens the Empire from the coloured races at Australia's door, and his main plan of campagn will be to address chambers of commerce, labour councils, and scientific bodies. Mr C. J. A. Griffin, late assistant master of the Auckland Grammar ! School, arrived by the Gothic, and is now in London. He has abandoned the profession of .teaching, and will spend the next five or six years here studying medicine. Mr J. W. Dickson, late of Auckland, expects to return to New Zealand at Christmas, where he will take up his quarters at Dunedin. He has been studying art here for some years, principally in Antwerp, Glasgow, and Paris. Mr Dickson held a position of art instructor under the Glasgow School Board, for school teachers' classes, in the Municpal School of Arts. Messrs J. F. McGrath and R. Tilbury, of Dunedin, who are just now in London, have been holiday making here during the last threemonths. The former leaves this week for home, and will spend two or three weeks on the Continent, joining one of the North German Lloyd steamers at Naples.