MR. JOHN FOSTER FRASER.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 619, 23 September 1909, Page 4

MR. JOHN FOSTER FRASER.

■'■'■•"'' >:'''■-——*-—— —- ';•'-.; ,;• -'V '■ '■ his visit' to new Zealand. ;.'.., Tho' popular traveller; author,- and-lecturer, Mr. John Foster Fraser, who is now attract-: ing crowded audiences-in- (ho Australian capitals, will,arrive in''Wellington on Wednesday nest, in company with his .manager,. Mr. Carlylo Smythe, for the purpose of giving a short .Series of lectures, in New Zealand. 'Although Mr, Fraser is visiting .the' Commonwealth of Australia and.New Zealand ostensibly. to. lecture on' his; experiences in' tho 47 countries which'ho ha.v visited, it is'known ; that ho also intends, to writo, a 'book! giving his 'impressions .'of 'the. people, ■ their politics, and their problems, much on the lines of tho two most successful of his-recent works—"America at iWork" i'and.,"Canada As, It Is." Special pains.are accordingly, being taken, to-ensure that Mr. Praser-shall see what is best worth' seeing, and to enable him, independently to collect-hi« facts 'froni authoritative, source's,'Mr. Fraser comes to New Zealand witlv tho"deliberate intention of,-:writing a' book, .about the country, and.that which.it contains. "..Mr.. Praser .is a Scot,."having been born'at Edinburgh,-, and is a son of tho Manse, but ho most often describes' himself as a Britou. It was.about ?o years'ago, according to a bright sketch of Mr; Fraser in "M.A.lV.that in the little town which George Eliot in tho "Mill on the Floss" calls St,'Oggs'(Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire), young. Fraser was sent to, report a lecture for.tho local weekly.: His ambitions were to-bo a. sailor or' an'engineerj but ho was' to bo-thwarted in his,, dmuition;' For three, years \ho mended'-'tho. fire, "held" copy while the'editor corrected.- proofs, reported' tho conviction of tramps for begging, and received 10s. a week.' Ho was then, dismissed ' either,' as he says, for incpmpelenco or for.tjiinking he was worth'ls9. Mr.-Fraser. has since risen to-bo one of tire■ highest-paid political journalists dn Europe,'. When Parliament is sitting,' to nuoto his own. words,: "I doze in the press gallery, and in my moments of,waking write nico', things, about politicians, who never, say thank you,.because the English language is imwable of expressing wliat mag-, nificent fellows they, know themselves to be. I have tried to become an JI.P. myself,. But Hu'ddersfield has declared it will have nothing to do With me.- Both -Huddersfiold and I have bee.n congratulated. Failing to break my neck in riding'round the world (ho rode. 19,237 miles in 771.days), I have given, critics tho .opportunity of placing mo on tho rack for writing books' about .Russia;'. Siberia, ■■'■ Canada, 1 - tho United States, and tho Balkans. Other crimes in th>3 direction hro to bo committed ere I die, and my end will probably be hastened by an'outraged public compelling-mo to read niy own books." >' Mr. Fraser will open his New Zealand tour at Dunediu on Saturday,'-October 2, .anil will coinmonco a short scries in Wellington on October 13. Mr. Geo. V. Allen, the'advance ngcr, arrived'in Wellington by the Mocraki yesterday, to'complete the.arrangements for tho tour. ' ■"'•'"