MR. WILL CROOKS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 671, 23 November 1909, Page 6

MR. WILL CROOKS.

ARRIVAL IN AUCKLAND. ' AN INTERVIEW. THE BUDGET AND SOCIAL REFORM. ■ (By Telegraph.—Speol»l Correspondent.) Auckland, November 22 After a drive round Auckland and its beautiful suburbs with his wife and two representatives of the local Labour party, Mr. \\ ill Crooks, tho ( English Labour M P , who arrived here bj the Maheno from Sjdney jeotcrdaj, had a short interview with a "Herald" ropicseutativc upon curreut aliaus in the Old Country.

"What do I thiuk'of'Mr. Lloyd-George's Budget?" said: Mr. Crooks. "I. think it is tho greatest, ever- introduced, certainly the greatest Which I h'ayo ever known in my life. U eclipses ;all other's-I know of, because' it so little injustice on anyone." The 'proposal to 1 tax land is not very netf, but to propose such taxation. aud to carry it out aroitwo things; The proposals are,"l think; simple and fair. Tho big thing in the Budget is that.it provides:for additional national • and for 'social reform; Social .'..'.reform '"is. .tho thing every politician at Homo -.' ■ is; ..' talking :' about. When the Budget. lave, next year provision will.be. made; for 'tho. granting of old age';pensions to people who had previously received: charities. ■-'■■At present the. English Act provides that; only;, persons who have not re-. •ceived--help can.'draw their- pensions,: and. in this way' it' is estimated thai 1300,000; decent 'doserving old people in poor circumstances are excluded/, The ; Budget will amend";this; ■ : - ..'"Yes, the Lords may throw out the: Budget,"'" "but I don't think tfioy would 'dare,-' and the only answer that,l could suggest.being .given if:<they do is that, given by Georgo .Stephenson when someoneasked him what lie v.ould'do if a'cow 'strayed'on his railway line. It will be'awkward for the cow,' he-said."'-'.-. ■';:■'..''■?■ '-:. : ''; : :'::".. -

I , Mr' Crooks upon his nrrivnl was met s at tho i.harf bj representatives of tho Auckland Labour party, the Auckland branch of tho New Zealand SocnHsMc party, the Trades and Laibour Council, tho Waterside Workers' Union, 1 and numerous officials of trado unions i Ho was subjected to a great deal of hand-shak-ing and good-humoured barracking , A:, Civic Welcome. ' Spanking at the civic welcome accorded to him to-daj, Mr Crooks said the present trip had helped him to realise that bad as people were, an intense human feeling nnd sjmpatnj p\isti.d in the Old Countrv He know some tiling übout life from the King—and as a working man ho could saj from personal knowledge that as a man and as a lover of his pciple the world did not possess tho equal of King Edward Vll—nght down to tho other end, and what an end it was ho knew because there his lot was cast On tho one hand one saw wcal'h, intelligence, and genius, and ou the other neglect. When one saw tho continual distress of men and womon whoso bravery had never been equalled m tho annals of British history, ono was compelled to stand up and fight for it Ho believed tho foundations olj the" Empire were in tho cottages of the people. He was; told his kind had no idea of tho vastness of the Empire, that they could not think in continents. They were sometimes obliged, to think in small patches t>f cottages, and after all cottages made up the Empire Ho was told before he came that tho unity of the Empire was a mercenary one, but the trip had proved to him that our common humanity was our common brotherhood after all.