RETURN OF MR J. C. FIRTH. Impressions of America.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 179, 20 November 1886, Page 2

RETURN OF MR J. C. FIRTH. Impressions of America.

November 17. In the course of an interview yesterday with one of our reporters, Mr J. O» ■Filth aaid : — "I, have had a rapid, pleasant, and most interesting trip through the, Unttect ( Stateß of America, traversing nearly 20,000 milea r in ;tbe brief epace of three months, t have had; also abundant opportunities of seeing and admiring the ' grand "' achievements of the American people. They are extremely industrious and onterprising. Indeed, they are using up both their country and themselves at a rate * that could not long continue bo far as they are personally concerned were it not -.for the continuous ..stream of vigour and new life poured into " the States by. 1 the immigration from Europe. My tour lay principally among the western States, of which , I visited California, | Nevada, ,, Nebraska, Dakota, Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Kanßas. 1 inspected numerous mills 'in order to see and note the- different systems of flour-making-that were iv operation, and I was thus enabled to make myself acquainted with the latest improvements in jmy own particular branch of industry. The States I have enumerated possess very many advantages from an agricultural point of view, but they have also their drawbacks, the chief of which is their intensely severe winter, the thermometer frequently descending to 30degs. below zero. I also made particular inquiry with reapecfe to irrigation and gold saving, I made arrangements for a complete equipment o£ the latest machinery for my new mill, and I intend it to bo one of the best mills ever erected, inasmuch as it will be worked on the most approved principles, and will contain those machines which have so far been. found_ most successful, the great essentials at which I have aimed being high quality of flour, celerity of working, and great economy of production in the matter of coal, libour, etc. The mill, in fine, will be equal to a production of 1,200 tons of flour per month. It is my intention to enterlargely into the export trade to the colonies, South America, aud England, and such other fields of consumption that offer to the producer the greatest advantages. In conjunction with Mr Adams, I inspected a great many processes of quartztreating and gold-saving, and the impression produced upon my mind was that although there was something to learn and profit by, yet, hero in New Zealand wo wero not so far behind our American cousins in practical mining as is generally supposed " In talking desultorily upon things in general, Mr Firth said: "For pertinacity, impudence, and cool cheek Ido not want to see the equal of the American reporter. I was boset by this class, and they iust put in their papers w hat suited their purpose, I noticed that any remarks I made eulo* gistic of New Zealand Mere Buppre=eed, bufc that anything I had to say in praise or commendation ot America and its people waa given the utmost prominence To many New Zealand was only known as the place where Maxw- 11, the alleged murderer of Preller, was captured., and others knew of if> as the scene of volcanic eruptions that had devastated the whole country. One gentle* j man Jromarked, ' Oh, that is the bankrupt colonvj; ' but I had furnished myself with comparative statistics, and was therefore enabled to show that New Zealand, proportionately to population, stood in a better position than the Great Republic, inasmuch a« she owned her own railways, instead of boing obliged to sequestrate hundreds of millions of acres of the public eetate, and expend millions of dollars upon bonuses to encourage private enterprise in that direction."— " Star."