NEW YORK. An Eminont Englishman's Impressions.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 130, 26 February 1887, Page 2

NEW YORK. An Eminont Englishman's Impressions.

New York has nothing which can oe compared with the squares and park? of London. In this regard time gives u° an advantage. The hading thoroughfares are lined « ith buildings often of noble proportions. From an architectural point of view, all of the effects are completely destroyed by the telegraph and telephone companies. Huge posts of fir are planted on both aides of the groatthoroughfarea carryinghundreJe of wire a , which interlace at every crossing Itis aminstrousabuse to permit thepeapphances of civilisation to be carried abo^e ground. Subway? should bo formed for the purpose. In a city scarcely inferior in population to London, facility of locomotion i 3 of primary importance. In Ne>v York it is rendered easy by tramways and railways. Thq latter ara carried overhead. It is a far cheaper plan than the tunneling adopted for our metropolitan linpe, and where the overhead pystem is confined to streets of ample width and without pretensions to architectural beauty there are few objections even from the aesthetic standpoint. In the social condition of New York the various nationalities of its in habitants arc a striking feature. As an illustration lin »y mention thab in the course of a short even ing walk around Washington Square I stopped outside the open windows of a house filled with a large assembly engaged in lively discussion. The speeches were being delivered in Italian. In the lar^e assemblage outside the majority were speaking French, and every cafe" in the square and adjacent streets was kept by a German New York ie the third largest German city in the world. On the day after my arrival a procession of 40,000 persons, organised by the Knights of Labour, defiled before the Brevoort Hotel, at which I was staying. Each of the aapoc'atiorv was headed by a band. There were carriages and mounted men at intervals. The several trades carried their distinctive banners, and many ultra-Socialistic devices were displayed, denunciations of capital and exhortations to vote for Henry George a? the next Mayor of New York being frequent. In America the relations between labour and capital will call for discretion and self-denial not le^s than in the countries of the Old World. * * * Crossing by the steam ferry to Jersey City, a short journey by train brought us to our destination. After a drive for a couple of miles along a flat road we reached the foot ot a eteep hill. We climbed ib on foot, and on reaching the summit found ourselves on the edge of an elevated plateau commanding a glorious view. At our feet was a level plain, in which cheerful dwelling* and thriving villages, cultivated fields, and dense masses of rich green trees wore delightfully intermingled. In the middle distance was the noble stream of the Hudson, and beyond it New York. Who can look down without emotion, from a peaceful and solitary spot, on a vast city ? How many a struggling emigrant has trod the etreetß of Now York for the first time, looking out upon the future with fear and trembling ! And how many a gallant spirit owes to the cordial welcome which America has given him the means of gaining an honest livelihood, for which be had found no opportunity in the crowded cities of the Old World !