A HOLIDAY TOUR.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8559, 19 October 1907, Page 5

A HOLIDAY TOUR.

THROUGH ENGLAND. FRANCE AND AMERICA. SOME INTERESTING INFORMATION. Mr J. Colway, of Master ton, returned on Thursday evening, after a six months' holiday tour in England, France, and America. A Wairarapa Age reporter yesterday had an interesting chat with Mr Colway in connection with his trip. Mr Colway travelled to England via Sydney and the Suez. He journeyed through England, then crossed to Paris, and then to America, and returned home again via Vancouver and Sydney. "How did you find things in general in the Old Country, Mr Colway?" asked the reporter. "Well, to begin with," was the reply, "last summer at Home was the worst on record. According to the newspapers and public opinion, the summer had not been equalled in severity for thirty years. The weather was most unseasonable, and winter-like. . To give jou an instance, I might say that it rained in Glasgow for 28 days out of the 30 days in June. In London during the same month the minimum temperature was two degrees lower than in January (mid-winter). Naturally, this weather had had a very bad effect on the crops in the country. I travelled to the east and west of London, and along the east coast the crops in the early part of the summer gave promise of being abovo the average, but when I left, the bulk of the crops—more particularly those in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire —we're fiat on the ground, and showed little sign of maturing. On top of the persistently heavy rains, the blight broke out in the potato crops,: and in Ireland, especially, the blight was very severe on the early potatcies." ,

Asked for an opinion on rural matters in England, Mr Col way said he was handicapped in that he had not been iong enough in the country to venture a weighty opinion, and as this was his first visit he could not draw ;any comparisons. On account of thd wet season, the tour-ist traffic wets far below the average* and the thousands of people who catered for the travelling public, especially those in Ihe highlands ox Scotland, had suffered considerably. ' Canada was then : touched upon. Mr Colway said he passed through the celebrated prairies of that country, but he was not greatly impressed with i the appearance of the country. He learned that' the wheat crops were!very light, which was due to an unusually severe winter. Some farmers informed him that last winter was so severe that some of the new settlers, spending their first winter in the country, had converted their furniture into firewood, as the latter was scarce; The .cold was intense; in some parts: the thermometer dropped to 55 below zero.

The cities in Canada, continued Mr Colway, were growing at' an enormous rate, especially those in the wheat-growing! area between the : great lakes and the Rockies. Winnipeg, said Mr Colway, had a population of 100 thirty years ago, . vyhile to-day it boasted over 100.000 inhabitants. .

"No city in Canada is growing at such a rate as Vancouver," said Mr* ..Colway. "Houses are going up by the street, and by the square, finn •'' good solid buildings, too. The" of the city is now 65,000." . ""- ■ - - -- : - "You were there' at the time of the recent riots, I suppose?" "Yes, I was in Vancouver at the time, but the riots were not so bad as the reports would have us believe. The mob certainly did damage, but the 'hoodlums' were responsible" "for this, and public opinion, as far as I could gather, was antagonistic to the 'hoodlum' element. It is not so much the Japanese that the people are against, but the public feeling is opposed to the large numbers that are pouring into the country. While I was there, one vessel, the.'Empress of China,' landed 900 Japanese. As instancing how the Japanese are leaving their own country, I may say that out.of the total population of 150,000 people in Hawaii, through which 1 passed, 65,000 are Japanese and 25,000 are Chinese. Hence the feeling against J,he Asiatics." Mr Colvvay went on to state ihat the Japanese were being brought into Canada chiefly byjthe Canadian-Pacific Railway Company, and were not coming in of their own account. "On account of the large increase in the output of wheat from' Manitoba," said Mr Col way, "the CanadianPacific Railway Company were duplicating the lines for about 400 miles to meet the increased strain on the present permanent way. To carry out this work, together with other improvements, the Company say they must have cheap labour, len:e they brin* the Javanese ir.t Jth boa itry." Passing on to New York, Mr Col ■ way said the main attractions of that city, as far as he could see, were its "sky-scrapers," and the mansions of the millionaires. The Singer Sewing Machine Company had just completed a building 612 feet high, containing 42 storeys, but the Metropolitan Insurance Company were going one better and were putting up a 49 storey building, 681' feet high, in Union Square. Mr Colway crossed from Sydney to Wellington in the Wimmera. "I consider," said Mr Colway, "that the report regarding the loss of the merino flock rams and the washing of aiarge number of cases of fruit overboard was exaggerated. The fruit was carelessly slacked and lashed, and as the weather was very rough the cases shifted and fell on the sheep, which were housed underneath. The result was that the animals were killed. The fruit wa3 not washed overboard. As it could not be re-stacked, on account of the roughness of the sea, it was thrown overboard.''