Scott
had arranged a drawing-room meeting for a lecture on effective voting.
A strong convert I made on that occasion was Mr. (afterwards Sr.)
Walker. A few delightful hours I spent at his charming house on the
harbour with his family, and was taken by them to see many beauty
spots. Those last delightful days in Sydney left me with pleasant
Australian memories to carry over the Pacific. When the boat sailed on
April 17, the rain came down in torrents. Some interesting missionaries
were on board. One of them, the venerable Dr. Brown, who had been for
30 years labouring in the Pacific, introduced me to Sir John Thurston.
Mr. Newell was returning to Samoa after a two years' holiday in
England. He talked much, and well about his work. He had 104 students
to whom he was returning. He explained that they became missionaries to
other more benighted and less civilized islands, where their knowledge
of the traditions and customs of South Sea Islanders made them
invaluable as propagandists. The writings of Robert Louis Stevenson,
had prepared me to find in the Samoans a handsome and stalwart race,
with many amiable traits, and I was not disappointed. The beauty of the
scenery appealed to me strongly, and I doubt whether "the light that
never was on sea or land" could have rivalled the magic charm of the
one sunrise we saw at Samoa. During the voyage I managed to get in one
lecture, and many talks on effective voting. Had I been superstitious
my arrival in San Francisco on Friday, May 12, might have boded ill for
the success of my mission, but I was no sooner ashore than my friend
Alfred Cridge took me in charge, and the first few days were a whirl of
meetings, addresses and interviews.

CHAPTER XVII.

IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA.

Alfred Cridge, who reminded me so much of my brother David that I felt
at home with him immediately, had prepared the way for my lectures on
effective voting in San Francisco. He was an even greater enthusiast
than I. "America needs the reform more than Australia," he used to say.
But if America needs effective voting to check corruption, Australia
needs it just as much to prevent the degradation of political life in
the Commonwealth and States to the level of American politics. My
lectures in San Francisco, as elsewhere in America, were well attended,
and even better received. Party politics had crushed out the best
elements of political life, and to be independent of either party gave
a candida