The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-01-16
The Far West--OregOn.

I
Editor Dundee AdUcrtiser-iSir: Per
nit me to draw your attention TO the
following letter, corrobOratiye-in faeti
more than corroborative-Of the strong
est statements made by me about Ore
gon. The letter is from Mr.. Andrew
Kidd, thoroughly practical man, wen
known I'm Dundee as a builder and ARCH
itect, and as the architect among other
buildings of the pavilion in the Baxter
Park and the Messrs. Henderson's
leather warehouse, Ladybank Works.
Mr. Kidd is a gentleman unknown to
me personally, and never exchanged a
word or line with him until wrote him
the other day asking him to read this
controversy over Oregon, and give us
his opinion, did not care on what side.
/ did not know his address, and had to
find it through friend, but knew he
had been in Oregon, and was in the
country when | was there, and during
the rainfall of forty days.
must ask you to insert his letter uer-
bGtinl, In justice to myself and to my
veracity as correspondent, which had
thought was rather rudely impeaehed;
and would have thought so still were it
not that Mr.. Reid is gentleman inca
pable of willingly wOunding anyone,
and, besides, showed to me personally,
while recently examining the Polaris'
crew in Dundee in behalf of the New
York Herald, an amount of personal
courtesy and kindness for which / feel
at this moment too much his debtor to
permit me saying q single harsh word
by way of rejoinder in this Oregon con-
/ troversy. In justice to Mr.. Kidd, who
writes strongly, let me say that he does
not write whit stronger than letters
which appear in American newspapers,
and that it is because 1 feel hopeful for
\ the future OF Oregon and Washington
/ Territory that / have not "come down
on the country much stronger, and been
still within the mark.n / have the
I greatest faith in the ultimate future of
the Pacific Slope. But the perspective
of the future is the perspective of centu-
ries and not of few years. | am, &c,
w. M'GAvIN GREIG.
LONDON, October %, 1873.
MR.. KIDD To MR.. GREIG.
Dear Sir have received your letter
of the Goth curt, also paper containing
your sketch of Oregon, etc. In reply, /
have to say that have read your sketch,
carefully noted Mr.. Reids weather sta
| tistics, also your letter of Wednesday in
the Dundee AdUertiser.
/ happened to be i'm Portland, Oregon,
all the winter of lS71-2, and can affirm
! that it rained fOrty-five days in success
sion; it did not only rain, il fairly
/ poured; many time l felt alarmed; it
was terrible. 1 often spoke of it to the
/ "Web-feet," who were not in the least
put about, as it was just what they
were accustomed to, and consequently
/ thought little or nothing about it las a
matter of cOurse). Another thing OBJ
/ served, that all outdoor work was sus-
/ pended both in town aud in the country
| from the last of November until the
| first of May-I mean building opera
tions and agricultural work-and the
roads were almost impossible.
I L can endorse all your statements re-
garding the weather. in fact, your de-
scription is drawn rather fine. / could
have wished you had come down on the
country much stronger; and you would
I have still been within the mark.
Mr.. Reids weather table does look
very fair; it Is, however, contrary to my
I experience II had two winters in the
country. 1t evidently got up for selfish
/ purposes-I regard it as manufacture.
! The people of Dundee or elsewhere
would require TO accept these weather
statistics with great caution. When in
| Oregon L saw great many statistics
about crops and other things besides
/ the weather, and they would not bear
I scrutiny. They have trick of exagger-
ating everything in praise of their cOun-
/ try.
/ like your sketch Of the Pacific Slope
very much. am, sir, yours respect.
/ fully, ANDw. KIDD.
PETERHEAD, October "a, 1873.