IN SEARCH OF HEALTH.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 183, 2 August 1913, Page 18

IN SEARCH OF HEALTH.

ACROSS CANADA. (By Rutherford Waddell, .M."A„ -DJ).)' (Specially written for '•Auckland Star") The ill luck that struck the-Maknra-at the beginning of the voyage pursued her to the end. There were head winds- all the way. We bad seven parsons on board, and of course they were held responsible for the misfortunes. But "there's luck in odd numbers," soys Ttory O'-Moro," and the oaraons must be given i the benefit of that.' Yet, notwithstanding all the bad -vcaUhcr, the ilnkuru. bohnved splendidly, and the passengers- liad the beat Of the Union Company this trip, for hardly anybody was. sick. But, none the less, nobody was sorry to torn into the magnificent harbour at whose further end is Vancouver, tho terminal port of our voyaging. Twenty-seven years ago, when 1 landed from tho Mararoa in San Francisco, Vancouver was nou est. Its file wan covered by a dense forest. To-day it has n population of over 150,000. When I was here in 1001 it was just sloughing off tho country nnd emerging into civic form. Now it has over HO miles of streets, cleared dlrf rough graded, and almost an many mile.4 of plank walks. Its public building*, wharves, warehouse-*, etc, are wonderful, coiwideriiig the ceierIly -villi which Ihey have grown. It will ultimately lie one of tins liirge/,1 cities of the Pacini! Coast, Twciily-flvnycar*! ago its Customs revenue i/ns only about .'iD.oondiil'i. To-day It is upwards of 7,000,000, Tim *DCT9t "I It* growth in the {'iiTi.'idhm Pacing Its >". JAe CIMI.' i" one of tins peat ro--mmri'.t pi railway eoitatruoUoq, When It wan llrnl. mooted llwro were tlie wool crowd of Kfibellarara, who i.tid It would not pay the cut of ulo-greaM. But it hat. It hint made the fortune* <>l many individuals, nnd luis been like n portal vein in llie Canadian progress. The Government of the day g.ivo the C.P.B. 02 millions in cash ami 2r, million ftere-t of land. Jt "van to be built in 10 yr-ars, but it was put through in half the ttao, nt n cost of over !hJO million dols, Jbe (MMI. did not '.rait for settlement, It got itself co*J.-*tr*iictod first, and then carried tlie people to if* Lands. It BU sold a great portion of its patrimony*, lint It-owns* WOM 11 millions still, though year by year they arc molting away-passing into Ihe hand*, or settlor*". Opinion-- will differ as to the wi.-dom of any Government giving away tlto patrimony of I nation th such a lavWi manner as was thus bestowed upon the CfM. But there can be no question that the railway wis the making of Canada. Win the Dominion Government came into existence, all these vast tomtom*i«rt of Ontnpio were private V*W** •Settlers were confronted with a i flag icaring the familiar inscription j****""*.vhich frontier 3 mcn irreverently Inter--rcted as "nero Before Christ. Much ,i Canada's modern history has to do Mi the I purchasing of thci-.otcrrito.ics md the carrying througli of the tfa*™ ■aihvnv enterprise necessary to reach tll d people thorn. That has been the -bus.* icss of the CP.lt., and it lias earned it Jirough with con-.pic-tou.-i raw"*-. « » vi-i not the antiquity indicated in the -opular reading of tbo H.B.C above- re"crrod to, it seems at any rote to be icquiriiigj some of tho vast powers «W io- ! ..-t--".**d ! by tho ianwui Hudson 15a? ."oinr-unyi At present it owns and operttca over 10,000 miles of roail, employs man 80,000 hands, and has a monthly lay-roll of over four million dollar.!. It vill tnka yon from oqo end of Canada to be oilier—over 3000 mile;—without onco wl-h" you to change ears. It may fairly jc BftJu. that it is tho awiftcst, longest, lafcst, «tid most picturesque journey in he world. But it is not eontcnt to wait "or traffic to come to it. It readies out j> -make It, and seek it. It haa a fleet of jver 70 steamers on the Atlantic and Pacific. : Its coastal steamers operate from Alaska 1o 'Frisco. It is exploiting the Japan and China trade with a. magnificent lino of boata. -lust liefore I left iliobland I re-ad in one of the papers a rumour that unless the Union Company ire willing, to extend tho limit of cooperation with the C.I'.K. the latter nti'dit lieoomo formidable competitors against them. The suggestion was irr.ado that a mutual arrangement may he arrived at between the tr,-o companies by which an alternative passenger service would bo run between Vancouver nnd Australasia, via J'ip-an nnd China. That would probably mean the appearance in Now Zealand waters of the splendid Urnpross lino of steamers ihat at present tho C.P.B. employ in tho Japan-China trade. Somebody says a benevolent despotism ■ the best form of government. If the EUrVB. If acquiring immense powers, it ■corns to be using iheao licueficenlly. Cbero w no belter train -service in the world, The line is the broad gauge, and Llie carriages nre counter-part.' of Iriiwing romnfl. The train run.-- so •moothiy Hint if you did not sen the mitsido" world spinning past the winlows you might nlmo-it fancy yon were lot moving. The first stage of llin journey ii-to.w fraada is tlirsugli llrilk-li Columbia. fhi/i is rt enimtry which Ihih a pre.it. attraction for mc. It is .Switzerland multiplied 20 limes. If I were ■ young nan iitarting life again, I think I would fry my fortune hero, provided that 1 find not heard of New Zealand. Its mineral productions are, wonderful, ami t ban even yet 2.10,1100,01)0 rtquaro miles of urrpronpected mining area. Thou ilfl Ishcrirr, nild forestry arc immense. Its jlimato iri good, and flu neonery Is un-iiii-jioHsed in the world, But hero you -nine. fllap bang -against thu Yellow Peril flio Cliineflo nnd Japanese aro everywhere. Hut Hast Is Kost, and nest Is West, And never the twain shall meet. 5o sings Ilndyard Kipling. If he means [.hey eliall not meet iv spirit, bo may bo right. But if be jneina tlioy fhall not ncet in person, ho bad bettor go to British Columbia, and he -wilt r.'vieo his urophccy. Por hero they liava met. I'lie "White and Yellow racial streams mi flowitn; side by side here. Whether t.hc-j- uhali mingle or no.-, i*. another ques[ion, and a more profoundly difficult one. Bens in British. Columbia, ono understands the vehemence of Cab'iomla against the inflowing tide of tbo yellow man. . Thu temper of tie countiy was nanifested nt the last election, when, though British Columbia lias -been traditionally Liberal during most of its history, it turned down the Liberal candiilatej everywhere, because they were thought to wobble on this .supreme question. And, by tbo way, thu action of California may prccipitato a very serious issue, not only with the East,, but within America itsolf. It is being pointed out that it raises again the very problem which led to tbo Civil War. That-proWcm is commonly supposed to ba*ve been slavery, but every student ol history knows that was a mere incident. The real question was the authority of the Fcdcial Government--over; tlie -indjbridual

State. And tint is just tho qucatioi which California no* r raises afresh. Thcr is not much likelihood pcihapa of an other Civil War to settle it, becaus the sentiment of the. people as a whnl is so predominantly in favour of th desire of California to protect hcrsel against the Yellow race. Nevertheless tho principle in both cases in exactly thj same. Night travelling seems'to lie even mon fashionable tlian day travel in Canadi and America. I do not like it, and hat re-solved to avoid it as much as possible I was obliged, however, to break my re solve tit tho very start. The last fov days by sea were cold, but I imagined that by the beginning of Way wo shouli meet spring in Vancouver, but if wo did she gave us a very cold reception, anil I resolved lo jump the whole Rocky Mountains stage of the journey beforo 1 drew rein. Everybody says that Una wonderful crofisin-j of the Itocky Mountains beggar*? description, and then promptly proceeds to describe it. I will fall into tho snare, but in-..lead of altempling noincthing new, I will venture to adopt or adapt some .words, that I have written clecwhere regarding it. As the huge train climbs up and up the mountains the inexperienced traveller may bo pardoned if at rliraen lie feels a litllo perturbed, Rocka, botilde.i-s, and peaks arc (flrowii about in all directions, and what might be wan indicated in a small degree when a few days later « reached ■Sudbury. There we found we wcro jtiflt a day laic lo escape an immense fall of rook and earth. Thousands oi tons had tumbled down and blocked the line. Had the slide happened to etriko a train another .would have been added to the «I-r.-ndy terrible list of tragedies' that belong Ui train travel in tbbt country. And so, In your passage ilirongli thn Itoclilen, •us you look up, Itmiicnsn rooks rise tiliec above you, steep nnd smooth, ,-ih if they h.id been carved by a sword ntroke. You look down, and away, linndrodn of feet helmv yon, you ere tbo great Franer Iliver, fierce, tumultuous, {rearing nnd wri-nlling and foaming n.iil rnarinj* amid the rockn. .Sometimes j .'ihe-id an enormous mnuntnin mam f'oouifl to set its giganlin feet plumb down on tho track. It lonkn for n moment an if eerlain destruction would follow. But a tunnel or a sudden twist roiitnl dome enrm-r ffetfl you safely by, and ynu breathe freely. At timifi the train dniible/i back till you would imagine tlie huge engine -iv.is going to embracethe rear cam of thn train. Then it suddenly elongate* itself again, and like some huge rattlesnakn ilanhes ahead utraighl M an arrow, Tho ficencry in constantly changing—rugged, majestic, nylvan, lovely, awefully grand, The grey volcanin refuse nnd rubble nhoot out over the mountain's I'jice-i, over which spring is already shaking out iln (toft green nhcen. And ever with ns arc rivers or lakes. The trcea" come down lo drink at their edge- or lool: at their ■dtada-m in the waters. And then back upon tho mountain side they climb in Berried ranks, reaching out soft fingers lo enfold themselves in the green dreamlike drapery of spring. And so they marched up in cvcr-le--flcning battalions till at last tho eternal Knows take posneEsion, and nothing in left but a *ft*hitc smother of sun and cloud. The truth is, tho ncmery here ta too much for an unbroken journey. One -ought to take it by stages, or else tho imagination gets wearied by ■being so constantly hauled up by the ■•lioulden- to gaze at fine roeiio grander than another. Tho C.P.B. has arranged, therefore, that that can be done with comfort. It is not a little t-iirprbring to find elaborate C.P.R. hotel 1 ; in places away np in the clouds, and where there -•com scarcely any fligns of settlement. Here, almost on the very ridge of the Boekios, Ihe company la building a two-million-dollar hotel, ami there is Mount Stephen, named after Ihe fin;t prrsiident of tlie C'.P.Ti. It la proper that the man who has the force and forohight to be a lender of tiioso who bad faith in this r.iil-v.-ay should have his name perpetuated on the Jiigheat peak of the Rockies, To me-, however, the place had another intern*!. Yon come on a little -''.ream here that parlii info two—one flows ivest to the Pacific, irad the other Xorth-enst to tho Bay of Labrador. l\rnca the name "The- Great Divide." If I am not mistaken, it was this fact tli.it inspired KmcrsonV- exquisite little poem, which may fitly close this article: Uelinlil the rocky wall. That, down Its Fli-jiln-.- r-Me;-, Pours tbe sivlrt raindrops. Minding an thor fall, In nulling river tide.-*. Yon stream whose aenrces run. Turned by a |-ehl-le'H nine. Is Athabasca, rolling t'waftl the sun 'I'broii-fli ["»• cleft ma'iiJtnln Icilec. Tlie slender rill linil strayed, But for I he slanting Hone. To evenlnCii ocean, ivllli Ilia ianglefl braid Of foam-flacked Oregon. Ho from the hel-ihts of ivlll Life's pniilln*: stream descends. Anil an a moment turns 11.-i slender rill, Knch wldccln-; torrent bends. From llie Onmo erndln slile, I'rntn the i-iimn inntlier'ii knee. Out lo long iliirlrncss anil the frozen tideOut lo the peaceful sea.