OUR LITERARY CORNER.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14406, 13 July 1912, Page 9

OUR LITERARY CORNER.

iIEIGINAL AND SELECTED MATTER,

; NOTES ON BOOKS AND AUTHORS, (

CANADA OF TO-DAY.

iFBOM NEW ZEALAND TO VANCOUVER.

GLIMPSES OF SUVA AND HONOLULU.

(By F. W. Pennefathku, LL.D.)

VANCOUVER, May 30. It seems hard to realise that three t weeks have not passed since the bright ■autumn evening when I left Auckland. j Tho Makura—as comfortable a vessel as I ever travelled by—steamed out of the Hauraki Gulf on tho 10th of May. In three days we were in the tropics, and on Tuesday morning wo were in the lovely harbour of Suva. I had heard much of tho beauties of the Pacific Islands, and yet Suva was a eurpriso'to mc. The fantastic shapes of the mountains and the rich tropical colouring; the strange, motley crowd that was gathered on the wharf; all made a scene, to bo remembered. I started for a good walk in the cool of tho morning, through the little town and up the hill.' In one sense, all tropical islands are much tho same, pretty little villas with deep verandahs surrounded by gardens gay with crotons and hybiscus, shaded by, palms and .breadfruit trees; every' bank a rich mass of ferns and tropical vegetation; tho waste ground covered with hushes of sensitive plants; it was Colombo or Mauritius over again. The town, small though it is, possesses nil the horrors of modern civilisation in the way of motors, tele- •■" phones, and tram lines; everything seenis to tell of energy and prosperity. Even here I find a largo Carnegie library! "When it becamo too hot for to be plensant, I went for a long drive over the hills and back by the sea beach. Wo passed one primi-tive-looking'native village; but for a good part of the way it was thoroughly Indian; most of tho people seemed to bo Indians, who are . busy cultivating xico, and carrying on the industries of . their own country. For tho next week the weather was " 'somewhat trying, with variable winds ■'. and damp, tropical heat. Only the •1 younger and more energetic of the passengers cared to takb part in tho usual amusements tiiat enliven a voyage. ' ■ On tho 24th we were at Honolulu. Many years have passed since my last visit there. The town has greatly . grown, and in some respects is disap,"pointing; it is certainly, not beautiful. . But nothing can take away the won- *. derful charm of the suburbs; I went for "'a - long drive by tram, out to the • which is worth coming all i> the way to Honolulu to see. The fish ' ,»re of all colours *of tho rainbow —the - brilliance of the reds, blues, and orange ; .being more like the plumage of tropical ■ : ,birds than anything else, and of every ■conceivable and laughable shape. . , ' Honolulu is now thoroughly Ameri- , canised; all the newest -American sects j soem to have established themselves. I j ' ■ passed by the temples of the Latter Day Saints, the Christian Scientists, and , / many others. The' American Cathedral --", (Episcopal) is a fine church, built in a ,'" Gothic style well suited to the climate, and is now being completed by tho , erection of a lofty tower. The Chinese • i seem as active here as elsewhere; they • have one quarter of the town to themBclveaj'many of the shops bear Mongolian names. Pour days later we were again on British soil. Wo had. arrived at Victoria, •on Vancouver Island. It was ' springtime; the pink hawthorns, the laburnums, and' the rhododendrons were "one shoet of blossom. Victoria is a handsome little city; the Parliament building? are magnificont—more striking than anything of the kind I have - seen in Australia; tho shops aro good; but, as far as I could judge, the prices of things are enormous. • Our halt at Victoria was brief. That day -was spent in passing up Puget Sound—a delightful journey. .It reminded mc more of a trip through Nor- , way than anything else I have experienced. Snowy mountains in the distance;, on either side innumerable islands thickly covered with pine trees . down to the water's edge; tho steamer passing \through narrow channels and twisting round angles. that made a landsman think that w© must shoot on to the rocks at every corner. Early in the afternoon the City of Vancouver . " came in sight; Th© first thing that ■ catches tho eye is tho enormous height ; of the buildings. The sky-scrapers of i New York have come even here. I fear that tho era , of beautiful cities has passed; these gigantic structures may be very valuable from a commercial , point of viewj but they never can be ■ anything but hideous, and completely spoil the effect of smaller buildings. I took up my quarters at a oomfort- » able, quiet hotel, the St. Francis, and Lave spent the last two "days in getting my land legs and seeing tho city. Van- . coaver is in its own way tho most marvellous town I have ever been in. Twenty-six years ago it did not exist; now it ie larger than any city in New Zealand and is growing rapidly every day. It is built on a sort of peninsula. Of course all the forest has been ruthlessly cleared, but the lower end has I been reserved as a beautiful park. They ' have one advantage over th e New Zealaaders; if a road is out through tho primreval/jgfprest here, the trees on j either skkpHio not suffer, and co one can drive between avenues, of gigantic pine trees, though only a few miles from the heart of the city. *But the H great beauty of Vancouver is the view \ ,to the north; across a narrow arm of tho Suund rise lofty mountains, still 1 capped with enow, the slopes covered with dense forest growth. > Vancouver is indeed a bustling, energetic place. Ono sees innumerable electric trams, motors, and carts and waggons of every description, drawn by 1 horses, but I have not scan a single cab. Trains seem going perpetually; the> noisp of the beuls on the engines | which give warning at the level cross- j ings is perfectly distracting. It goes j on day and night without cessation. There are vast sawmills by the water's edge; new houses are. going up in all directions; aew , roads being made and tramlines being; laid down everywhere. I am told that the ordinary pay for unskilled labour is 12s a day, and yet I ««> in the paper that a case is being tried in the Assize Court arising out of a meeting of the unemployed 1 And <>n the hoardings are notices to work- . rag men that the strike on the North,i\ • «m Railway is going on, and that they, \ *««* keep away, and not be ecabe. Iβ

there any part of the world wEere one can get away from labour troubles? Of course, the great business premises of the city are built of stone and brick, but most of the private. residences in the suburbs are wooden. There is ono pleasing.custom here; in front of most of the houses is a small plot of grass or garden, which is sometimes separated from the road by a light railing, but in many cases there's not even that, so as you walk along the footpath, beneath the shade of the maples and horse chestnuts, you seem to bo going through private grounds. In a New Zealand town the owners of the houses would be taxed so heavily for keeping tho little plots vacant that this would be impossible, and tho houses would have to be built out to the edge; this is one of many instances of how democratic forms of taxation press hard oh the general public.

When I was in New Zealand last, it struck mc that the great characteristic of the towns there was the enormous number of jewellers , shops. Certainly that cannot be said of Vancouver; hero nearly every shop seems to be devoted to the sale of real estate. The number of fortunes that have been pressed on mc during the last two days—in every case it being pointed out that the purchase of a block in somo township I have never heard of before would mean a fortune in a few years, and the way in which I have let the opportunity pass by, buying, noth- 1 inpr, is perfectly, tragical. ; ; . I am hot gouur to judge of the climate by-a two days' experience. I have seen Vancouver in tho full beauty of*early slimmer, and am naturally charmed with it, but when I say anything about it to any of the residents to whom I have introductions, the only answer I get is, "If only yoii knew what the- damp of the winter is, with ceaseless rain- from November to March, yon wonld not talk like that." Whether this merely arises from the true British habit of look : ng on the dismal side of things, or not, I cannot say.

I am quite sorry to be obliged' to leave Vancouver, but time presses, and to-morrow I must proceed on my journey eastward.

F. W. PENNEFATHER, LL.D Vancouver, May 30th.