FROM CANADA.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1168, 1 July 1911, Page 10

FROM CANADA.

RETURN OF A NEW ZEALANDER. A CHEAT AND PROSPEROUS COU# THY. ; Among the returning New Zealandors who havo samplcil the condilions of life in Canada recently is Mr. J. Harris, of Wellington, who was in business in Willis Street for some years, and is a son-in-law of the Rev. If. Van Slavcrcn. He has been absent in Canada and on the Pacific Slope for over a year. .-, , , "What impressed me at once in Vancouver, indeed, everywhere I went over there was the sublime confidence they have in their country and their eilies. Western Canada is most prosperous—there is no question of lliat—ami every city appears to lit growing rapidly, - " ' There is plenty of land still to be developed, and the man with a little capital has nu difficulty in taking up a block and getting in his first >o\ung, for il is nearly all wheat-growing that the farmers go in for. With the snow on Iho ground for five months of the year, there is little else he call do, but it pays very well, and gives him a good spell in the winter.

"I visited Seattle, Portland (Ort%na), San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, and on my becoming known as a New Zealander, I was most kindly eeived everywhere. Everyone 1 met was interested in New Zealand—they regard this country as a sort of Utopia—and dwell upon certain of our laws which ars assumed to be of a Utopian character. Ilul when askoil why they do. not conic out and setrio, jhey. look sideways'at you. They regard New Zealand as an experimental farm for,-legislation, but have no idea in risking, their lot in the experiments that are going on. At Los Angeles the Chamber of Commerce supplies one with all possible information about any particular part of the country down to the smallest details. There is a lecture hall, when- a lecturer, provided with a picture outfit, will discourse on a particular pari, of the country, illustrating his remarks with views of the towns, farms, produce, scenery, and giving the price of land, its class, what it .can produce, llie cost-of production and transport, and the profits to be derived from such enterprise. ft very district is the inost pioductive on mirth, every town is a'city in embryo, ami every person you meet says he is doing great., no matter what his condition maybe. 1 really believe that the prosperity of the country is due to some extent to'this fine spirit, which breathes confidence into you.

"I don't like to jiear that people are 'leaVint; foi Australia—(he very people we want to keep—those with a small amount of capital, who are acclimatised, and know the country, and aro likely to he of the greatest benefit to it. In their place we are receiving workmen from England with very lillls capital and no experience of the country. This I attribute to oppressive labour laws, which harass the employers and choke the industries. As Ions; as this is allowed to go on people will leave for countries whtro there are freer conditions."