CANADIAN ITEMS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 32, 7 February 1935, Page 11

CANADIAN ITEMS

CANDID BIOGRAPHY

MR. BENNETT'S SHYNESS

$0T VAN ECONOMIST

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVER, January 17.

A biography of the Prime Minister, Mr. Bennett, written by his former secretary, Andrew Mac Lean, says that the Prime Minister eats a tremendous amount of chocolate. "He is a shy and sensitive man, and has a real temper," the author declares. "Under its influence he says and does things unworthy of a Prime Minister. He. tries to work out the smallest details' of every problem, and' is only just now I learning to let others do some thinking for him. He is not an economist; he says so himself. He does not see facts icoldly, without colour. He thinks ' with his heart and his emotions." Mac Lean says that Mr. Bennett's only chance at the next election is to capi-' talise on the reputation he has earned1 for ."dynamic directorial force in government." CANADA'S SLAVE DAYS. - , In the early days, when Canada was New France, slavery was in force, with regular slave markets. The first ofi these was in Quebec in the early part ■ of the 17th century, when a negro from far-off Madagascar was sold for £6. A ' little later Indians were being sold as' slaves, but most of them escaped into' the forest. At that time all the labour available was occupied in the fur1 trade, so. the Government of France' arranged to send slaves to Canada from the \^est Indies and from Africa. When Canada became British in 1760,' slaves were brought in from the United I States. In 1752, at the Halifax market,' 'slaves brought up to £80. Shortly > after, the British Government offered i free passage to slaves who wished to return to Africa. About 1200 of them i accepted the offer. The last sale of slavss was in Montreal in 1797. In 1803 slavery, was declared illegal in Canada. The first Solicitor-General of Canada, Kobert Gray, had been a slave. He'died at the age of 105 years. RADIOBROADCASTING. "North American authorities on radio .broadcasting, reviewing last year's progress, say that great popularity has been achieved by drama on the air, performed (by the actors who played their parts on the stage previously. Comedians are declining, owing to the scarcity of comedy material. They select the four biggest broadcasts of 1984 as the funeral of the King of the Belgians, the launching of the Cunard .liner, the Royal wedding, and the i Christmas Day Empire broadcast. POPULATION CHANGES. Remarkable changes are taking place in the ethnic 'characteristics of the population of Canada since immigration was stopped for the years of depression. Compared with the period 1925-1930, when Southern and Eastern Europeans constituted the major portion of the newcomers, the succeeding five years have shown a recovery of the Canadian or British percentage of the population, by means of the natural increase. Particularly is -this ■ the case on the Prairie, where, in Saskatchewan, for example, the British content of population has dwindled to 49 per cent. Official observers regard it as an omen for an advance in the wage rate and the standard of .living. The improvement is enhanced by the fact tha immigration from the United States, which was of large volume in the earlier quinquennial period, also ceased in the past five years. In two of its most important phases of development the Canadian population has reverted to type. The estimated popu-1 i«lo= nft at the beginning-of 1935 is iu,aao,ouo. AN HISTORIC ISLAND. # The historic lie- d'Orleans is tc be joined to the mainland at Quebec City by a -bridge. The Island of Bacchus as Jacques Cartier called it in 1535* has maintained its age-old "customs and its old-world atmosphere, which have been a source of charm to visitors it has no apartment-houses .nor tenements. Families, residing for 300 years in the same stone-and-mortar habitats of the ancient French type, are self--sustaining; hardy farmer folk, happy and contented. The males are noted1 tor boatbuilding, the women for handicrafts. . • The spinning-wheel is an essen-. tial fixture in every home. Each of the six villages, all called after a' saint, has its ancient church and historic landmarks: It is feared that when the bridge is completed old customs will give way to modernity.