TOUR OF CANADA

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 98, 22 October 1938, Page 10

TOUR OF CANADA

SOME IMPRESSIONS

HOUSING STANDARDS

GO-AHEAD CITIES

Interesting impressions of conditions in Canada were given in an interview yesterday by Mr. W.H. Joyce, Registrar of Christchurch Technical College, who passed through Wellington on his return from a five months' health trip abroad. Mr. Joyce arrived at Auckland on Sunday, last by the Aorangi from England and Europe through Canada.

While in Canada, Mr. Joyce spent several days in Welland, one of the largest towns on the Niagara Peninsula and about midway on the famous Welland canal which connects Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. During his stay in Welland, Mr. Joyce was the guest of a relation of his, Mr. J. R. Joyce, who is Mayor of the city. If Welland could be taken as typical of many cities of its' type, which he believed it could, Canadian industry was at present very prosperous, said Mr. Joyce. The town contained the large factories of International Nickel, Ltd., cotton mills, harvesting machinery works, pipe and smelting works, and The standard of factory manufactures, The standard of factory housing was particularly high, as it seemed to be in the majority of Canadian industrial towns, and the general standard of the private dwellings in the Canadian urban areas was rather better than it was in Australia and New Zealand, but in the farming districts the houses were of a poorer type. Housing was expensive on the whole, chiefly owing to the amount which must be spent upon heating. In this connection many houses were being built with a special packing which had the effect of insulating them to some extent against cold. The Niagara Peninsula, on which Welland was situated, contained also the large cities of Hamilton and St. i Catherine. It was a very, fruitful district in addition to being a most important manufacturing area. Among other things it grew large crops of fruit, grain, and tobacco. HUGE GRAIN SHIPMENTS. Huge •' quantities of wheat passed along the Welland Canal, said Mr. Joyce, and he saw on one "barge"— in reality a large steam vessel —a cargo of a third of a million bushels. Seventeen of these barges would carry the whole year's wheat crop of New Zealand. Cargoes 6t a quarter of a million bushels on one barge were quite common. Mr. Joyce said that he was most favourably impressed by the high standard! of both public and private buildings in the Canadian towns. On the whole the towns conveyed more of an atmosphere of spaciousness than was the case in New Zealand. An instance was the city of Calgary, in Alberta, a town of which very little was known in New Zealand but in which the buildings were better than in any of the main New Zealand centres. . MIXTURE OF NATIONALITIES. The mixture of nationalities was very apparent in many parts of Canada, said Mr. Joyce, and particularly in Quebec, which appeared to be more French than English. One could go for many blocks in Quebec without seeing one street with an English name, and he encountered tram conductors who could not speak English at all. There was, in addition, a large amount of foreign labour, notably Italians and Hungarians. The tlalians did not enjoy a very good reputation, but the Hungarians were very well regarded. A Frenchman or a French-Canadian was not, of course, regarded as a foreigner in Canada. His impression was that despite the mixture of nationalities, these "minorities" were not likely to have any serious effect upon the allegiance of the Dominion to the Empire. It was generally conceded that in a population of 11,000,000, approximately 1,500,000 were "politically negligible," or, in other words, that they had no interest x political conscience as far as Canadian politics were concerned. In Quebec, there was still a double civil code of justice, the English code and the "Code Napoleon," to which any French-Cana-dian had the right to appeal. On the whole the system appeared to work reasonably well. ATTITUDE TO U.S.A. Although Canada was undoubtedly closely linked with the United States, there was not the leaning towards American institutions and ideas that one might expect. The Eastern Canadians appeared to bear a closer resemblance to the Americans in their mannerisms and speech, but, paradoxically, appeared to be less sympathetic towards things American than the Western Canadians. It could not be said that in any part of Canada there was any spirit inimical to the United States, but some of it could very well be described as deprecatory. Politically, matters at present appeared to be fairly settled in Canada. Outside Alberta- there was not a great deal of interest in the Social Credit experiment, and in other States the Alberta scheme was not taken seriously. There appeared to be very little likelihood of its spreading any further afield.

Among business men, particularly, he had encountered a great deal of interest in the New Zealand system of audit of Government accounts. The Canadian system was much looser than that in New Zealand, and there appeared to be a general opinion that

something should be done to tighten it up. The average Canadian's attitude towards politics was not altogether flattering. He appeared to consider that any politician who did not leave politics a richer man than when he entered it was rather "a poor fish." LIQUOR CONTROL. The Canadian system of liquor control was interesting. Light wines and beers could be purchased in the usual way, but in order to obtain spirits a person must obtain a licence card which entitled him to a certain quantity over a specified period. If that quantity were exceeded, the card was automatically cancelled, and it could also be cancelled if the holder of the card was found drunk or was found to be drinking to excess. In cases where drinking was causing domestic trouble, cards were often cancelled upon the petition of wives. EDUCATION SYSTEM. During his visit, Mr. Joyce said that he was particularly interested in the Canadian educational system. Welland possessed a technical school very much on the lines of his own college in Christchurch. It was very well equipped indeed and placed particular emphasis upon vocational training. He visited several of the Canadian universities, and although in one or two of them a little too much latitude appeared to be allowed to undergraduate humour, they were undoubtedly of a very highstandard, and compared very well with those in New Zealand. The Canadian universities drew to a fair extent upon the English universities for their staffs. In Canada approximately 87 per cent, of the funds for educational purposes were raised by local taxation and only 13 per cent, contributed directly by the State. In spite of this, however, the State controlled the education administration, which appeared to be very efficient.

Mr. Joyce left for Christchurch by the ferry steamer last evening.