WORTH NOTING.

Evening Star, Issue 10342, 16 June 1897, Page 1

WORTH NOTING.

Aranieeting of the Royal Colonial InatiHotel Metropole on April '4'3 » p^t%y §ir JDqsaldSmhh, JSgh \Gotßffiißßioner for Canada, upon 'Western Canada before and'since Confederation' was read, in the absence of Sir Donald, by Mr J. G. Colhsr, the secretary and 'permanent head of the High Commissioner's office in London. The paper, it need hardly be said, was ably written, and embodies a large amount of valuable information of especial interest just now throughout the Empire. Sir Donaw) commences by giving a , brief history of the Hudson Bay Company [ and British Columbia, and he expresses the conviction that, in despite of many faults,the work of the company was to the .ad vantage of the Empire in. the exploration of a vast territory and preparing the way for colonisation. In 1870, he relates, M«itoba andrdn the same" year the North-west Territory was added to the D(Jmipion. Soon after these events t& country began to attract attention both in Canada and Europe, and numbers, of immigrants made their way there. Notwithstanding the disadvantages of isolation and want of railway communication, it progressed with great rapidity. Winnipeg soon developed into a thriving town with several thousand inhabitants, and the prairies to the west were dotted with farms and settlements. Telegraphiccommunication was established in 187], and it was not long before communication was opened with Eastern Canada by railway entirely through British territory. In June," 1886, the first train left Montreal for the Pacific, since which time there has been daily communication right across Canada. Tho thirty years which had elapsed since confederation- have, Sir Dojtald says, brought wondrous changes in Manitoba and the North-west.' The vast plains, with their "waving prairie grass and "patches of brilliant coloring, formed by " the many varieties of wild flowers ana "fruits indigenous to the soil," were no longer solitudes, but provided homes for nearly half a million people. Thriving towns and villages were now scattered all over the country, and there were over 3,000 miles pf railway in operation. There were millions and millions of acres yet availably onjyivaiting to be cultivated, but intending immigrants are warned that the possession of at least a small capital and some knowledge of agriculture is essential. In British Columbia,' he proceeds to state, the expansion has been marked, especially since the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Sir Donald quotes as eminently prophetic the words of Her Majesty in the Speech from the Throne when the mainland of British ! Columbia was declared a colony, "i " hope that this new colony in the "Pacific may be but one step in the " career of steady progress, by which my "dominions in North America may be "ultimately peopled in an unbroken "chain from the Atlantic to the Pacific " by a loyal and industrious population." The future of tho outlying, portions of the Empire, Sir Donald declares, is largely, bound up in the emigration question. In his opinion it was the interest, if it was not the duty, of all the Fellows of the Royal Colonial Institute to do what they could to direct emigration so that it may be retained within the British Empire. It was by emigration in the past that the colonies had made the wonderful progress witnessed during the sixty years' reign of our Sovereign. It was the emigration to the colonies that was making the United Kingdom less dependent, year by year, upon foreign countries for her food supplies; and it was this same emigration that had provided such large markets for British products markets that are astonishing when compared with the trade between the United Kingdom and foreign countries with ten times the population of the self-governing colonies. It was, he continued, by encouraging emigration to the British colonies that the expansion of these markets, which afforded greater possibilities for British trade than those m any other parts of the world, would be ensured ; " and last, but not least, it was " by thus adding to the population of the " colonies that they should increase their " wealth and strength, and be enabled to "maintain the position of being the "greatest Empire that the world has ever "seen." The colonies, Sir Donald went on to say, were taking a prominent position in the United Kingdom this year. Their status in the Empire had* at last been recognised. They had been invited for the first time to participate in a national celebration. They would share in the rejoicings ou the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of Her Majesty's accession. Their Prime Ministers would be the guests of the Imperial Government, and their military and police forces would ber represented in the Royal procession. " Let us hope that this great gathering " may bring about the result to which I " have alluded, and also lead to a closer "union among the family of nations, all " under one flag and owning allegiance to "one Sovereign, which make up the y British nation."