ROAD TO SUCCESS

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 August 1929, Page 2

ROAD TO SUCCESS

WORK AND PROSPER.

VANCOUVER, July 10. It would be difficult to trace, in the history of the development of Western Canada, a more moving account of a settler’s success on the land than that

which has been written by Mrs Mary Mcßae, in response to an invitation by the Vancouver “Daily Province” to settlers from Britain to write of their experiences.

Mrs Mc’Rae was a nurse in Glasgow—a Macdonald of the Macdonalds of the Isles. Her husband, a Mcßae of Kintail, emigrated to Canada as a young man, enlisted in 1914, and served overseas for the duration of the war.

“I was born and raised on a farm near the coolie hills in the Braes of Portree, Isle. of Skye, Scotland, and my husband on a s’heep farm two miles from Portree,” she writes. “I was a hospital nurse in Glasgow when we were married in 1915. My husband took his discharge in England, thinking conditions were better there. We started a small grocery -store, and kept two cows and chickens. But he had been in British Columbia, and we soon agreed that our chances of success were better in the West. My husband went out in 1924, and I followed with my four boys in 1926, under the 3000-famliy scheme. “My friends all told me not to go under the family scheme, but my mind was made up. From the time we sailed on the Metagama till we reached the farm in British Columbia, we met nothing but kindness. It makes my blood boil when I read letters in the papers from immigrants, saying they were badly treated in Canada. If everI go back Home on a holiday, I’ll lecture differently to them. Grumblers should never be allowed to enter Canada.

“We have six cows, 250 sheep, goats, ducks, chickens, and this year I am raising turkeys.” says Mrs Mcßae, describing her life on the farm at Hedley on the eastern foothills of the Cascade Range, westward from the Selkirks. “I get up at 5.30 a.m., cook breakfast, milk the cows, while my husband looks after the sheep • separate the milk, cook, bake, wash and sew, make butter and cheese, and feed calves. One of the registered calves I raised last year I was offered £l7 for. I sent some butter to the Kamloops Fall Fair, and got first prize for it. I. sell butter all the winter for 2/1 a pound. Sheep are the best paying stock we carry on, the farm. Chickens pay well, too. All dairy produce pays well. “Of course, we are only one year on the farm, and one. can’t make so much the first year. But we are doing wonderfully well. Two boys ride a horse four miles to school. It is great fun for them. Our home is on the bank of the river, and the climate is delightful. We fish the river and creeks. The children are fine and healthy, and have wonderful freedom. They are all real Canadians already. “I would suggest to newcomers not to be snobs and not to look for too much luxury, not to come to Canada l if they think they are to be fed with a silver spoon and put in a glass case. But put their shoulder to the wheel and work hard, and they certainly will get their , reward. And not to think they will find a gold mine and get rich in a day. There are riches and hidden treasures in the land, and labour for that, and they will grow rich. You will meet people who will say,' ‘Working on a farm will never pay; you’ll starve.’ Don’t listen to them. Use your own good judgment and find out for yourself. No one will starves on the land.” Mrs Mcßae pays a high tribute to the officers of the C.P.R. and the Land Settlement Board of British Columbiq. “They are all gentlemen,” she said. “They help you and give, you good advice —a fine body of men.