ONCE A FUR POST

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 December 1934, Page 4

ONCE A FUR POST

WINNIPEG’S .1 UNGLE. Almost. 61 years old. Winnipeg is celebrating its diamond jubilee.' On November <B, 1873, the little business ami residential community which had grown up at the site of the old Hudson's Bay trading post of Fort Garry was granted incorporation under the name of Winnipeg, states the “Christian Science Monitor.” In 1870 Winnipeg had already been named capital of the newly-organised Province of Manitoba. At that date the population was estimated at about 300. According to the latest Canadian census of 1931, Winnipeg now has a population of 218,785. not including the adjacent city of ? St. Boniface and surrounding suburbs outside the boundaries of the city proper. Winnipeg's founders were fur traders who selected the site of tlie city because of its strategic position for ;• trading post al. the junction of the Red and Assinboinc Rivers. Later, when the Canadian Pacific Railway was built, it crossed the Red River at Winnipeg, and the city’s future us a trading centre, serving the vast country stretching for nearly 1000 miles to the Rocky Mountains, was assured. To-day, the Canadian National Railway also crosses at Winnipeg, making the city one of the most important railway, centres on the continent. Winnipeg is about 50 miles north of the international boundary. Although considered a northern city, ;ic . I tually it is in a latitude south of the 1 r-jctherimiost tip of the British Isles ' far south of Berlin, and - not mueh' north of Paris. It is in the midst of 1 a fertile agricultural country. whjj e h i

is a gateway to the mining region of northern Manitoba. Winnipeg claims it offers the cheapest electricity in America, and ha.-s been a pioner in the development of municipally-owned central beating plants.