The Hawera Star WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1925. PROBLEMS FOR CANADA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 1 April 1925, Page 4

The Hawera Star

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1925. PROBLEMS FOR CANADA.

Ijplivered every evening by 5 cVlock i. Hawern, .Mn.'iain. Normanby, r.kniawa, Elthani, Mangatnki, Kaponga, Alton, Unrleyvb.e, t'atea< Waverley, ’ Mokoia, \Vhaknnia , 'a, Ohangai. Meremere, Fraser Road, and Ararata.

Trapper and trader, Eskimo and trooper of the old North-West Mounted Police, have woven round the great north land of Canada a mantle of romance such ia®> is left to few parts of the world in this material age. To most of us mention, of Hudson Bay conjure® up visions of dog-teanrs and “Company” forts, and of long, lone journeys into the silent places. But for forty years the Canadian West has dreamed a dream of the sea .and the outlet that it offer®; and that vision has grown in its power of attraction until now', in the word® of one writer, “Throughout the prairie Pf evinces there rings a. battle-cry: ‘On to the Bay.’ ” To most of us in this country, never having bothered much about Canadian geography, the idea of an ocean port on Hudson. Bay is perhaps new and' somewhat startling. . Snow and ice, and furs, and seals, seem to fit in quite well. But deep sea liners loading Cargoes of wheat? Well, hardly! We forget that there are season® in. the Canadian, north just a® anywhere else. During the winter Hudson Bay is frozen round the edge, sometimes for a width of fifty miles. But with spring comes the thaw\ and through, the short, sub-Arctic autumn the waters of the bay are open. to. commerce. Navigation is generally possible from early in July to early in October; specially constructed ships might break their passage until the beginning of November, which would be sufficient to see the. last of the prairie wheat .shipped. Would there be any advantage possible, from this annual race with King Frost? T/ook! Port Nelson, at the mouth of the Nelson River on the west shore of Hudson Bay, is almost exactly the same distance from Liverpool as Montreal : that is, 3000 miles. Wheat shipped from Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan, via Port Nelson,- would save 1050 miles in transport; from Calgary, the capital l of Alberta, 1150 miles, and from Prince Albert, in Central Saskatchewan, 1300 miles. Further, engineers consider that three million horse-power of electric energy could he developed from, the Nelson Piver between Liake Winnipeg and the sea, while extensive fisheries are awaiting exploitation in the bay and its tributary waters, .and -the surrounding country is rich in mineral wealth. In the opinion tof Dr. Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the eminent Arctic explorer, a civilised' population of white men could bo settled about the bay and live there in comfort and happiness. As an additional 'industry, he recommends the breeding of reindeer and musk-oxen. Meanwhile the opening up of the new route is delayed by 'lack of rail connection, the branch line from The Pas, in Saskatchewan, to Port. Nelson being still unfinished. Approximately 17,000,000 dollars had been spent by the Dominion Government on this project when, in 1018, work was discontinued, although it might have been completed for a further 1,000,000 dollars. The completion of the wo-k is being blocked by Eastern interests, which te the West arc commercial interests. The prairies argue: “If we can ship our Western grain, crop to Europe, and import from Europe, via Port Nelson; we. can turn our backs on the Eastern merchants and banker®/’ The farmer® are quite prepared to do business with, their own. merchants and j bankers in t'he< West ; but- they have an . unreasoned suspicion of the Eh si . and the action, o.f the Dominion Senate in butchering proposals for rail development i.n, the- West, .session after session, and particularly ip,denying the outlet to Hudson Bay, is at the root of much of the separatist talk on the prairies. Some- of the settlers have an idea, that, if only they were to link up with the United States, American capital would do what Ottawa, has so far not done. But this feeling is. by no mean® general ; and the increasin'' public pressure that is being brought to bear on the Dominion Government suggests that some plan may seen, lie devi.se,d to ‘brush aside senatorial opposition. The Canadian Senate is a nominated body, whose members hold office for life —and their longevity i® humourously proverbial. Although he may have been appointed from the West to represent the West —and each Province has it® regular N quota—a senator, by the time he, ha® lived for twenty or thirty years in Ottawa, is apt to look at things through Eastern eves, and the representation of the We,st becomes nominal only. At least, that ikS the idea prevailing in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Apart from

local opinion, however, the Canadian Upper House. is considered to be the most powerful and the most reactionary 'legislative body left- ini the Rnglish-speaking world. Tire Government of Saskatchewan, after the latest rejection o.f the Port Nelson project, relented the action of the Senate m strongly a*i to demand a change in the Constitution, which should the British. House of Commons. And the Manitoba Free Press, which may ho regarded as the voice of Western Canada Armimentsi in this strain.: “Mr. Mackenzie King, the Prime Minister, has let it be known on various occasions thlat, both, by disposition and hereditary obligation, lie is a. slayer of dragons. . . . Well, Mr. King, diere before you is the Senate!” This power possessed by the second chamber of flaunting the public will on important national questions is a weakness calling for early attention, because'

even for a United Canada' the future holds problems .sufficiently grave. The drift to-day is towards economic unity 1 with the United States, if not to ward's national assimilation; and, 'niess the one be checked, it may prove hut the forerunner of the other. To counteract this drift, to, proclaim a united people, and to win for our sister Dominion the resplendent future which is her due, we find the Vancouver Sun raising the standard of “a virile new Canadianism.” “Gan Canada.” the Sun askis, “with her pitiful little population of 9,000,000 fine British people, afford to be swallowed up in. the United States’ hundred and ten mongrel millions? Absolutely the only hope for Canada's prosperity‘and happiness lies in the development of an individual nationalism to which Canadians can pin their industrial, artistic, literary, commercial, and productive efforts. . . . The courage that won Canada must return to build Canada.” But the task of building cannot be begun in earnest while jealousy and suspicion divide Bast from West within the Dominion. Because the opening of the Hudson Bay outlet would have the double effect of casing the present internal tension, and of tutwig the eyes of the prairie malcontents north instead of south into the States, many outside of Canada will hope for an early completion of the necessary railway.