BRITISH COLUMBIA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 16 October 1925, Page 3

BRITISH COLUMBIA.

ITS OATTBE COUNTRY. BENEFITS OF THE RAILWAY. (From a Vancouver Correspondent.,) Even residents of the cities i n Southern British Columbia and along the coast are often ignorant of the vast extent of the cattle country which their province possesses. In the Cariboo and Oliilootin districts tributary to the country traversed by the provincially-owned Pacific Great Eastern Railway, there are close upon 500,000 acres of the finest cattle country in North America. There are hundred of miles of fine rolling country, interspersed with light timber forming good shelter, where many thousand head of cattle find excellent pastunage. East year, from the Ohalcotin distinct alone, mom than SOOO head of cattle were shipped. The country is traversed by the Fraser and Cfhilcotin rivers, and numerous creeks provide sufficient irrigation for crops required. for winter feeding. A great Canadian statesman earned the lasting resentment of this province by designating tall British Columbia “a sea of mountains. ’ He can never have iseen this, huge empiie, which begins at a point of less than 200 miles north of Vancouver. Ail hour’s run westward from the P.G.E. railway brings the traveller to a point where no mountains taro viisifole , and. from east to west this country stretches more than 200 miles. The market for British Columbia cattle is found entirely in the coast cities and for the moment the industry is not in a particularly prosperous condition. Cattle-raising is subject to ups and downs, and just now the effect of the general business depression is being felt. Before the war, however, times were considerably worse At that time cuttle on the lioo-f Were selling at three or four cents per pound, whereas to-day, although it must be remembered that wages and general costs are higher, the price is from) five rto seven cents per pound. During the war, of course, the ranchers made very handsome profits, with prices ranging from eight to ten cents., and even higher, per pound, and very little reduction for “cut-outs. The coming of the 1 acme Great Eastern Railway three, years ago has been a boon to the Brutish Columbian cattlemen. Formerly they had to drive their steers from 80 to 200 miles from the range to Ashcroft, at a cost of from three to four dollars a head, ancl, in 1 addition, heavy depreciation m weight on the exhausting journey. Nowadays, with the institution of a cattle-shipping point at Williams Hate, this journey is more than cut in half, with a large saving, in cost + an or no depreciation m weight. Bet ire the coming of the railway the rancheis had to pay enormous transportation costs on every necessity of life which had to be imported, for d meant freighting scores of hundreds of miles by horse transport. To-day all that is changed. Small trading centres haYe sprung up all along the Pacific Great Eastern, where goods may be purchased at practically city prices. Ranchei* to-day mostly have their own motoi cars, and‘life is much more pleasant in eV Most of’this great range district is •rood for little else but cattle, ana many thousands of acres are leased from the Provincial Government on the basis of 321 cents per head per annum for cattle and 401 cents per head for houses. There are still many ra mes which are owned outright, running from, 1000 to 10,000 acres, among them being those owned by the M - ouess of Exeter, Lord Bgerton or rat ton, ancl the Duke of Sunderland.