WAYS OF LIFE . . . AND RACIAL TIES . . .

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 60, Issue 4313, 4 August 1950, Page 9

WAYS OF LIFE . . . AND RACIAL TIES . . .

CANADIAN SCENE MR THORN’S OWN STORY EVENTS THAT STARTLE ITS PROBLEMS & ITS PEOPLE (Special to the Gazette) Mir James Thorn, formerly New * Zealand High Commisisoner 'to Canada and ait one time the member flor the Thames electorate for Hl yeans,' has ait the special request of the Gazette agreed to 'write a series of articles which will be pnblisiheid in this journal from time to time.

Mr Thorn has had an experience which few New Zealanders can

ever enjoy and is in the position to tell an interesting story covering life in Canada so markedly different from that in this Dominion. He tolls of life in 'Canada, of its problems and its people with ways of life and racial ties about which we know so little and under'stand probably less. Mr Thorn’s story is full of interest. The Canadian Scene “During my three years as New Zealand High to Canada, two of which were spent with the United Nations, I enjoyed an experience which will 1 fall to the lot of very few of my fellow citizens. I have been fortunate, so much so as to make me feel that I am obliged, as far as this is possible, to share it with New Zealanders I represented

in those two capacities. Accordingly I am setting down here some points of interest, which I hope will inform, and possibly entertain, readers whom I served during the 11 years I was member of Parliament for Thames.

“The two first impressions a New Zealander gathers in Canada relate to the climate and the population, both of which have a character very much different from the climate and population in New Zealand. Everyone knows, of course, that the Canadian winter is severe, but few are aware that the summer is so hot. During my first summer in Ottawa the thermometer rose to over 100 degrees and, as the heat is always accompanied by extremely high humidity, it is discomforting, to say the least. The

summer temperatures, with the long days, for the twilight is prolonged, combined with the thaw of the ice and snow at the end of winter, provide, however, the conditions which have made Canada’s vast grain-growing industry possible, so that although one

is tempted to regard nature in Canadt as unkind, it is actually a dispensatior which serves: mankind.

Six Mohths of Winter “The winter lasts for approximately six months. During my first winter snow fell in Ottawa towards the end of October, and in early June when I visited the gigantic aluminium works at Arvida in northern Quebec I remarked to the manager, who was driving the car, upon the absence of cattle in the fields. He replied that they were still in the barns, as the frost was then three feet into the ground. In the following winter when the temperature fell frequently to from 30 to 35 degrees below zero a plane in which I was travelling to Halifax in Nova Scotia was grounded in New Brunswick by a blizzard and a snow storm. A day or two after I inquired 1 jocularly of the mayor of Halifax what were the seasons in that part of Canada. His answer was that they were “winter and June.” The Problem of Winter “The severity of the winter is a problem with which Canadians have been wrestling ever since the French discovered Canada in 1534 Their houses, offices and shops are now internally heated — the New Zealand ; residence, a , lovely building and a < substantial asset, is heated with fuel : oil—and they dress appropriately for i

the weather outside. To me it was always a matter of acute interest that if the house was heated up to 75 degrees above, and it was 10 degrees below outside, there was an instant drop of 85 degrees in temperature the moment I stepped through the door on to the street. We can work inside I in the winter in summer clothing, but to ward off the outside cold one has to don overshoes, thick overcoat, gloves, scarf, earpads and sometimes nosepads. I was amused to discover that my nose had more resistive powers than my ears, so that there is some-1 thing to be said for that disturbing! portion of my physiognomy. ' | Going toia Painty

It was a jest too in Canada that in the winter one is always putting on clothes and taking them off and Mrs Thorn could tell of the womenfolk putting on woollen “undies” before! going out to a reception and shedding them in the dressing room to make I themselves presentable when joining the party.

i “The internal heating system has i some extraordinary effects. To retain the heat a double window is screwed on and the result in a very* brief period is that the home becomes as dry as tinder. An astonishing thing is that a condition of static electricity I is induced, with the startling effect that everything one touches gives one an electric shock. A cigarette placed on the wall will not fall off. I have shown this frequently to visitors from New Zealand and they have commented with amazement that Canada is truly a remarkable country. The Farmer’s Life “Farmers will be interested in a situation which winter makes possible in the prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. In these provinces the farmers in the main have all their eggs in one 'basket. They grow wheat, hundreds of miles ' of it. The whole of the farming operations are carried out with machinery. There are no animals , and no p barns and therefore there is no neces-1* sity, once the harvest is gathered, to L

remain upon the farms after ‘the in-

set of winter. Accordingly many far-

mers leave their farms to reside in

the towns and some go as far afield as. California and even,Honolulu, They

do not return until the spring enables

farm work to be recommenced. The

result is that many of the farm houses

are melancholy in appearance, they are drab and unpainted, without gardens and without the domestic conveniences of modem civilisations. 'Hie [production, however, is enormous. Although for fifty years little or no fertiliser has been used, fallowing being the method for the restoration of the soil, the wheat crop in Saskatchewan, for instance, where the population's only slightly more than 750,€00, approximates 100,000,000 bushels. The Tragedy of Fire I “A sad feature of the Canadian winter is the number of fatal fines. In 1048 roughly 450 1 men, women and children lost their lives in burning buildings and the death of whole families is a common experience, especially in rural districts where the fire 'fighting apparatus is either non-exist-ent or primitive. These tragedies seemingly" are regarding as, incidental to the winter, and everybody , merely expects them to occur. A sight to

see is a winter fire in great business premises in a Canadian city. The water drenching the firemen immediately turns to ice, long icicles adhere to telegraph wires, and when the fire is extinguished the ruins resemble an iceberg, and so they remain until they are cleared away. The Gtortous FaH

“A compensation for the cold and tedious winter and the sweltering summer is the autumn as it is called. Durin# this brief period of the year Canada is ablazewith colour, the millions of trees being dressed , in a multi-coloured glhry. For some. weeks the prospect is divinely lovely and rapturous in rl its beauty. The golden, russet, red and brown tints, however, soon fade away, to bp replaced as the winder takes possession, ty a chilly starfchess, wfth l&eVßst land white under faHink snow.

The Canadian People “As to the Canadian population the part to be remembered is that barely one half is British or of British stock. The other half consists of FrenchCanadians, who number roughly four millions, and of about two million others whose forefathers or who them- 1 selves came from continental Europe. ( This creates political and racial problems, the like of which do not exist ’ in New Zealand. Canada is also in some degree, and unavoidably, under the influence of its powerful neigh- ( hour, the United States of America. “That part of Canada which is now Quebec was discovered by the French navigator, Jaques Cartier, in 1'534. In the early 1600’s it was taken over , by the French Royal Government and named New France so that for two hundred years before Wolfe won the battle of the heights of Abraham near Quebec city, it was settled by a French cominunity. The British did not interfere with their religion, which is Catholic, nor with the French language which ■is still spoken, mixed with a patois bom of their peculiar experience and with many English words with a French pronunciation. Strong French Group “Naturally before leaving New Zealand I knew something of the French-Canadians, but it was not until I actually contacted with them that I realised the strength of this racial group. Three days after my arrival in Ottawa I saw across the river from a window in the residence, a fair. - There was a merry-go-round, a wheel, and a large number of lights. Thinking that if I joined the throng, I might overhear conversations and iget a line on Canadian ways of thought, I strolled over, only to find they wpre all French-Canadians, speaking their own language, and I coulii hardly understand a word. My sensations were remarkable, I knew I was in the British Commonwealth, but here were hundreds of people who might have been foreigners. But after ail they were the original Canadians, rather were descended from them. Want to be befit Alone “The French-Canadians tend to be isolationist in their own country. They merely wish to be left alone with their own institutions and ways of life and this makes them a problem to those who are striving for Canadian unity. This problem is further rendered difficult by other foreign communities, like the German Mennonites in Manitoba, the Rutterites in Alberta, and the Russian Doukhobors, of whom there are 12,000 in British Columbia. All these are religious sects, who live in communities, use their own language and have never been assimilated into the Canadian population. For many years bitter sectarian differences between the Doukhobors, which have expressed themselves in farm burnings, blowing up railways and bridges, and general disobedience to the law, have created situations which have baffled the Canadian authorities. Startling Position “With such a racial composition, it is little wonder that events occur that sometimes startle a New Zealander. There is agitation, for instance, to eliminate the Union Jack from the Canadian flag. I have read a report of a speech by a French-Canadian M.P., denouncing a Conservative provincial premier for bringing British

immigrants to Canada on the ground that this was calculated to create a disproportion in population favouring the British. Only recently a member of the Canadian House of Commons opined that it might have been better for the maritime provinces (those facing the Atlantic) had they joined the United States instead of _ the Canadian confederation. “British” Not Popular “In the circumstances the term ‘British Empire’ is not very popular and the word ‘British’ i? dropped by many when they refer to the Commonwealth. To address them, therefore, in the language of British imperialism would be a mistake. “It will be seen that as between Canada and New Zealand there are many dissimilarities. Canada will remain within our great family of nations, but will serve it from an angle from which New Zealanders do not usually look at things.. There is no escaping history and Canadians are what they are because of an historical development in North America peculiarly their own. We must appreciate this if we wish to strengthen understanding between our tjvo countries and if we wish to build a commonwealth which will increase its authority throughout the world.”