CONDITIONS IN CANADA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17956, 5 December 1921, Page 9

CONDITIONS IN CANADA.

RECOVERY FROM DEPRESSION. INCREASING ACTIVITY. BISHOPS APPEAL FOR UNION. [from oub own correspojtdent.] VANCOUVER, Oct. 28. There is a very real and intimate connection oetween business in Canada and the United States. Hard times in the great and highly-industrialised central of population across the border ara almost invariably accompanied by hard times in the industrial centres of Canada. The (aimers of both countries prosper or suffer from low prices in common, becauso the export price sets the rate of return in the domestic market for a wide range of agricultural commodity produced in both countries. The panics of 1893 and 1907 and the sudden plunge from prosperity to stagnation in 1920 throughout the United States were all reflected in the trade and industry of the Dominion within a comparatively short timr.. Conditions across the border have been very bad for the better p2rt of a yrar— worse in tho aggregate than in Canada, bit they are now definitely on the mend. The upward swing in Canada is not yet so marked as it appears to be in the United States, probably because the depth of the depression in the Dominion was not so profound. There is a business revival in the Dominion, however corresponding to that observed in the United States. Factories that have been closed, or working part time with reduced forces, tie speeding up and pushing business, Id some industries extensive plans for expansion are under consideration, and factory owners do not usually considor measures of that sort unless they are fairly certain the storm of depression has passed. It is generally agreed in Canada that there cannot be any return to marked prosperity until the problems of exchange ; and the restoration of the purchasing power of Europe have been solved, but there is an undoubted upward swing which, will carry the people of Oanada, as well as of the United States, out of the depths 1 of business depression. Union ol the Churches. That Canadian Anglicanism, at least ; so far as a large section of its leaders is concerned, is looking toward a not-far-distant day when some form of union between the Church of England and the other Protestant denominations of the Dominion of Canada will be accom- ' plished, was indicated by two significant pronouncements delivered at Hamilton, Ontario, at the opening sessions of the general synod of the Church of England in Canada. Speaking from the pulpit at the Synod's initial service in Christ Church , Cathedral, the Right Rev. Charles Brent, Bishop of Western New York, emphatically declared that there had been enough of "talk" about union so far as the Anglican Church was concerned, and that the time for action had arrived. Still more significant, the Primate of all Canada the Most Rev. S. P. Matheson, Archbishop of Rupert's Land, in delivering his charge to the members of the Upper and Lower Houses at their 1 opening joint session in the Cathedral parish hall in the afternoon, stated thaii iurther delay in bringing into effect the recommendations of union issued by 'be , bishops at Lambeth, would bo fv.iughfc with danger to the well-being of the 1 whole Christian church. Among the various denominations in - Canada there hag already been a pro- \ mising movement to centralise efforts, and the Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists have shown a marked disposition toward union, s y Famous Explorei Honoured. A monument to the memory of Simon Fraser, the noted explorer of the "Groat j West" of .Canada has just been placed in j position u> the old cemetery of St Anf draw's ; .est, some six miles north of r Cornwall, Ontario, whore lie the remains I of the .renawne<i discoverer and his wife. i Mr. Fra;?r was born in the State of I Vermont, when it was a British possession, and his father, who was in the King's , Royal Regiment, was taken prisoner dur- . ing' the Revolutionary War, and died in , durance. His widow fled with her family, ! including Simon, then an infant in arms, \ and settled in St Andrew's West. When the boy grew up he joined the North-west, Fur Company, and remained in its service until it was amalgamated with the Hudson's Bay Company. Later he resigned and returned to St. Andrew's, where be died. In the course of his extensive travels : he discovered the river known by the Indians as the Great River, which he ex- ' plored until it emptied into the Pacifio Ocean, and which now bears his name. He also discovered a tributary to tha Fraser, which he named after David Thompson, astronomer of the North-west Company. Eraser established the principal posts of the North-west Company in l what is now known as British Columbia, I to which the Hudson's Bay Company sueI ceeded in course of time. In his journeying h« was accompanied by a man named I Stewart, uncle of the late Lord Strath- ! cona, and gave bis name to a large lake 1 and a river. ' Oil and Wheat Prospects, Officials of the Mines Department who ' have spent the summer investigating the • possibilities of the Fort Norman oilfield 1 state that there is oil in the locality unJ questionably, and that much of the field has not yet been thoroughly explored, but production in large quantities is not in evidence. While one gusher was struck and poured forth in great volume for a time, the run has now fallen to a few barrels a day. Another boring has struck oil at 1500 ft., but only in small quantities. Several prospects are being exploited with rather indifferent results. The officers are not condemning the field, nor its possibilities, but on the basis of what lias been discovered so far, they are not at all enthusiastic, especially in view of the isolation of the territory and transportation and other difficulties. According to the opinion of a prominent grain official in Montreal, wheat prices are about due for another drop, and ho is convinced that " dollar wheat' is not fa» off in Canada. " The depression is akin to that in evidence in every industrial field," he said. "There is no_ demand. European conditions are in sucn a con- ■ fused state of uncertainty that this gram markets are deplorable for the time being. For the past fortnight there has been a great falling off in orders, and the export i trade is not nearly so brisk as .♦.should [ be Russia appears to be responsible foi ija great deal of the uneasiness in Europe, • I with the inevitable result that orders are i jfew and far between."