THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1936 VANCOUVER'S JUBILEE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22504, 22 August 1936, Page 12

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1936 VANCOUVER'S JUBILEE

Vancouver's golden jubilee, in the celebrations of which the Lord Mayor of London is the present central figure, is an Empire occasion calling forth feelings of fraternal rejoicing throughout the other countries of the British Commonwealth. Nowhere is Vancouver's proud record of progress more sincerely and fervently applauded than in Auckland, another Empire port of the Pacific destined for greatness, with which she is so closely linked by a New Zealand shipping line. It is diflicult to realise that only 50 years the steel rails of the C.P.l\. reached salt water on the west, at the tiny settlement known as Port Moody, beside which Vancouver has risen. To-day the cit\ has a population of 300,000. To its port ply vessels of no less than 55 deep sea lines, and through the Lion's Gate passes a traffic and trade greater than the bravest dreams of the pioneers, many of whom survive. Vancouver is one of the romances of the Empire. She stands at a place of high destiny. Fully does she justify her motto " By land and sea wc prosper." Captain Vancouver, the navigator, first penetrated into Burrard Inlet in 1792, but it was the steel-rail pioneers who gave his name to the city that was to be. Thither, 70 years later, came Morton, Brighouse and Hailstone, who had crossed the Atlantic, lured by the discovery of gold in the Cariboo up the Eraser Valley. The beauty of the forest solitude so delighted theii hearts that they decided to live there, and scon had their log cabin on a- holding of 500 acres of land that is now the heart of Vancouver. Auckland was then 22 years old. Twenty-four years later the amazing energy of the C.P.R. brought its first train to the coast—and the engine that drew it again puffed into the Port Moody station last month, a joyful participant in the festival.

The jubilee celebrations were opened on Canada's Dominion Day, the sixty-ninth anniversary of the passing of the British North America Act, under which the federation of the provinces was to be secured and the country "set on its course toward nationhood." The first serious attempt to create a federation under the British system of government, and one which was regarded as a minor matter by Britain, which was not yet Empireconscious, this Constitution was j necessarily a thing of compromise j because of conflicting local, racial and religious interests. But it served, Recent years have witnessed movements for its reform on account of the inevitable clash between federal and provincial authority. It has been contended that what ended the deadlock of the 'sixties is not necessarily suitable for the present. In a measure the ,same kind of influences are behind the West Australian agitation for separation from the Commonwealth. In 1934 proposals for recasting the. Constitution were heralded by the then Prime Minister, Mr. R. B. Bennett, who later submitted to the provincial Governments a series of questions. How to reduce the evils of duplicate taxation, and on what terms would the Provinces surrender exclusive juris diction over legislation dealing with such social problems as unemployment, old age pensions, social insurance, hours and wages, were among them. One comment revealing the thorny path of a reformer of the Constitution was that Provinces could not transfer financial responsibilities without concurrently surrendering legislative rights long regarded as sacred. Nothing resulted from the overture, and the following year the constitutional validity of a Federal Unemployment Insurance Bill was challenged on ! the ground that it invaded provinj cial rights. A Select Committee was subsequently set up to search for a way of reform that would safeguard provincial autonomy, and there the matter stands. But the clash of interests is not likely to cease in that vast country, where the man of the prairie is not always in step with the man of the factory. But Canada's domestic, problems, perplexing though they be, are not allowed to dim the glory of British Columbia's days of commemoration and rejoicing. With all the rest of the Dominion, that Province and its splendid city count among the great national blessings the freedom of menace along the southern border. Neither Canada nor the United States requires a lino of fortifications to stand guard against encroachment of any sort. And across the oceans Britain and Australia and New Zealand hold out hands to the great Dominion. Year by year the handicap of distance lessens, bringing a sense of closer intimacy. All being tied to the wheel of things as they are, they are unable at the moment to wipe out barriers to trade. But a day of closer Imperial reciprocity must surely come. The promise of that is found in the realm of the spirit which binds the British peoples and whispers the secrets of that brotherhood which brings power to face adversity and peril. Times of foreboding and doubt are brightened by the realisation in every British country that the "brethren overseas" will be no less strong and resolute and enterprising in the future than the.v have been in the past. Only a glance at the pioneering past of Canada, of Australia and of New Zealand is required to ,^ r ive confidence for the future, j These countries were not built by ! chance.