THE TOUR OF THE PRESS DELEGATES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14579, 19 July 1909, Page 2

THE TOUR OF THE PRESS DELEGATES

MONTREAL AND QUEBEC. CFS.OH OOP. OWK CORHESPONDEKT.) • S.s. Empress of Britain, QUEBEC. Mav 21. We reached Montreal carlv on th* moniing of the 20th May, and hero as elsewhere we found ourselves in the hands of warm-hearted friencle—not friends of any previous pertonal acquaintance, but of the friendship begotten of the Empire kinship which has everywhere been our passport to the hearts of our Canadian brothers. Hospitality begins with the first meal of tho day, for we have an invitation to breakfast at tho WincUor Hotel, given to us by the proprietors of that fine hostelry. Thero is the usual elaborate menu, and, if we care to depart from the simpler food of our Australian and New Zealand homes, we ' can run the gauntlet of luxuries from tho initial grapefruit or plate of strawberries and cream to the final article on the menu. There is a wide choice of cereal break-fast foods, there are names on the fish course that are unknown to New Zealanders, followed by tender loin grilled steak and fripments of many kinds that are strange to us, there are frogs' legs, which are ordered and partaken of by some of the party with caution and doubt, but which prove to be quite harmless and palatable, and, in short, there is a wide range from which tho epicure can make choice. But most of us content ourselves with half of a grapefruit or a plate of strawberries and cream, followed by porridge or rolled oats and a grilled lamb chop, or the bacon and eggs so familiar to all of us. Montreal is a city of 450,000 inhabitants, two-thirds of whom are French or French Canadians. It is likewise a city of churches, mostly Catholic. Everywhere they nieet the visitor as he makes his way through the city. We had been invited to meet tho president and'members of the Board of Trade, and thereafter to partake of luncheon at the Canadian Club, and while the other members of the party availed themselves of the automobiles for a drive in the city and to a hill whence a view could be obtained, my predilections led me to wander through the streets of the city and to visit the office of the Montreal Star, where I am received with great courtesy and attention, and have a guide placed at my disposal for further wanderings in the labyrinth of streets with French names—St. Francis Xavier and so forth, —in which of a surety I should get out of my bearings. I found my youthful guide intelligent and communicative, and together we got in and out of tramears, strolled up one street and down another, read the French names on the windows of shops and business premises, got to the Place Vigor (which, being French,. please pronounce Plas Veejay, as it meets : one's ear in the frequent reference to it in Montreal]. It is the name of the great hotel of the C.P.R,, and immediately adjoins the railway station. It was built by the C.P.R. to meet the (Trowing wants of the city and the travelling public, and the land was given to the C.P.E. for the purpose and in recognition of its great enterprise. 1 may here mention that about four miles of railway track lie between the Windsor Hotel, where we had arrived in the morning, and the Place Viger. I had hoped to find that the car Lorraine had been brought up to the Place Viger, but was disappointed in this, and with my guide I got into a tra.m, and .in due course parted from him at tho door of the building where we were to meet the Board of Trade. Thero was the usual cordial speech of welcome by the president, to which Mr Davies had been told off to reply on behalf of Australia and Mr Fenwick on behalf of New Zealand. We then adjourned to luncheon,' where further speeches were made, in which the spirit of brotherhood between Canadians, Australians, and New Zealanders, and of loyalty lo the Empire, was strongly in evidence. Mr Cohen spoke on behalf of New Zealand. In tho evening we were entertained at dinner by the board, Mr Robertson, the president, • being in the chair. The dinner was a ■ thoroughly enjovable one, and many public men—politicians 'and others—were present. A number of excellent speeches wore listened to. anion? them one by the editor of a French news'.paper published in Montreal. I regret that I have forgotten his name. His speech was characterised by a good deal of elocutionary gesture, and his sentiments were sound from the Enhlish and Canadian point of view. Ho, 'however, took strong exception to the giving of money to England by Canada as" a-contri-bution towards the maintenance of the British navy, arguing that Canada should provide her own means of defence. Messrs ,Davies (Tasmania), Tomperlev (N.S.W.), and Fenwick (New Zealand) were the speakers for the press party. It is a fact worth recording in connection with Montreal that there is difficulty with the sanitary arrangements of the city during the' rigorous winter months, owing to the severe frosts, which penetrate the ground to a distance of several feet. Everything is held, as by a vyce in the grip of the frost, and that there is extreme difficulty in managing to keep the city clean and wholesome was evidenced by the placards' which were to be seen freely posted up, warning citizens that May 15 was the date up to which they were given to put their premises in a satisfactory condition now that the advent of spring permitted of them doing so. A still moro extraordinary fact was mentioned by one of the health officials of tho city to a medical man who was a passenger by the Marama from Sydney, and who had become friendly with our party and has journeyed across Canada with us. It was to the effect that burials of deceased persons during the severe winter months, when the temperature is anything _ from 20 to 40 degrees below zero, is impossible, as graves cannot be dug. The bodies are therefore kept for burial until the thaw sets in, and during the winter recently closed about 1500 bodies were kept for interment in the spring. We left Montreal with the usual expression of regret that we could not spend a few days in the city, instead of having to hurry away without the opportunity of seeing its many points of interest and making the better acquaintance of the public men and newspaper confreres who had treated us so well; but we were to sail from Quebec on the following day, so by midnight we were again all gathered at the Place Viger Station preparing for the last night in our sleeping berths in car Lorraine, our home for the past fortnight, except for the two days we had deserted it to cross Lake Superior in the s.s. Kecwatin. QUEBEC. We reached Quebec about 7 o'clock the following morning, and about b o'clock wo all assembled in the C.P.R. Company's magnificent and commanding hotel, the Chateau Frontenac. Wo have been cared for most assiduously during the whole of our long journey from Victoria, 8.C., to this our port of embarkation, and here, in historic Quebec, we are to receive a no less hearty welcome,, for we are to be the guests at luncheon of the Government of the province, while the ladies of the party are to receive the courtesies of Government House and to have lunch with tho the wife of the ■ President of the Quebec Senate. Meantime we make our way to the Chateau Frontenac for breakfast as the guests of the C.P.R., wider'the guidance of tho manager of their publicity department, Mr Ham, who has been our faithful counsellor and friend throughout our trip. A special breakfast had besn prepared for us, of which we partook in a private breakfast-room. The viands ' were of the choicest, and the menu was tastefully printed on green satin. And now an interesting ceremony took place. We realised that we owed fo much to Mr Hani's care of us and to his ' t unremitting attention in arranging all the details of our journey that before leavi ing Montreal we had' had a farewell address to him beautifully engrossed and illuminated. The whole of the party assembled immediately after breakfast, ■ ' and the chairman of our party (Mr 3 Thomas) addressed a few suitable words .! to Mr Ham, and presented him with the i ' address, accompanied with some articles of silver, two necklaces for his daughters,

and a silver mug for his little grandson. Mr Ham was much overcome, and expressed his warm affection for the friends he had made and his thanks for the address and (lie present that accompanied it. I may here mention that the ladies of the party had on the previous evening at Montreal' made a presentation to Mr Ham as a token of their regard for him and all that he had done to make their trip across Canada a source of pleasure to them. Quebec has been described as being unique among the cities of the new world, and this is perfectly true. It is a. city full of contrasts. Nothing could be finer than the striking and commanding appearance of the citadel and the great Chateau Frontenac as they tower above the lower town. Its monasteries and churches and convents, the noble Champlain Monument, the granite column which commemorates the brave Wolfe and the no less brave Montcalm, the Houses- of Parliament, the Garrison Club, Laval University, and many other massive stone buildings, arrest the attention of the' visitor, while in contrast to them the narrow streets of the lower town have their interest. Here, for example, is situated the little Church of Notre Dame des Victoires. which was buiit in 1688. After the defeat of Admiral Phipps in 1690 in his attack on Quebec, when it was in the hands of the French, and the destruction of Sir Havenden Walker's (Icet in tho Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1711, the little church was christened Notre Dame des Victoires (Our Lady of Victories), A brass pinto in one of the walls of Molson's Bank marks the spot of an old blockhouse near which, on the 31st of December, 1775, the attempt of the Americans to capture Quebec was defeated. Here in this historical old quarter is a street only 10ft or 12ft wide. At one side is the cliff, and the narrow houses on this side connect with the opposite houses by foot bridges at each storey. French is almost universally spoken in this quarter. There are many old buildings which probably date right back to the old French regime. Near one of these is the house which was occupied from 1791 to 1794 by the Duke of Kent, father of the late Queen Victoria. Among the very oldest buildings in Quebec is Montcalm House. Its appearance proclaims its great age. It is said that General Montcalm at one period made it his headquarters. Now it is devoted to the prosaic use of a barber's shop! But your space will not permit me to deal further with descriptions of this kind, and I must continue my narrative of the events of our too short stay in this intensely interesting old city. After an interesting morning we made our way to the Garrison Club, where we were entertained at lunch by the Premier, Sir Loincr Gouin, who occupied the chair, with the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Alphonse Pelletier, on his left. The Mayor, Sir George Garncau, one of the city merchants, was also present. The . lunch was of the very best, and the cooking exquisite. After lunch the Premier proposed the toast of "The Australian and New Zealand Visitors." It was received w.ith acclamation, and was ' responded to in short and. appropriate speeches by the Hon. Mr Kirwan on behalf of Australia, and Mr Fenwick on behalf of New Zealand, who was the only member of the New Zealand section of the party able to attend, as had, unfortunately, been the case at several of tho previous functions. Mr Lukin and Mr Brett, particularly, had for the last week of the trip suffered from indisposition of a somewhat severe type, and Mr Cohen also felt compelled to save himself as much as possible in consequence of impaired health. The great courtesy extended lo the party having been cordially acknowledged by 'Mr Thomas, we made our way down to the lower city and thence to the Empress of Britain. We were accompanied by some of the newspaper editors of the city, among them being M. Barthe, of La Soleil, and M. d'Hellencourt, the name of whose paper I do not remember. The attention paid to us by both these gentlemen was highly appreciated, and as they and other citizens stood on the wharf to see our noble steamer cast off we gave them three hearty cheers, with three more for the C.P.R. Company and a special extra one for Mr Ham, all of which were returned with hearty goodwill. We steamed rapidly down the Gulf of St, Lawrence and Quebec faded rapidly from our vi»w, every one of us keenly regretting that we had not further time to wander through the quaint old streets of the.historic city we bad left behind us, to view again and again the bald outlines of its citadels and ramparts, to pause before the monuments bearing on their sides the honoured and revered names of Wolfe and Montcalm, to again visit the Plains of Abraham with their hallowed associations, and lo fervently express our thankfulness that lite undaunted courage and determination of officers and men in those battles of bygone years had saved for the Empire one of the brightest jewels of her Crown— the great' Dominion whose potentialities are so vast that it requires no seer to predict for her a future of almost illimitable power and greatness.