PEOPLE AND PRODUCTS OF VANCOUVER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2510, 23 April 1902, Page 73

PEOPLE AND PRODUCTS OF VANCOUVER.

The people of Vancouver, at anyratc, are thoroughly British, notwithstanding that they have been, as v.-a^ inevitable, influenced .'n many ways by their contiguity to the States. Their s=peech is not greatly dissimilar. In tone and accent it bear* a much closer resemblance to the Yankee than to the English, Scotch, or Australasian type. But it isn't Yankee — at least, it certs inly is not the speech of Xpw England. Curiously enough, the region of America that has produced, and for aught I know still proC.UC2S, the best life of the United States has developed tho accent most repellent to British oars. It is said that the New Englanuers speak as their Puritan forefathers spoke. I have a strong admiration for the Puritans; but if they spoke so it wasn't pretty by any means, But the Canadians do not speak so. Neither do they speak like the people of the Southern State?. Their accent is a little like that of the San Franciscans, who consider that they arc neither of the North nor the South, but a folk by themselves. But Canadian speech as heard in British Columbia i« in any case a way of speaking the English tongue that sounds very pleasant, at least in my ears — a vast improvement on the '" bow-wow " of some sorts of Englishmen and the drawl of Sydney and Brisbane. The people of Vancouver are a. pleasant sight to the eyes weaned with the washedout folk of Northern Australia. Ths men seem sturdy, well set up, with ruddy complexions and every appearance of vigorous vitality. The women are fair to look upon. They might have been born and bred in Dunedin from their appearance, and so far as my experience goes they are as gracious and hospitable as Dunediu women have the reputation of being. In my la&t at tide I -poke of the situation and Hirroundings of Vancouver as -onic-what similar to tl:o~e of our own city. Concerning both scenery and people, I can pay Vancouver no higher compliment than to say that it is a smaller edition of Dunedin at the other end of the world. That statement would al»o apply to the business done in the place, so far as the business is reflected in the shops and stores of the puncipal streets. TliK industry of Vancouver is, of course, the tinning of tho salmon which in enormous quantities are caught in the streams of British Columbia. It was the close seaeon when I was there, and consequently I caw nothing of this process. But I was told that it is a wonderful sight, and «till more wonderful is said to be the sight of the streams at certain seasons of the year. I was credibly informed that in some of the smaller streams the salmon ascend in such incalculable swarms that there is sometimes neither room nor water enough for the mass, and occasionally a fish is thrown out on the bank by the sheer pressure of its companions. That is a statement that ha, a. 'ort of Miinrliauscn ring- about it, but J wa-» assured that feuch was the ca»e In the shops of Vaneomer at the time of my visit there \va c nothing to indicate that >almon are more plentiful there than they are here. Nor did they pre-ent any other features that would strike one as novel. What you ran buy in Dunedin, with the exception of a few articles of food, you can buy in Vancouver, and vice ver=a. But that, to be sure, is what one expects in those days, when by means of steam the ends of the earth haxp been brought together. Curiously enough, however, there is one thing you cannot buy in Vancouver or in San Francisco, or I fancy in any part of the American contmpnt, and that is ju-t the commodity of which we yet all our supping from Amenca. I refer to