OUR CANADIAN LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2934, 8 June 1910, Page 40

OUR CANADIAN LETTER.

(Feom Our Own Correspondent.) OTTAWA, April 1. The month of March was the balmiest for at least three generations of Canadian experience. On the 29th the thermometer itood at 75.2, which was without a parallel for that month in the history of the official observatory, cwting back to 1840. In 1842 the 19th was a warm day, but not as warm as was the 29th this year. The mean temperature for the month was 37, which has only been slightly exceeded in one year since records were kept. March is usually a raw and blustering month, with cold nights and bright days. The mild weather this year has set people speculating as to whether or not the approach of Halley's comet has had a meteorological influence. Be that as it may, the promise of an exceptionally early spring has filled Canadians with large hopes for the year. In this north land every day between April 20 and actual seeding shortens the period for the growing and maturing of grain, more particularly in the western provinces. This year the outlook for early operations is brighter than ever before, and, since agriculture is the basic industry of the Dominion, sanguine feelings are entertained. These prospects are happily coincident with the largest spring immigration since the flood tide began 11 or 12 years ago. Settlers have been pouring in from the United States, jmd many thousands are on their way from Europe. From the bookings already made it is confidently expected that at [east 100,000 will come to our shores from .Great Britain alone. The total from all countries may exceed 260,000. The stimulating effect of such an influx will b> large and general. The suitability of immigrants is watched with scrupulous tare, and the outstanding feature at this moment is the high character and comfortable circumstances of those who are coming in. Paupers and diseased passengers are promptly deported. In fact, the regulations, are being made more stringent each year, and they are carried out with relentless rigidity. The incoming of many foreigners has its disadvantages. Many of them come from lands where they have been downtrodden and denied every trace of human liberty. Hence, when they get here they mistake freedom for license. Some have peculiar religious views which bring them into conflict with our laws. The chief 'difficulty is in getting them to send their children to school. There is little hope cf assimilating the old people in any broad or comprehensive way; but the children might easily be made Canadian in sentiment and practice if they were permitted to come under the influence of our educational system. Nevertheless, this drawback to an indiscriminate immif ration is being slowly overcome, 'atience and time are potent agencies in such a campaign, and between the school teacher and the missionary the progress of adaptation is going along with positive certainty. Some of our troubles come from a source nearer home. In the West there M considerable intolerance shown towards Englishmen. The Irish and the Scotch get along very well; but the English find .themselves up against a more or less fixed prejudice. The reason for this is to be Sound in the lack of tact often displayed l>y our brethren from overseas. Coming "from the Mother Country to what they »egard as a colony, they often err on the side of wanting everything here adjusted to English standards. They are unnecessarily parental, and too much given to jfault-finding.

A good story is just now going the rounds apropos of these thoughts. -An Englishman was on one of our westbound trains, and had with him in the •moking compartment a Canadian. He jgrumbled about everything. The prairies toe spoke of as being " flat and beastly iminteresting." The Canadian explained that they made very good farming land. " But you ought to have hills." insisted %e new chum. "Hills ar.v not suitable for wheat-growing," contended the Canadian. " That makes no difference," persisted the Englishman, " you ought to them. We have them in England. ey told us a great deal about the attractiveness of Canada. It's all bally rot. /Sou positively have nothing worth looking ;'t. Why, in passing through England in thi:- way, you see something interesting every mile or two—a castle here 'jfnA a ruin there," The Canadian was 'losing patience. " Oh, we have some fine English ruins a little further West. When jpou get to Calgary you will find plenty of Ihem. We call them ' remittance men.' "

Canada has just narrowly escaped an Exceedingly serious tariff war with the jtJnited States. The situation arose in .this way : The recent Tariff Bill of Congress prescribed that maximum rates of nnty should be applied against any country which discriminated against the (tFnited States. It happened that Canada came- within the terms of that measure of her recent treaty with France. iWhen legislation at Washington was tinder consideration this fact was ignored. f[ence on April 1 an enormously high rate f duties would automatically be levied Against imports from Canada. That was ijnly half tihe consequences, however. Borne years ago the Canadian Governjbent took power from Parliament to impose surtax against any country which Imposed a maximum tariff against Canada. It was in that way Germany got caught, ftnd did not come to her senses until her trade with Caaiada had almost disappeared. Therefore, it followed that the loaoment the United States raised the ■ tariff against Hhis (country, that very jnoment imports from that country would be met by the surtax on this side of the ;l)oundary. The trade between the two countries h&t year amounted to £55,000,000, of -(which 66 per cent, was in imports from the Unite.-! States. Thus our neighbours had two dollars at risk in such a war

to one on our part. On March lit looked as if the battle would be on at the end of the month. Then came an unofficial invitation from the President of the United States to meet the Prime Minister of Canada at Albany. But Sir Wilfrid Laurier declined to go. Our experience in going to Washington, had been most unsatisfactory, and the last visit of Sir Wilfrid to the American capital had been rather humiliating. For the first time Canada had the whip hand. The President was being bombarded by interests which would be seriously affected if the Canadian surtax went into operation, and he thereupon amended his first invitation by the words " or some authorised representative." Thereupon Mr Fielding, the Minister of Finance, accompanied by Mr Graham, the Minister of. Railways, went to Albany. . In the past our representatives had been treated with scant courtesy at Washington. The Americans have always acted with narrowness towards us, asking much and offering very little in return. This is why all efforts'on our part to negotiate a fair measure of reciprocity have failed. This time our neighbours were aroused to the fact that they had to deal with a new Canada, and with a customer who bought in large volume at the rate of two dollars for one she sold to them. The American press alluded in strong terms to the narrow policy which the United States had always applied to Canada, and called upon President Taft to do everything in his power to avert the threatened tariff war. President Taft was equal to the occasion. Be offered to withhold the maximum tariff if some slight concession were made by Canada to the United States. This led to serious and businesslike negotiations, and at the end of a few hours an arrangement was reached, under which on 13 articles a reduction of 2£per cent, in the rate of duty was allowed by the Dominion. These articles are not relatively important, and affected a trade of barely £1,000,000. The -loss of duty will be inconsequential, and in return Canada escapes from the lniximum tariff of the United States. That advantage, however, is insignificant as compared with the status which Canada has won. at Washington. The way is now open for fair trade between the two countries.

In the preceding paragraph reference was made to a*" New Canada." The words are full of meaning. The growth of the Dominion has been so rapid and substantial that the entire domestic situation has been changed within the past decade. The other day a census of Montreal was taken, and it revealed a population of over 600,000. Toronto has advanced to 400.000, and all the commercial centres show corresponding expansion. It is confidently expected that next year, when the decennial census is taken, it will show our numbers to have reached 8,000,000. Inseparable from such development has been a very great rise in the value of real estate, particularly in, the large communities;, and speculation in the unearned increment is rife everywhere. Fortunes are being made by trafficking in land. In Ottawa alone there are to-day 10 real estate agents to one who was in that business three years ago. The people look on complacently, and nine out of 10 regard the man who sees anything wrong in such a traffic as a lunatic. If the thing reaches the point of inflation, which seems probable, many will have their eyes opened.

The expenditure on automobiles in the United States, a competent authority asserts, will exceed £200,000 a day. Over and above that, many millions of dollars will pour into that country in return for automobiles exported. Canada will be a good customer in that regard. There if but. one manufactory of automobiles in the Dominion, and it is incapable of satisfying more than 5 per cent, of the demand. This is one of the manifestations of our swelling wealth, and coincident with the outlay of enormous sums for luxuries of that nature is heard, very persistently and loudly, an outcry about the high cost of living. To meet the exalted price of necessaries, the scale of wages and salaries is constantly going up. The railways have made advances to their staff equal to 20 per cent, since 1902, and the end has not been reached. But, while the cost of living has risen very much, the cost of high living has gone upward even faster. Prosperity nearly always brings such demonstrations. Ten years ago a sojourn at the seaside was the summer luxury of our well-to-do. Now it is a three or four-months' trip abroad. There is scarcely a berth to be had on the steamers sailing as far ahead as the middle of July, and this is but an- example of the many directions in which the smile of good times is being exhibited. Perhaps the salary-earner least of all finds his circumstances keeping abreast of the tide.

In the West the effects of buoyancy are everywhere in evidence. The Toronto Globe, Canada’s leading newspaper, is authority for the statement that coal miners in the Crow’s Nest Pass were earning from £3O to £SO per month, or the equivalent of the salary -of a railway superintendent 10 years ago. The added comment, “If it were not for drunkenness they would be the richest and most prosperous labouring population in the world,” is painfully significant. It tells the story of a class of people unprepared for prosperity. They work very short hours, and have a good deal of leisure above ground. For one who is frugal, three are wasteful and improvident. Five thousand tons a day are raised by the Frank mines alone. In 1897 not a shaft had been sunk. In the neighbouring mountains a terrible disaster occurred early in the month. A small snowslide had taken place in Rogers’ Pass, quite near to the great glacier, and two train crews had been sent out to clear the track. While thus engaged a tremendous avalanche swept down the mountain side, and buried all but one man. The loss of life reached 63, of whom 37 were Japanese. The

Canadian Pacific Company has been operating in the mountains for nearly 25 years, and this is tine first calamity of that nature to occur. At the supposedly dangerous points immensely strong snow sheds have been built; but in this instance the men were working on a track outside the protected area. That is to say, there are two trackSj one inside the snowshed and the other outside. Nevertheless, the partial destruction of. one of ne snowsheds showed this particular avalanche to have been of extraordinary proportions. A new mining field is being opened in Northern British Columbia. It is situated on Bea. River, and shows remarkably rich deposit-, of gold, silver, load, and copper. It is controlled by Mr D. D. Mann, one of the foremost railway men in the Dominion. Mr Mann, with his associates, has already expended £600,000 in developmenb work. One of the mines in that district, the Red Cliff, is owned entirely by British capitalists, on-? of whom, Mr A. D. Tennant, was recently in Toronto. To a newspaper representative he said that the property had been crosscut for 140 ft, and showed solid ore all the way. Th's pre is roughly valued at £ls per ton; but the body is so large and the a ea so extensive as to promise continuous working for a great many years. Mr Tennant believes there will be 10,000 people in the camp this year. The Canadian navy, to the establish ment of which Parliament has given as sent, will cost £2.500,000, and represent an annual maintenance charge of £600,000. In the heat of partisan debate the proportions of this organisation have been rather severely criticised; but, after all, when the whole scheme is carried out, Canada-will be able to contribute a formidable fighting equipment for the purposes of Imperial defence. There will be 12 vessels in all, of which two will be used as) training ships. For this pur pose the Niobe will be purchased from the Britsh Government and stationed on the Atlantic coast. She is, an armoured cruiser of 11,000 tons displacement, 435 ft in length, with 16,500 indicated horsepower and a speed of 20 knots. She has 16 6in guns, 14 12-pounders, five threepounders., two machine guns, and two torpedo-tubes. She will carry 600 men. The Rainbow is also an armoured cruiser, purchased from the British Government, and will serve as a training ship on the Pacific coast. There will be four Bristols, armoured cruisers, each with a displacement of 4800 toils, 430 ft long, 47ft beam, and 22,000 indicated horse-power. Thenspeed will be 25 knots, and each vessel will carry 20 officers and 371 men. Six destroyers of the latest river class will complete the fleet. These, like the Bristols, will be of the very latest type adopted by the British Admiralty. All told, the fighting force will consist of 12 vessels, with 65 officers and 2500 men. Such a fleet will make a substantial unit, and will be so constituted as to provide the speed and effectiveness necessary to any emergency for the protection ot wade routes. . The Canadian cruisers will be larger than 32 out of 37 French cruisers, and 4b out of 51 German cruisers. The United States will have but three larger cruisers, as will also Japan. This force will be at the disposal of Great Britain, subject to the approval of the Canadian Government. It was this attitude which caused so much discussion in Parliament. The opponents of Government policy in this regard contended that immediately on the outbreak of war the Canadian navy should pass automatically under the control ol the British Admiralty; but Canada will be in precisely the same position as the Australian Commonwealth, and that position accords with the sentiments of our people. Great Britain will always be able to relv upon Canada. The" building of the Canadian navy will be begun at once, and organisation for the training ships is already under way. There ought to be no difficulty in getting together the finest body of men in the world. Canada has a large maritime population from which to draw,_ and in physique and intelligence a superior force should be the result. The whole enterprise is more or less novel to our people, and at this moment it is difficult to say whether or not the necessary enlistments will be easily obtained. The demand for labour is keen evrywhere, and wages are high. Time will tell. Meanwhile, the enterprise has the hearty endorsemnt of the Canadian people, and its carrying out will be watched with pride and interest. The following paragraph was sent out to Canadian papers from St. John, New Brunswick, on the 13th of the month : " The combined weight of Wilfrid and Ruby Westwood, brother and sister, who with their parents arrived on the Lake Erie from Liverpool to-day, totals exactly 5591 b. Wilfrid, who is aged 12, tips the scales at 3301 b, and his sister, aged 16, weighs 2291 b. They belong to New Zealand, and will make a trip across Canada."