CANADA’S NEWEST PORT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17957, 8 December 1932, Page 12

CANADA’S NEWEST PORT

ORPHAN OF POLITICAL STORM A STUDY or ANOMALIES Churchill, Manitoba’s seaport, is a study of anomalies, writes Miss E. Cora Hind, agricultural editor of the Winnipeg Free Press, who was the first woman to make the trip from Canada’s new seaport to Europe. It is the fastest graiif-handling port on the continent of America, but lias no post office; no banking facilities; no officially opened railway; no station; no hotel; no store; no official recognition by Manitoba that it is its seaport, and last, but by no means least of the anomalies, the grain trade of the province has made and is makilig no use of it. In all 12 freighters have visited the port, and taken grain cargoes, but no Manitoba firm name has appeared upon the bills of lading. Residents of Churchill ask why these things are so. To date no satisfactory answer has been received. ONLY 13 CARS OF MANITOBA WHEAT This year to date, though 10 ships have been loaded and have sailed, only 13 cars of Manitoba wheat have reached this port. What is infinitely worse, not a single cargo has been shipped by a Canadian firm, and no Winnipeg Grain Exchange firm, has had its name on a bill of lading. The attitude of our Canadian firms has been “Let George do it.” No interest in the port, no willingness to take the slightest risk, if risk there be, over and above that of any other port. It has been left to continental and New York interests to see and take advantage of this wonderful port, where a single pilot can convoy two loaded vessels from the docks out into the bay in tlio incredibly short period of 45 minutes. This was done on September 24. Insurance rates are high, but they are not higher for Winnipeg firms than for Dreyfus and the Continental Grain Company. It is nothing short of a. scandal that this condition should exist.

Even the pools have shipped no cargoes, though they have been more than willing to sell wheat to those with sufficient enterprise to ship. It is not so long ago that at grain grower conventions many eloquent speeches were made and resolutions passed urging the great need of this shorter route to British markets for Canadian farm products. Now the railway is completed and the. ocean route established, why this sudden loss of interest? NO BANK WITTTTN 500 MILES In 1931 Churchill had three banks when one would have been amply sufficient This year, with a steadily increasing grain business, and no bank, the delay and inconvenience over bills of lading, etc., has been great indeed. No bank for 500 miles and a train once a week. Think of it. Scarcely the best method of increasing the use of the port. Another thing which Churchill residents would like to have explained is why the Premier. Mr. Bracken, as official head of the Manitoba Government, lias never visited, or in any official manner recognised, the port. Th e h,>|dinir hack of the town site from settlement is another anomaly for which the Manitoba Government is responsible. At present visitors from overseas coming in with the grain boats have been entertained at construction camps, while visitors for either business or pleasure coming in from east and south must either siren for two nights in the sleeper, and return whence they came, or if they wish to remain longer can only do so by inflicting themselves on the' long-snfferimr hositalitv of the missionary of the T'nited Church and his most kind, hut over burdened wife. What these, two people have done to uphold the good name of Churchill will never he fully known,

JEALOUSY OF EAST AND WEST PORTS HURT

There are at least 25 applications in from people ready and willing to erect hotels and there is easily trade for one good one of fair size, for apart from transient trade, there are sufficient men of various callings resident in Churchill all the year round to furnish a steady supply of hoarders. One shrewd western senator, who attended the shipment of the first wheat in 1931 remarked, “this port is too good, it will have many enemies.” He was right. The continual disparaging and, frequently wholly incorrect statements against the port and the railway, coming from Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver are bad enough and sufficiently injurious but the indifference of Winnipeg grain men and merchants is the most disheartening thing to those who are fully seized of the enormous advantages to Western Canada of this short route to the markets of the world. “It is ever a very bitter experience to find that our foes are they of our own household.” None of the filling work in and about the harbor has been continued this year by the Dominion Government, lack of funds being given as the excuse. However considerable progress has been made with the insulating of the pipe line for water supply from the reservoir at or near Rosabella Lake. EVERYTHING SEEMS AT A STANDSTILL No preparations for the receipt and shipment of cattle have been made at the port. The ships for the coal docks are in, but that is all, though it is confidently stated that coal from Britain will come m with the first grain boats next summer. Beyond the items mentioned there is a decided air of everything being at a standstill. Numerous people both at Churchill and in other parts of Canada ask: “What is the matter with Churchill?” Well, careful inquiry indicates that nothing but the stupid jealousy and ignorance of men. It is this which is making the port feel like an orphan. All the advantages seen by Jens Munck in 1619 and fought for by the British and French in the snceeding 300 vears, are here to-day enlarged and enhanced by the wonderful developments in navigation, in wireless radio and aircraft. Just so surely as Montreal has to a great extent overcome her great handicap of 1000 miles of difficult channel and heroine a creafc seaport, and Vancouver Ihe diffculties of the entrance to her “land-locked blue,” and the heat of the Panama, so will Churchill overcome the last harrier to her complete success—to wit; “Prejudice and joalonsv.”

Churchill has the natural advantages as the “iron men of the wooden ships” owed two centuries ago: all that is needed is for the knockers east and west to sell their hammers and buy horns.