THE CANADIAN SCENE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4535, 11 February 1942, Page 5

THE CANADIAN SCENE

EXPERIENCES OF A TE RORE AIRMAN “ A WONDERFUL COUNTRY” In a letter describing agricultural conditions in Canada, Sergeant-Pilot J. 0. Finn, son of Mr and Mrs George Finn, of Te Rore, mentions what he saw in various parts of the country. Referring to a train journey in the East, he writes:— THE LUMBER COUNTRY

“ After the dawn of another day we were right in the midst of the lumber country, and really it- makes one’s eyes open with amazement. To see small lakes every few miles covered with logs is a marvellous sight. In this particular region most of the mills were engaged in the production of paper pulp, and the logs used are not more than about nine inches in diameter. The country around those parts was very beautiful, and is rather similar to the re-afforestation areas between Putaruru and Lake Taupo. The lakes, however, spoil the similarity, and though I’m a great admirer of our New Zealand scenery 1 must admit that this particular region is much more pretty. In the afternoon we came Within sight of the St. Lawrence River, and I am forced to admit ife size exceeded my . expectations a hundred times,From our carriage window as far as the eye could see was. water, and every here and there a ship was visible ploughing a steady course up or down the river. Next morning we awoke to find ourselves in the Canadian National Railways’ yards in Montreal. The afore-men-tioned city is indeed a tremendous place, having a population as big as the whole of New Zealand. After having breakfast in the dining-room at the expense of the Royal Canadian Air Force, we were allowed to see the sights of the city until seven o’clock that night- We went first to the Army Hut in the Municipal Buildings, and there spent two hours in one of the best swimming pools I have yet seen. After this we made for a barber's shop, where it cost us a dollar (5s 6d) for a hair-cut and a shave. From there we went back to the Canadian National Railways dining-room and partook of dinner. You may wonder why we went back to the Canadian National Railways’ dining-room for this meal. Well, here’s the reason; The French-Canadian waitresses were very charming, and to them we New Zealanders were curiosities often talked about but seldom seen.

IN THE WHEAT COUNTRY “ Dinner over, we hired a sevenseater taxi find- instructed the driver to show us I any points of particular beauty or interest around the city. What we saw would fill several pages, so I will pass on by adding that seven o’clock found us safely back at the station. Our train for Winnipeg left at eight, and as most of us were pretty weary it wasn’t long before we were dreaming of places back home. During the night we went through | Ottawa and awoke to find the train changing engines at Capreol. All that j day we travelled through the country, the scenery consisting of stunted sec- ' pndary.. forest, small marshy lakes, i and thousands of acres of rocky, bar- ! ren country.. Stations were very few i .and far. between, and we spent most I of the day trying to sleep. Next - morning at 1 nine o’clock we hit the | wheat belt about a hundred miles out I of Winnipeg. Here the soil looked very rich, but in spite of this the | crops on the average were poor. Occasionally a really good crop was seen, but they were very few and farbetween. The land was as flat as a pancake, and grain harvesting was the principal job in hand. Horse teams, tractors, reapers and binders, combines, waggons, motor trucks, and the golden grain waving in the breeze presented a wonderful panorama as far as the eye could see. At eleven a.m. we arrived at Winnipeg, where, after stretching our legs for twenty minutes, we transferred to the train which was to take us to Saskatoon, the Hub City of Saskatchewan. “Winnipeg is quite a big city, and j is very well laid out. It has some very fine buildings, and, what impressed me most of all, the widest I streets I have ever seen. In twenty minutes we didn’t have time to-walk far, but managed to reach the main street. In this country very few -of the buildings have verandahs over the footpath, but Winnipeg seemed to be the exception that proves the rule. Once again on the train, we settled down on the last lap of»our journey. The scenery was very similar to that already mentioned outside Winnipeg, but as we travelled further west the crops seemed to become even poorer. At 10.30 o’clock that night we arrived at Saskatoon. Trucks from the Air Force Station met us, and we sped out to No. ■ 4 S.F.T.S., our present home, which is three miles out of the town. NO SHELTER BELTS “ Since, being here we have been flying Cessna Cranes, which are an Am-erican-built twin-engined commercial flane. They cruise at a hundred and sixty miles an hour, and in the course of several cross-country flights which I have made I think I have seen quite, ■a lot of the province of Saskatoon. From the air everything looks much the same for hundreds of miles—that is, just thousands of acres of flat, uninteresting prairies. One thing which strikes me sis a New Zealander is a complete absence of shelter belts. Most of the i farms vary in size from half a section to two or three. When you come to consider that a section ife a square mile I think you will be of the. saine opinion as I am—-that is, that the man with, say, close on 2000 acres of crop really deserves all he makes out of it. The last three years the grain farmers have been pretty hard hit. Evidently Mother Nature has been rather unkind in that the ■ rain hasn’t been very plentiful or has come, at the wrong time. THE WHEAT CROP “ Several weeks ago I was talking to -a farmer in town, and he said that for the last three years the crops have been very stunted. This is occasioned by a good rainfall until the crop is jilst above: the ground, and then a complete absence of muchwanted water for anything from one to two months. Conditions such as these must give a grain-grower a headache. This year the same thing has happened, and when the crons were ready for harvest the rain really

came. Many of the. crops, poor as they. already were, were well nigh ruined, as the rain at that time saturates the ripe grain and turns it a dark brown.. After harvesting, it has to go to hospital elevators, where it is dried out again, and this is a very expensive operation. Many of the crops this year averaged about five bushels to the acre, and first-class grain is worth seventy-five cents a -bushel. If the grain goes through these hospital elevators it costs about thirty cents ;a bushel, so the crop as far as the farmer is concerned is well nigh valueless. The Government evidently has at last realised the plight of the grain farmers, and several days ago announced that it would pay a bonus on a cultivated acreage basis. Just how .much per acre this will be is at present unknown, but by all accounts it will be something to carry on with, anyway. “ Since being here we have experienced two dust-storms, and they arc damnable affairs. The wind the other day reached forty-five milts an hour, and when it gets up, to that speed the ■dust is blown for miles. Under such .conditions, the ground about two hundred feet up, is v.ery hard to see, and landing these light planes (two and a half tons) is a pretty tricky business. The wind whines around the hangars, power poles bend to- breaking point, and one breathes dust, spits dust, and is nearly suffocated. As for one’s clothes, the less said the better. “In the meantime, chaps, carry on producing the butter and wool which are so. essential for a successful end to this’ war. Yours for successful farming.”