CANADA.

Thames Star, Issue 14663, 17 April 1915, Page 7

CANADA.

ITS RISE AND PROGRESS

The derivation of the word Canada is obscure, but it is believed to have its origin in a n Italian word "'kannatha," meaning a village or collection of huts.' The supposition is that Jacques Cartier, hearing' the term used by the Ita'ians in connection with their settlements, applied it to the whole of the country. 1 Canada originally comprised the extensive range of territory a s far west as the Mississippi, including the great lakes, which was ceded to Great Britain by France it» 17G3. Subssquently, at the termination of the War of Independence, it was limited to the region now occupied by the provinces of Ontario: and Quebec. described: prior to 1867 as Upper and Lower Canada respectively. What is known as the Dominion of Canada is a confederation of; the colonies of British North America, constituted in 1867 by the British North America Act of that year . (30 Viet. .chap. 3).' Upucr end Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were the first to unite under • the provisions of that statute. The Hudson Bay territory was acquired from the comrany of that name, a portion of it ' formed into the province of Manitoba, the re- '. mainder designated the North-west* Territories, and both were' admitted* into the confederation in 1870." Part of the North-west Territories* was subsequently divided into j dis tricts as follows :—ln 1876 Kcewatin; t »-.-. in 1882 Assihiboa, Saskatchewan, Al-«~ berta, and Athabasca, oncl in 1905f these four were re-divided ipto thai? two . provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1871 British Columbia, and r , 1873 Prince Edward Island, beta* parties to the Union.—'"Chamber Encyclopaedia."