BIRTH OF CANADA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 460, 29 December 1930, Page 10

BIRTH OF CANADA

| NEARLY 400 YEARS AGO JACQUES CARTIER'S LANDING VANCOUVER, Nov. 26. Preliminary arrangements arc being made for celebrating Canada’s quadcentenary in April, .1934, 400 years after Jacques Cartier made his first voyage to the New World, and planted the Cross on Canadian soil, to take possession of a vast expanse of territory in the name of the King of France. Cartier has a powerful claim on the affection of Canadians. He was the first white man to ascend the St. Lawrence, giving to many of its islands, capes and bays names that endure to this day. He tilled the first soil in Canada. He made four voyages to the St. Lawrence. His second was by canoe to the site of the present city of Montreal. He died at St. Malo, France, whence he set. out on his voyages. It is a slight inaccuracy to call Cartier the discoverer of Canada. The land was known to the Northern i Indians 500 years before, but the credit of bringing it int. the compass of civilisation has been given to Cartier. He was the first hstorian of Canada’s indigenous tribes, as he was their first missionary. He prepared a map of Canada, giving soundings of the St. Lawrence, which was of inestimable value to other navigators. Cartier had two vessels of 60 tons each. Leaving France on April 20 with 60 companions, he reached Newfoundland on May 10. The most historic of all Canadian paintings illustrates the scene on July 24, 1534, when he raised a cross 30ft. high, assembled in the presence of the Indians, on Canadian soil at Gaspe. In his illuminating narrative, Cartier describes the scene:—“Under the crossbar we fixed a shield with three fleur-de-lys in relief, and above it a wooden board, engraved in large Gothic characters, whereon was written, ‘Long Live the King of Franco.’ We erected this cross on the point in their presence and they watched it being put together and set up. Aud when it had been raised in the air we all knelt down, with our'hands joined, worshipping it before them, and made signs tn them, looking up and pointing toward heaven, that by means of this we had our redemption; at which they showed many marks of admiration, at the same time turning and loking at the cross.” The fertility of the soil in the Gaspe Peninsula was noted by Cartier:— “Not a corner of this land which is not replete with wild wheat, with cars resembling buckwheat and the grain oatslike; wild peas in such quantity that one could believe they had been cultivated and grown in ploughed land.” Cartier was the first white man to grasp the possibilities of the great area covering the northern half of the western continent. Journeying up the St. Lawrence River, he viewed with amazement the vast stretches of fine, rolling country on its shores, and noted in his narrative:—“We had sight of the finest, and most beautiful land it is possible to see, being as level as a pond and covered with the most magnificent trees in the world. The whole country is as fine a land as ever one behold. This river is the richest in every kind of fish that anyone remembers having seen or heard.” Plans are now under way to hold a fitting celebration on the 400th. anniversary of Cartier’s landing. Discussion at the moment centres on a plan to hold it a.t Gaspe, where he landed. Am invitation will be sent to Britain, lhe Dominions. France, the United States and other countries to assist in commemorating the birth of Canada.