OLD WORLD IN NEW.

Waikato Times, Volume 99, Issue 16653, 19 November 1925, Page 10

OLD WORLD IN NEW.

CANADA IN TRANSITION, WONDERFUL CHATEAU OF QUEBEC. Quebec is the gateway to Canada: but all roads lead to Winnipeg—certainly all railroads do —and at Winnipeg is centred the transport traffic of the Dominion (writes Frederick J. Higginbottom in the Daily Chronicle). This capital of the North-West sees the stream of progress growing in two directions. The volume of the export trade—of which the wheat export is typical—swells year by year as it passes through to the grain elevators of the Great Lakes and the Atlantic seaboard; • that of the tourist traffic, flowing from the Eastern and Middle States of the Republic towards the show places of the Rocky Mountains, increases in numbers, too. I had visited Winnipeg, and Montreal and Quebec as well, and I have been amazed at the accumulating evidences of Canada's rapid advancement, during the past five years in each of these great cities. The Chateau Frontcnac at Quebec, enlarged to a capacity of over 800 rooms, has become this summer the tourist exchange of the western hemisphere. It is always filled with a cosmopolitan crowd, largely English or French speaking, and constantly on .the move eastwards or westwards. Well-equipped steamships of the Canadian Pacific Railway bring one stream from Europe; the same raflway (and others) bring another growing stream from New York and the Southern States, and the two streams mingle at the Frontcnac before they flow out again to the West. No Ellis Island. In other words, the holiday-lovers of the United States have, found that II Is easier to enter Canada by Quebec than by any railway gate farther west, where the formalities are greater. To the overseas visitor from Europe, Quebeo is in every way a better adit than any port of the United States. There is no Ellis Island at Quebec, and the test to which it corresponds is administered with courtesy and consideration by all Canadian officials. Thus, Quebec is becoming popular end prosperous, and its rather slowmoving population is being surprised out of its quietude and made to move with the times. The agonising cobble-stones and crazy wood sidewalks of the Lower Town are gradually being replaced with material more like the pavements of the smart suburbs and the Grand Allee. The scene in the public gardens near the Frontcnac is nightly one of Continental gaiety. The Quebec people, in spite of their conservative habit of mind, being mostly French-speak-ing, rather like the new developments, although they have done nothing to bring them about. They arc reaping where the Canadian Pacific has sown and they arc quite content.

Dominion's Chief Star. Of Montreal, it must be said that it has welcomed the increasing prosperity of Canada with becoming dignity: has shown that it is quite aware of the sources of the Dominion's growing greatness, and has displayed its appreciation by embellishing its civic ornamentation with new lustre in the shape of fine buildings and newstreets. Though not the economic centre of Canada (except in the banking sense), Montreal is the chief star in the Dominion's firmament, in brilliancy and in mass. Blood will tell, even in a democratic community like that of tho Dominion —although Montreal may not be the best example of a democratic community. The ancien regime still makes its influence felt in Montreal and will continue to do so until the western lodestone of commercial success attracts to Itself a new aristocracy of wealth. There. Is another reason why Montreal will be difficult to displace from its old predominance, and that Is because Its people aro so much better educated than the Westerners. Literally, everyone may get a university education, and without expense. University for All. The guide on the tourist motor car that took me round the city was a well-spoken young man who, though fie wore a car owner's livery, was refined and knowledgeable. As we passed McGlll University buildings he waved his hand with a familiar gesturo towards it with tho remark:. "That was my alma mater." One need not wonder at this Incident if it be borne In mind that 23 per cent of the population of Canada is borne on the books of Its 22 unvCrsitics. Montreal spreads, therefore. In the sun of Canada's prosperity. It is developing a great West Montreal outside of the exclusive district of Westmount—that curious example of a city within a city—and there are new townships formed at La Chine, La Salle, and Verdun, on the banks of the St. Lawrence. The handsome Baptist Church in Weslmount, of which Mr Lloyd George laid Ihe foundation slone, is completed, and his memory has been kept green in the newer district of Verdun, where, one of the latest thoroughfares has been named Lloyd George avenue. In another and wider sense it is a city of grateful remembrance. The main avenue of West-Montreal is lined on each side with recently planted trees, and on each tree-guard is a metal tablet, specially cast, bearing the name or a Canadian soldier who made the great sacrifice in the War. It will be said of a city that honours its dead heroes In this human way that it has an Imagination that is tantamount to national genius.