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Las diagrammas suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 4 5 6 > FoMi'th Ordinary General Meetimj, 217 It was also announced that donations to the Library of books, maps, &c., had been received from the various Governments of the Colonies and India, Societies, and public bodies both in the United Kingdom and the Colonies, and from Fellows of the Institute and others. The Chairman, m introducing the reader of the paper, said : Before calling upon Canon Beanlands, it is right to inform the meeting that on the melancholy occasion of the death of the Duke of Clarence and Avondale, the eldest son of our President, the Council, as was their duty, sent to the Prince and Princess of Wales a message of cordial sympathy, and that has elicited the answer which I will read : " Sir Francis Knollys is desired to convey to the Council of the Royal Colonial Institute the sincere thanks of the Prince and Princess of Wales for the sympathy they have ex- pressed on the occasion of their Royal Highnesses' bereavement." This is, like the other letters which on this distressing occasion have come from the Prince and Princess of Wales, very interesting and very touching. I have now great pleasure in calling upon Canon Beanlands, and I may saj that it is about five years since British Columbia, its institutions and progress, has been brought under discussion at a meeting of the Royal Colonial Institute, and we are very glad on the present occasion to have it brought forward by Canon Beanlands, who I shall now ask to read his paper. BRITISH COLUMBIA: A PROBLEM OF COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT. I FEEL that I owe an apology at the cutset for taking up your time Avith the remarks I am about to make. If the audience before me liad been composed for the most part of those who had never had experience of life outside the Mother Country there would have been an excuse for presenting to them opinions upon Colonial matters which must be necessarily immature, but which might at any rate be suggestive and convey information. But I see before me to-night men of wide Colonial experience, accustomed for many years past to dealing with those questions which have only recently presented themselves to my mind ; and I have to ask their kind indulgence in promoting a discussion which may to them appear wholly vain and unnecessary. The portion of the British Empire with which I have been intimately associated for the p^st seven years is British Columbifi. 218 British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development. I have lived in its capital, Victoria, since before railway days ; and I have slept in the backwoods of Burrard Inlet where now is the heart of the new city, Vancouver. That was in 1S84. Since then I have seen the population double and quadruple. I have seen the value of land round the towns rise by what would appear excessive bounds, but I have not seen that development of the resources of the country which I consider its merits justify one in expecting. Nor does it seem probable that such development will be brought about until the country comes to be regarded at home from quite a different point of view to that from which it has been regarded in the past. But I must not be misunderstood: this is not an appeal ad misericordiam on behalf of my fellow-residents. They are by no means to be pitied, for a more relatively comfortable or prosperous life than that which is enjoyed by British Columbians I think would be hard to find within Her Majesty's Dominions. There is no poverty — that is to say, no class-poverty; on the contrary, every working man either is, or has the chance of speedily becoming, a capitalist. In fact, nowhere does the wealth of the country seem on the whole to be so evenly distributed — nowhere are the relations between labour and capital less violently strained. Even the great Chinese question, pregnant source of strife between employer and employed in the Colonies, hardly can arouse discussion, except when some political emergency brings it to the fore as the useful gag of a discontented party. Nor is there any cause to deplore the financial condition of the Province. The Treasury is not unreason- ably burdened with debt ; taxation is not heavy ; the expenses of administration are very moderate. Free education, the heaviest charge upon the revenues, is provided with a liberality of which any Government might justly be proud ; schools being established throughout the length and breadth of the land where it would have been absolutely impossible for the settlers themselves to have secured the poorest kind of instruction for their children. And yet, notwithstanding this general and satisfactory progress, the country, as I say, is not being developed as it should be ; its resources are still potential ; it has failed to commend itself to the Enghsh busi- ness man as a place where his energies and means may be profitably employed. Of a certain class of emigrant we could easily get more than enough, the difficulty is rather to dam the flood than to provide a channel for its flow : for, though it is very possible a miscellaneous population would, c^fter experiencing; the usual miseries and hard' British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development, 210 ships, settle down into variouE: occupations and prove useful wage- earners, the experiment is too dangerous to be tried by any country which has a reputation worth losing, least of all by one whose present position as regards the labouring classes is particularly free from anxiety and strain. But you may reasonably ask, ** What is the matter ? " Why not be content with the healthy progress of the past ? Why try to force a country beyond its natural rate of development ? It is true that were British Columbia of no more especial moment to the British nation as a whole than the so-called dependencies of our Crown are to the average British householder, we might be content to relegate it in our minds to the position of a dumping- ground for incapacity and dit^content. But it is far otherwise. This Province is the only foothold which Great Britain possesses on the North Pacific coast. It is, fortunately, a very large foothold. Now, the trade of the Pacific has increased enormously within a moderate hfetime. The old steamer, the Beaver, the first to vis't the western shores of America, lies on the rocks at the mouth of Burrard Inlet ; a few years ago she was riding in Victoria harbour. Last year the freight carried from the portr^ of western North America exceeded 13,000,000 tons, and that is but a small earnest of the future. You may hear every degree of opinion ventilated as regards Oriental trade. The most sagacious men will vary in their estimate of its value from zero to infinity.' But it is difficult to beheve, in the face of the manifest determine tion on the part of so enterprising a people ns our neighbours of the United States to utilise their western seaboard, in the face of such commercial energy as is dis- played by AustraUans, and in the face of the gradual but still evident change which is stealing over the Oriental mind as regards admission of European and American forms of civilisation — it is difficult, I say, in the face of these, to doubt the gigantic part which the Pacific is destined to play in the future history of the world's commerce. One thing to my mind is certain. Whatever the extent of trade may be, there will be a bitter struggle some day between Britain and the United States as to who shall control it. The latter has been ' The Canadian Pacifio Railway Company have had the courage to test it in the only way in which it can be tested, and their effort in this direction deserves the thanks not only of Canada but of the entire British nation. That the finest fleet of steamers on the Pacific should sail from and to British ports, and thus provide a purely Britisii route to our Eastern possessions, is indeed a matter for congratulation. 220 British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development, content, while fostering her internal resources, to see Atlantic trade in the hands of Europe ; she will not regard Pacific developments of commerce with the same equanimity. Europe may keep her armed demonstrations to herself; the war in which America will rather fight must be one of rate-cutting, line-controlling, and in general a war of commercial competition reduced to the most perfect science, the most ingenious art. The struggle will be a severe one, for it will practically, though without actual bloodshed, decide the mastery of the Pacific. Had we retained the Puget Sound district to the mouth of the Columbia there could, I think, have been little doubt who would ultimately have conquered. But, worsted by the Ash- burton Treaty, as we have been in all negotiations with our wide- awake neighbours, the advantages of our shorter route are minimised by the presence of a host of lively, striving people with harbours as good as our own, independent communication east and west, timber, minerals and farming-land, and everything to stimulate commercial activity, close to our own doors. And that is why I regret to see the comparatively little interest taken in the development of British Columbia, and why I seek to arouse in Britons a spirit of indignation at the thought that they may be dropping behind in the race of national competition. British Columbia used to be stigmatised by the opponents of a trans-continental railway as " a sea of mountains." That designa- tion, though apparently justified by reference to any ordini.ry map, which generally represents the Rockies as coming down to within a few miles of the Pacific coast, is a most unfair and inaccurate one. Hemmed in, as indeed it is, by great ranges, for which there is every reason to be thankful, it contains extensive areas o5 valuable farming and grazing land, sufficient to support a large population in comfort. But, as all the world knows by this time, it is not to its agricul- tural resources that the country looks for its future importance. And here arises the first difficulty in the way of providing it with an industrial population. For the average emigrant, whatever his former life may have been, seems to invariably expect to become a farmer. So much has been said about the great wheat-growing countries of the West, that there seems to be only one idea in the mind of the vast proportion of would-be settlers, How soon can I get a free grant of land and grow a crop ? If the emigrant is not this sort of a man, he is /generally some- thing worse : the fellow who is ready to do anything and can dp nothing, British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development, 221 Now, the chief resources of the country are of such a kind that special skilled labour is required to develop them. Lumbering, mining, and fishing are not occupations, such as I recently heard an ingenious Florida agent describe orange-growing, " requiring no previous knowledge of the subject." If an employer of labour has to engage men who are raw hands in any of these occupations he soon findr> that he is paying for their education at about the same rate as if he was sending them to an English University. And that is discouraging. Yet, on the other hand, none of these industries are at present conducted on a sufficiently extensive scale to make it desirable to import skilled labour in anything like considerable nnnib 3rs. For instance, although the lumber trade is acknowledged to be a most important staple, the exportation of lumber in 1890 amounted to only ;|^449,000, and even if this be doubled, as it pro- bably ought to be by the amount sent east over the Canadian Pacific Bailway, and a handsome percentage allowed for that which is con- sumed at home, an annual turnover of only between 200,000/. and 300,000/. would be reached, which, it will readily be seen, does not represent a large sum in wages when other expenses are deducted. There can, I think, be httle room for doubt but that the lumber industry of this Province is capable of great extension. The quality of the timber is so excellent, the quantity so prodigious, the facihties for cheap transport so great, and the Government charges so mode- rate, that nothing but energy and skill are wanted to ensure success. I believe that the Puget Sound trade, though in no way has it the advantage, unless it be in these latter qualities, is much greater than our own. But then Puget Sound has 60,000,000 Americans at its back, and we have no real pressure from the East at all. Indeed, it is a significant fact that the largest lumber mills on the island of Vancouver are American enterprises, as if Americans, and Americans only, appreciated rightly the value of those forests of which we talk so much. There is, however, one external influence to which we may, I think, look with no small degree of confidence in its ultimate bearing upon our lumber trade ; and that is the Nicaragua Canal. The successful completion of that work will without doubt do more to stimulate Pacific trade, and especially the lumber trade, than any- thing else. It is devoutly to be hoped that, now the Panama Canal appears to have got its final quietus, nothing will stand in the way of carrying out this great and perfectly feasible scheme. Of course it will be executed by American engineers with American money, or fingflisl) money bprrowed by Americans : for, as in the case of the 222 British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development. Suez Canal, our countrymen will never sufficiently appreciate its importance until after it has been completed. But there is an industry from which far more has been expected than that of lumbering. I refer to mining in the precious and base metals. British Columbia first came into notice as a gold-producing country. It had a short but brilliant career as one of the richest placer-fields in the world. Now every other home of alluvial gold has become subsequently distinguished as a quartz producer. It was no matter of surprise, then, when geologists told us that this Province was destined to achieve a reputation as a great quartz-mining country. Even in the days before railway communication it was common enough to speak of the vast mineral wealth which was supposed to lie hid in the mountains of British Columbia, and the advocates of the Canadian Pacific line used to rely upon this argument when opponents spoke slightingly of these grand works of Nature. It would indeed have shown a singular partiality on the part of Providence for American institutions if the series of rocks which were productive south of the boundary line had suddenly ceased to be so north of it, had traversed British territory exhibiting only illusive indications of mineral, and on entering Alaska had once more rewarded the prospector with profitable deposits of ore. As a matter of fact, the discovery of rich prospects, which has been made since the railway gave more access to the Kootenay region, has been quite phenomenal. From the Toad Mountain south of the Kootenay Lake, northwards into the Big Bend of the Columbia, the number of these discoveries is almost legion, and there can be httle doubt that eventually the mineral wealth derived from these sources will be very great. Nor are they the only ones ; throughout the interior plateau dis- coveries of apparently permanent leads are being continually reported, while the neglected gold quartz of Cariboo bids 'fair soon to redeem that famous placer-ground from the long winter of discontent which has fallen upon it since the bright days of the " sixties." It is somewhat humihating to confess, after so rosy a description of our prospects, that the actual production of the precious and economic minerals is, with the exception of coal, practically nil. A hundred thousand pounds worth or so of gold is annually washed out of the creeks and " benches ; " there is no hydraulicking on a large scale ; there are one or two smelters, lying idle for want of ore ; not a single concentrating plant, that I am aware of, nor any ore shipments, except for experimental purposes. And the reason of this is not that ihere is any deficiency, any pinching out or a P k British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development, 28 its " petreing " out of the metal, but because British Columbia has not yet *' caught on " to the mining market ; the real mining capitaUst has not yet turned his attention to it ; the work being done is the amateur effort of local people, prospectors and the li;^e. I think it is very possible here may bo another reason why more inaccessible regions should . ave the preference in the eye of the professional mining man. There, much more extensive grants, huge areas of mineral- ised territory can be obtained, and the relatively enormous capital required in the working of these is really easier to get from share- holders than the more modest sums which might be requisite for setting on its legs some project in British Columbia. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that quartz-mining in this Province is starving in the midst of plenty, and that, though the Government are most liberal, equitable, and anxious to assist the bond-fide operator to the best of their power, there is very httle interest shown outside the few who have courage and perseverance enough to con- tinue steady exploratory work in the face of every discouragement. Where there is far the most activity is nearest the boundary line, the Americans manifesting more interest and more faith in the country than either EngUshmen or Canadians. What can be done by energy and perseverance to develop the mineral wealth of a new country was shown by the late Mr. Dunsmuir, who, under great temporary disadvantages, succeeded in estabhshing at Wellington, on Vancouver Island, the collieries which have rendered that island famous as a coal-producing country. Had it not been for his extraordinary pluck and pertinacity there is little doubt but that the Province would for many years have been deprived of one of its largest sources of wealth, and of the population which has been engaged in its production. When the high wages of the Vancouver coal miner, some 12s. or 15s. per day, are considered, together with the number of men employed, one cannot feel too grateful to the memory of the man who has enabled so many of his fellows to live in comfort and prosperity. Then let us turn to the fisheries. What have we not heard as to the abundance of fish o£f this favoured coast ? And it is perfectly true. There is both a prodigious supply of fish and unrivalled facilities for pursuing the life of a fisherman. But we cannot be surprised at the small advantage that has hitherto been taken of these favourable circumstances. I have elsewhere pointed out that a fishing population is perhaps the most difficult of any to trans- plant. A hardy and simple folk, they rely entirely upon local Icnow ledge of their own waters, and will paturally be reluctant to 224 British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development. sacrifice that for prospects however tempting in a strange country. But the experiment is about to be tried on a somewhat extensive scale with the Scotch Crofters, and should it be successful, which there is no great reason to doubt, it will have gone far to solve one difficulty in providing the country with a population. There are two industries connected with fishing that deserve special notice, not on account of their backwardness, but because more energy and enterprise have been shown in connection with them than perhaps in any other industry. I refer to the salmon-canning and seal- fishing. Of the former, which has become of so great importance to the Province of recent years as to occupy the second place in her exports, there is nothing for me to say which is not sufficiently familiar to you already. There has been some talk of the market being overstocked recently, which may or may not be true, and there is, I am glad to see, an attempt being made to introduce a system of preserving the fish in glass jars, which will no doubt do much to overcome th' natural prejudice of those who object to tinned goods. But I cannot leave the subject of our fisheries without reference to the sealing question, for it is one the merits of which, I feel convinced, are not sufficiently appreciated outside the Province. Perhaps in no way has real enterprise shown itself more con« spicuously in British Columbia than in the development of the sealing industry : in no way has it been more calculated to foster the nautical genius of the people, upon which hereafter so much will depend : in no way has it met with more cruel reverses. The circumstances of the past are to some extent familiar to everyone. How, no sooner did our American cousins suspect us of developing too much energy in this direction than, availing them- selves of the figment of a marc clausum, they proceeded by acts of legalised piracy to drive British ships from the Behring Sea. Our vessels were boarded, their cargoes of skins confiscated, in some cases the ship itself taken into an American port and sold — in fact, every indignity practised upon the unfortunate sealers. The inevitable diplomatic negotiations ensued, and, meanwhile, our position, as established even by the law courts of our opponents, was deemed so strong that, notwithstanding reverse, fresh capital was readily supplied and the seal fleet recruited by many new schooners. But the authorities at Washington had cunningly changed front. It was not from motives of national aggrandisement, but to preserve the poor seal from destruction that these disinterested efforts were being made. The British Government was invite^ to to of th {. British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Devdopnent 226 nntry. ensive which ve ono jrc are notice, [,'y and erhaps i seal- mce to in her iciently market ue, and oduce a ) doubt > object sference I, I feel nee. ire con- , of the to foster luch will niliar to ect us of g them- y acta of ea. Our in some -in fact, janwhile, jponents, )h capital lany new lunningly disement, interested nvite^ to join in a holy crusade against the extinction of God's creatures. Everything was to be above board, " the fullest inquiry courted," an arbitration would satisfactorily settle all disputes. It is needless to say that our Ministers fell into the trap. The schooners had once more reached the forbidden ground, when they were boarded, this time by a Britisli man-of-war, and a procla- mation read that ships flying thu British tlr . Tere not to enter the Sea pending negotiations between the Qov(>mments. Indemnity against actual loss was, however, guaran^^ed. The poo" sealers had to retreat crestfallen to the South. Tl.c season wn^ a splendid one, 1 '1*^ ho few who succeeded in making up o cargo outside the Sea formed a very poor total against the excellent iiurvest of skins which would have been reaped if this arbitrary measure had not been resorted to ; and it will be interesting to sec how the British ratepayer will enjoy paying for the senlskins he has not had, \vhcn the question of compensation arises. But the triumph of American diplomacy was again achieved, for while in consequence of these restrictions the price of skins went up by leaps and bounds, the fur-trading company who lease the Alaska rights from the United States Government, and on whom, strangely enough, no such embargo had been laid, had an excellent time. It was a fact well recognised when the old Alaska Fur-trading Company's lease expired, that the new lessees were paying so enormous an increase for the privilege that it would be difficult for them to make any profit at the current price of skins, and it is quite characteristic of Mr. Blaine that he should help out his tenants by this stroke of diplomatic sagacity. The practical result, so far as we are concerned, is this : that the British public is paying, or promising to pay, the British sealer to keep out ol an open fishing-ground, in order that the price of sealskins may be inflated and the profit put ^nto the pocket of the United States, while an industry of vital importance to the progress of a British possession is strangled and those who hb"e devoted time and money to its development are discouraged and disgusted. Unfortunately for the complete success of Mr. Blaine's scheme, the British Government actually appointed a competent scientific man, Dr. G. W. Dawson, to inquire, with Sir George Baden-Powell, into the facts of the alleged extinction from overfishing. As there is consequently some danger, after all, of America getting the worst of the argument, it need not surprise us to read in the papers that the terms of arbitration have not yet been satisfactorily arranged. They certainly will not, in my opinion, be until the season ia 226 liritish Columbia : a Problem of Colonial DevetopmenL i sufficiently advanced to form an excuse for again jockeying tho British Columbian sealer out of his cargo. Knowing tho facts of the case, there is something supremely ridiculous in the last appeal to the great, soft, foolish heart of John Bull. No sooner had the British Commissioners got well away but we are apprised of the cruel fact that thousands of baby seals have been discovered, starved to death for want of a mother's care I The natural inference, so far as any inference can be drawn, is that the mothers have been done to death by the brutal British poacher. And that is the inference which has been adopted by more than one English paper. If the thing be not a fiction, or a gross exaggera- tion, it is still to be proved who slaughtered the unhappy parents, and it would be well to reserve one's indignation until that is estabhshed. But of course the purpose of the canard is achieved ; John Bull sheds a manly tear, his wife's sealskin jacket vibrates with a sympathetic sob, and Brother Jonathan conceals a smile as he piously attends to the last obsequies of the slaughtered innocents and raises the price of seal-skins. A great deal of nonsense is talked about and a great deal of sentiment is wasted upon the supposed extinction of the seal. A migratory sea-animal cannot be rendered extinct like the buffalo of the plains. It can, no doubt, be reduced in numbers below a commercial profit, and, when that is the case, will require time to recover. But there is nothing to show that that point has been reached in the Behring Sea, nor that it cannot be warded off by reasonable game-preservation laws, which will foster rather than destroy the industry. Nor is it fair to speak of the barbarity of slaughtering seals as if they ranked with the innocent dickey-birds who contribute their little lives to the decora- tion of a lady's bonnet. Either the seal is a valuable fur-bearing animal whose sl-in is rightly deemed the most charming and comforting of winter garments, and who deserves preservation for commercial purposes, or he is an arrant fish-poacher, with nothing but his amusing pranks to commend him to the special protection of man. We do not hear the same sentimental gush about that much rarer and exceedingly beautiful creature the sea-otter, who, I should imagine, runs an infinitely greater chance of extinction. I have pointed out in one or two ways the difficulties which lie in the way of progress in British Columbia, difficulties mainly due to the absence of skilled professional effort and judiciously applied capital. These can only be obtained from home or the States, and it is pretty certain that, in the end, if they do not come from the one source they will from the other. 01 th< ad ; V ti» tintish Columhia : a Prohlein of Colonial Developtiient, 227 ng tho )remely )f John 11 away by seals s care ! , is that poacher, ihan one taggera- parents, that is ehieved ; vibrates smile as nnocents isense is ipon the iannot be doubt, be in that is g to show ir that it (TS, which r to speak with the le decora- ir-bearing ning and vation for 1 nothing protection ibout that ,er, who, I ction. which lie nainly due sly applied States, and om the OHM • But it may be said, " You have a considerable populatio-i already in the Province, and a great deal of capital is at your command, as your excellent financial status, the thriving condition of your banks, the governmental valuation of real and personal property all tend to show. You are not a poor people ; how is it, then, that these resources, of whose potential value we have heard so much lately, are not being more actively developed by yourselves ? " One answer to this is, I believe, an answer the truth of which will be recognised by all men of experience in the life of new countries. Our surplus capital is being expended rather on speculation than in enterprise. Not that the land boom has reached alarming heights as yet on the British Pacific, but that there are a series of concurrent circum- stances which tend to induce men to invest their capital in the purchase of land, with a view to its sale at a higher price, rather than in any form of enterprise. It would seem to be a difficult, an impossible matter to persuade men to recognise the di£ference between speculation and enterprise in their ultimate results to the country. So long as ever there is a prospect of further rise in values, so long as there is the remotest chance of some obscure townsite blossoming into commercial im- portance, so long will the majority of capitalists be found to buy, even at the risk of hampering their own legitimate business, and the minority of cautious men will be found to lend at a high rate of interest rather than hazard their capital on enterprises the issue of which must always be more or less doubtful. It cuts, therefore, both ways : for the sanguine speculator will keep up the rate of interest to a point which makes it always profitable for the mortgagee to lend. It is vain to point out that a collapse must some day come unle. :s the actual resources of the country are made remunerative. People will go on " trading jack-knives " until they will have to pawn their coats to get them a meal. Nor, on the other hand, must this be regarded as an unmitigated evil. New countries no doubt owe a great deal to the spirit of land-speculation. A.s Sir George Chesney very pertinently pointed out at the December meeting of the Eoyal Colonial Institute, the money is locked up, but not lost. Capital flows into the country which would not otherwise have been at- tracted, and it certainly, for the most part, comes to stay. When the craze is over, when the flatness due to a replete market ensues, those who have got the money must employ it in profitable ways ; and those who have got the experience must set about, " wiser and sadder men," to recoup themselves for their losses by the display of additional energy. If they have only invested in the place where 228 British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development tliey reside, neither will their business be so crippled, nor will the hopes of a recovery be dissociated from personal efforts to achieve it. This is, perhaps, the very best guarantee for making good colonists. But if, as is not unfirequently the case, I am sorry to say, on our coast the investor has taken his money out of tbe business in which it is employed to plunge it in the hazard of a townsite south of the boundary, though he may fortunately double or treble his capital, the almost inevitable result will ensue that the United States will profit at his expense, and his personal allegiance will be weakened, while his interest is divided between the place where his treasure is and the place where his heart ought to be. As a matter of fact land-speculation at best is a poor thing. Like the inevitable charity bazaar which no one likes, but every organi- sation avails itself of, its only justification is that " you can't do without it." But, apart from this tendency, it must be remembered that we are not a community so wealthy as to find capital for any great enter- prises. When one hears of the millions which have been plunged in the United States and Argentina, one cannot help wondering whether the same money would not have made a better return if it had been expended in fostering the industries of Canada. Are we too near home, too English, to tempt Englishmen ? or are our hopes delusive, and that great Dominion nothing but a great sham, a hollow, bottomless concern, through which a nation is dropping into the arms of the United States ? I have tried, though I confess very imperfectly, to indicate wherein the future strength of British Columbia, as an integral part of the Empire, must lie; and to show that, unless England takes more interest in the work of her development, she will stand a sorry chance by the side of her energetic neighbour. Say what you please about the inflation of the Puget Sound district, make all due allowance for straining of credit and financial unsoundness, land-boominf, and over- speculation, the real progress of that country has been simply marvellous. Much as we may deplore its loss, we must, I think, confess that, under British rule, such progress would hav3 been impossible. The reason is not difficult to see. • In America well-to-do people are continually migratmg to the West, wh'le an idea unfortunately prevails amongst a large section of the Erglish public that none but paupers or adventurers need go to th \ Colonies. In America men catch the Western fever as they would the measles; they remove bag and baggage to a new country, s^t up their business there whatever it British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development. 229 may be, plunge co7i amove into the interests of their new home, and leave not a stone unturned to make it in every sense a thriving place. They are inspired with confidence of ultimate success, and that very confidence makes success assured. Unless the Mother Country learns to identify herself in the same fashion with her Colonies, Greater Britain will never be the homogeneous nation that, in spite of its strangely diverse elements, the United States has become. The Colonies will be left to themselves, save for the dribblings of English life, and, notwithstanding talk about Federa- tion, the breach will continually widen. I am no pessimist, but I feel keenly that public opinion in this matter at home needs educating and transforming, and I rejoice in the solid and substantial work iu this direction which the Royal Colonial Institute is achieving. Discussion. Sir Charles Tupper, Bart., G.C.M.G., C.B.: I need not say with what pleasure we have listened to the very interesting and instructive paper with which we have been favoured to-night. It is to me a source of special gratification that eight years' residence in British Columbia has transformed an English gentleman into such a thoroughly enthusiastic Canadian ; and if that is the case with reference to the reverend and learned lecturer, I think Canada may confidently look forward to the same influence taking possession of the hundreds and thousands of people from this and other countries who, I am satisfied, will be steadily drawn into the territory of which we have heard something to-night. The lecturer has not overdrawn the picture. It would, indeed, be difficult to do so, and I appeal to those who have had the opportunity of visiting British Columbia — many of whom I see present to-night — to say how one could draw an exaggerated picture of a country possessing so many advantages. I am only surprised that the reverend lecturer, who has so thoroughly entertained us to-night, has somehow formed the ''mpression that justice is not being done to that country ; that, in fact, enough has not been done to secure that progress to which British Columbia is entitled. I ask you to remember that only six years have passed since British Columbia was connected with the rest of Canada ; that ten years ago British Columbia had practically no connection either with Canada or vith England; that the country was then very sparsely settled, and, with ail her natural advantages, was entirely dependent on the adjoining portion of the United States. As Minister of vpL. :j^iii.— 4. 8 230 British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Develop7nent, Eailways and Canals, I was engaged a few years ago in the con- struction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which was to connect British Columbia with the rest of the Dominion, and also with this country, and when I tell you that the last cargo of rails was seven months on the passage from England to British Columbia, you will understand what communication that country possessed. There was no connection with the other portions of Canada, the territory being, in fact, completely cut off by the Rocky Mountains and other mountain ranges, and rendered more remote from the other parts of the country than India is to-day. Senator Macdonald, who sits on the platform to-night, tells me that yesterday he received from Victoria, British Columbia, a letter only sixteen days old. That is one illustration of what has been accomplished in this very brief period, and looking at the other evidences of progress I think we need not be discouraged regarding the future of this truly mag- nificent territory. The reverend lecturer has told you that in 1884 he camped in the forest that is now the site of the city of Vancouver. That place, which I visited in 1885 and where I found a few shanties and an old mill, is now a city of 15,000 inhabitants, properly drained, and lighted with electricity, and representing a progress that will compare with anything south of the border. Looking at these facts, and considering also that London is now brought within a fortnight of British Columbia, that she is brought in connection with the rest of the Dominion by a magnificent line of railway running from end to end through British territory, and, further, that in connection with that railway there is a splendid line of steamers from British Columbia to our possessions in the East — a line of steamers infinitely superior to anything our neighbours have yet been able to estabUsh — I say, considering these things, I have no misgivings as to the future of British Columbia. The reverend lecturer is somewhat concerned as to the struggle for communication to the East that will take place between ourselves and the United States of America, in whose progress and prosperity, I may say, we all take the utmost pride ; but here again Providence has favoured us. We have not only an infinitely superior line of com- munication with China and Japan to-day, but geography is in our favour : Yokohama is 1,000 miles nearer to London via British Columbia and the Canadian Pacific Railway than vid New York and apy line of railway to San Francisco, and the man in New York who wishes to go to Yokohama with all speed must leave the American line and go through British Columbia by the Canadian Pacific. Mr. O'Shaughnessy, Vice-President of the Canadian Pacific Railway, has British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Developm^jit. 231 5on- Qect this even will 'here itory other cts of its on from ciat is r brief nk we mag- 11884 jouver. lantiea coperly rogress dng at within aection railway arther, line of East — hbours things, The gle for irselves sperity, ividence of com- s in our British ork and prk who merican c. Mr. ay, has just returned from a visit to China and Japan, and after giving the closest and most careful attention to the subject he declares that the trade prospects between this country and Canada and those Eastern countries are practically unlimited. These are all factors that are going to contribute to the development of British Columbia. If anybody wants to form an adequate idea of the value of British Columbia, I would refer him not only to the paper, which is replete with interest, but to a perfectly disinterested authority, viz. the report of a Committee of the Senate of the United States of America. The Senate a few years ago appointed a Committee — a sort of roving commission — comprising some of its ablest and most intelligent members, to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific and take the testimony of the best authorities as to the relative positions of the two countries. The question was the desirableness of free reciprocal intercourse between the United States and Canada. If anybody wishes to get an adequate idea of the position of British Columbia I refer, him to the two octavo volumes of testimony published by the Senate Committee. He will find that the repre- sentatives of the great commercial interests of San Francisco and all the important towns to the south of British Columbia met the Committee with the statement that nothing could be more dis- astrous to the Pacific States of America than free intercourse with Canada. The immense superiority of the lumber and timber of the forests of British Columbia is, they said, such that in case you allow this freedom of trade you would close our mills and drive all our people to the south of British Columbia out of existence. As to coal, they knew that the only valuable coal on the whole Pacific coast was to be found on the island of Vancouver, and that while they have a certain amount of lignite coal of an inferior description, they are dependent for high class coal on the mines of British Columbia. They then called on men engaged in the fish trade and got the same answer. They said, "We cannot compete with British Columbia, and if you have free trade you will wipe all our fisheries out of existence." I give you this as the best and most disinterested testimony, because among the virtues for which our Ameiican friends are distinguished there is none that, in my opinion, reflects upon them more credit than the determination to uphold their interests, and to magnify the claims and advantages of their own country over the rest of the world. In the paper to which we have listened, and with which, in the main, 1 so heartily agrees, a little jealousy appeared to show itself in regard to American capitalists, and American capital coming into the country. Now ^ 2 232. British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development.. that is a circumstance at which I rejoice. As a Canadian, I receive ■with open arms all the energy and enterprise that the United States can send us, and the more capital they bring the more welcome they will be. We all know that they possess this energy and enterprise, and the fact that some of them have been induced to leave their own country and turn their attention to milling and other occupations in British Columbia, and other parts of Canada, is the best proof of the overwhelming attractions that country presents. Moreover, I have had the pleasure of sitting session after session in the House of Commons of Canada with gentlemen — capitahsts — who came from the United States of America, and who, when in a position fairly to contrast the British institutions of Canada with those of their own country, became naturalised British subjects, and were as loyal upholders of British institutions as any person who ever went from this country. One word on a point not mentioned by the lecturer — the climate. If British Columbia has one attraction greater than another it is its charming climate. You may travel from one side of the globe to the other without finding a more lovely climate than that of Victoria. The most delicious peaches and the finest grapes are grown in the open air. Roses bloom every month in the year. Three years ago I was in Victoria in the middle of April, and found the apple trees in full bloom, and the grass a foot high. A year afterwards I was in Italy and found that British Columbia was, in point of climate, at least three weeks in advance of any part of Italy I could discover. With a climate not to be sur- passed in any part of the world, with mineral wealth untold and now made accessible by railway, and with a soil of the most fertile nature, with fisheries and forests unsurpassed, what doubt can we have as to the future of this splendid country ? I may remind you that the Earl of Aberdeen the other day paid £50,000 for an estate for fruit- growing, so admirable did he consider the soil and climate, and I have no doubt that this was a wise and judicious investment and one that will attract other capitalists. I must take a slight objec- tion to the ton. adopted by the reverend lecturer in regard to the sealing question, although nobody can doubt that all my sympathies are with the British Columbia sealer. It must not be forgotten that when those outrages were inflicted on British Americans, a protest sent to Washington by the present Prime Minister of England prevented a finger touching the British flag, and although Her Majesty's Government have accepted a policy of inquiry into seal life and its protection, we must remember what were the re- spective contentions of the United States and Canadian Governments ; and dance the is a reaii people and standi] Macdo: Olymp say I than t out tol amsfmr ■%. British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development. 283 re }d re gy to .nd da, itry jion men and IS of itish I any it not ,8 one imay .more eacbes 1 every middle ^rass a British advance be sur- ,nd now nature, have as ;hat the jr frait- [e, and I lent and it objec- [d to the apatbies forgotten icans, a ^ister of [although liry into , the re- :nmeiit8 ; and when the results of that investigation come to be laid before the world, I shall be greatly mistaken if they do not affirm to the letter the views ot the Government of Canada, that the overwhelming portion of the danger was in consequence of the mode in which the seal fishery was prosecuted by the American lessees of the islands. It must not be forgotten also that the United States of America have been brought to agree to arbitration, and I am glad to be able to say, with authority, that the terms have been settled, and settled satisfactorily to Canada and to Her Majesty's Government. At no distant date, I believe, there can be but one result, and that will be ample and complete satisfaction for all the injuries inflicted by the United States of America upon the sealers of British Columbia. Mr. A. Staveley Hill, Q.C, M.P. : I obey your call, Mr. Chairman, but I may say I came here for the purpose, not of addressing you, but of listening to the lecture of my friend Canon Beanlands, who kindly showed me over some interesting parts of Victoria some three years ago. I went out to British Columbia in the year 1889, having read and heard of the wrongs done to the sealers, and as a member of the House of Commons, and one taking an interest in Canada and colonial matters, I desired to see what was the real state of things. I made a journey over the island, or a great part of the island, to see what was its climate and its potentialities in regard to immigration. As regards climate, I must say there is nothing left to be desired. It has, I believe, the most lovely climate in the world. Sir Charles Tupper has spoken of thf- roses he saw in April 1889 : I was there in October and November 1889, and the roses were still flowering as though they were in existence all the year round. As though they never faded there But bloomed in immortality — and of peaches, grapes, fish, and game, there is indeed abun- dance. The climate is so exquisite, the country so beautiful, that the island is becoming, and will to a still greater extent become, a residential place, not only for British Columbians, but also for people in the United States, who will find there fi, far more healthy and beautiful home than anywhere to the south. I remember standing on the terrace of the house of my friend Senator Macdonald, and looking across the Straits to the snow-topped Olympian range of blue hills and the glorious forests, and I may say I do not believe there is to be found a more beautiful home than that outside Victoria. With regard to the sealers, I went out to inquire, first, as to the animals killed in what is \^!i3^ 234 British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Dcvctojnnent, called pelagic sealing ; secondly, how far there was a destructive diminution of the seals themselves ; and, thirdly, whether there was wastefulness in the mode of killing. My conclusions were em- bodied in some letters which appeared in The Times, in which I showed, having made the most careful examination, that the number of seals is not diminishing, but that they are to be found in Behring Sea in even greater numbers than before. I further showed thaL th' mode of killing is not a wasteful mode, but I came also to the conclusion that if there is to be a greater preservation of seal life it is to be brought sibout, not by any alteration in a waste- ful killing of the seals, the system or season of sea-sealing, or the killing in the open, but by regulating more carefully the mode in which the seals are killed on the Pribylov Islands. Talk of the Victoria sealer being a poacher ! Who is the poacher — the man who kills on the nest, or the man who kills in the open field ? I am glad to hear that the arbitration clauses are arranged, and I feel quite sure that when the report comes home, the view that I have taken will be completely borne out, viz. that the quantity of seals in the Behring Sea is greater than ever before, and that the lulling by the Victoria sealer is not a wasteful but a proper mode of obtaining and bringing to market a useful article of commerce. In conclusion, I will only add that, while I believe there is no more charming climate, and no better place for immigrants, this is not a country for great wheat farms or large cattle ranches. It is admirably adapted to the labour and ^ apital of the smaller cultivators, and nowhere will such persons find themselves better placed than in British Columbia and Vancouver's Island. Mr. a. W. Harvey, M.L.C, Newfoundland : Your secretary was kind enough to ask me to make a few remarks on Canon Beanlands' paper, but I feel that anything I had to say has been anticipated by previous speakers. It has been alleged that the death of these young seals on the Pribylov Islands is caused by Canadians killing ■the mother seals in the sea. Now I do not think that in the present year Canadians have been allowed at any time to seal within 120 or 150 miles of tbose islands. It is utterly impossible, therefore, that the deaths of any seals on the Pribylov Islands can be laid at the door of the Canadian sealers. On the Atlantic side, the seals do not go to the islands for the purpose of bringing forth their young, but, on the contrary, with an extraordinary amount of inteUi- gence — almost inspiration, for it is more than instinct — the old mother seals pick out the most inaccessible parts of the ice floes, and there the young are all born within a few days of each other — entii inter she Can£ miles bead Sei eveniJ Don't] have morrc tions Welcoi I'everei tainin^ It is ni British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development. 235 ye re n- ch ihe incl her ime nof bste- the lein I the man I am t feel have sals in ingby aining lusion, Eirming ountry ttirably , and lan in iry was nlands' ated by »f these killing present ain 120 lerefore, laid at ide, the •th their ff inteUi- -the old 56 floes, other— always about the end of February. After suckling their young, they take to the water and go away fishing, while the ice on which the young lie is drifted about by wind and wave, sometimes as much as 15 or 20 or even 50 miles in the 24 hours. In the meantime, as I have said, the mother seal is away fishing ; but every night she returns, and it is certain that in the 12 or 14 hours she is away she cannot go farther than GO miles, and to do this she must swim continuously in one direction at the rate of at least 10 knots an hour, and by the most singular instinct — far transcending anything in man — she returns, and, unguided by compass or chronometer, she discovers and suckles her offspring. The most extraordinary thing is that every one of these 300,000 seals — formerly there was double that number on our side — is able to pick out her own baby, never, so far as is known, making a mistake. Suppose that in London 800,000 babies were born in one week, and that for a certain time their mothers were taken away from them. On their return, how many of the mothers, do you think, would be able to pick out their own babies, especially if the babies wore no particular dress or mark ? Yet that is what the seals do. One point with reference to this seahng question, and that is that the complaint that has come since the Commissioners left the sealing groimds, viz. that the deaths of these thousands of young seals is the work of Canadian poachers, is entirely untrue ; on the contrary, they lie at the door of the great United States. That will be discovered, whatever may be the result of the present arbitration, which, I feel sure, must go entirely in favour of Canada, for, as the mother seal returns at intervals not exceeding 14 hours to the islands to suckle her young, she cannot have gone more than 60 miles from the islands, and as Canadian sealers have not been allowed to fish within at least 100 miles of the islands, a perfect alibi is proved, and the accused must be acquitted. Senator W. J. Macdonald: After what you have heard this evening about British Columbia, I must ask you all to keep cool. Don't rush for that wonderful paradise at once — all of you. You have heard nothing but the truth. If you were to go there to- morrow, you would find a thoroughly British Colony, with institu- tions on the British model, and no doubt you would receive a British welcome. I agree almost entirely with what has been said by the reverend lecturer, and I consider myself a judge of anything per- taining to British Columbia, for I am almost a patriarch in the land. It is nearly forty years since I went there, and I am now one of the oldest settlers. Sometimes I come to the old country, but my in- 28G British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Devclopnent. %\ I ;i! tention always is to return, and I close the present visit in a few days. Talking about the means of communication, when I first went out I was about 190 days in going, by Cape Horn, in an old- fashioned sailing ship. Now you go in fourteen or fifteen days, for which, in great measure, we have to thank the able and vigorous administration of Sir Charles Tupper, as Minister of Railways. That line of railway, x\ uning across territory entirely British, is surely something to be proud of. Some of you may wish to know about going to British Columbia. People often interview me. I ask always, What are you doing at home ? Are you making a fair living? If so, stay where you are ; but if you are doing nothing and wish to try your fortune, I say go there. There is room for thousands. It abounds in fish and game, and fuel costs nothing. At present British Columbia is the sportsman's paradise. There is game of all kinds, the mountain sheep, the bear, the elk, deer, quail, and now we are in- troducing the English pheasant. It is also the paradise of the work- ing man, who gets 10s. a day. A carpenter gets 12s. to 14s. a day, and a bricklayer 18s. to 25s. I believe no wages paid in any part of the world are equal to these. The reason is that poor people and mechanics cannot get to us. It is a long way oflf, even by rail, and the journey is very expensive, and that is the reason this place is a paradise for the working man. As these things become known, and as people from the older provinces come in, the wages may come down, but at present they are what I have told you. As to living, a labourer can live well on less than 2s. a day, so that you may reckon what a man may save. I have known mechanics go out, and after a year or two they have each a comfortable house with a garden, and perhaps a house or two more. These things show this is a country people ought to emigrate to. The lecturer is not quite satisfied with the progress made. If he had been in the country .when I was first there, when there were not more than sixty or seventy white people, and not a house to live in, he would think a great deal of the progress which has been made. That state of things continued until the discovery of gold in 1858, when 20,000 or 80,000 people, chiefly Americans, came rushing in. Now, with regard to the Americans coming into our country and develop- ing our resources, I think they are just the kind of people we want. They are enterprising and energetic, and know how to spend their money properly. I believe the reverend lecturer did not object to them, but thought that the grouriJ v/hich is being taken up by Americans ought to be occupied by English capitalists. Well, though we should like our own people, we are glad to have the m 1 of 15 niat able hav€ M royaj some thini CanaJ contii end, hope feel t} our ca South I outJet.l eveninf CJiarlel "^iW hal flow in [ emigrai Church) poor, ar British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development. 287 r 3. is ak Americans. There are no men better qualified to develop the mining and the timber industries. An Englishman going out to Canada does not know, as a rule, how to handle the axe, and is not worth one-third of the wages of a Canadian, who wields the weapon in a way beautiful to behold, and will bring you down a tree twenty or thirty feet in circumference in the very direction you desire it. Of course the men who are wanted very often do not see papers such as that under discussion, and do not know what is going on in these new countries. The reverend lecturer did not fully agree with the speculations in land, and thought the money ought to be placed in industrial enterprises. That would not do at present, because the population is small. We cannot send anything to Canada that Canada has not got already ; and the same with regard to the United States, which has a high tariff against us. There- fore we shall have to produce quietly and gradually as the popula- tion increases. In reference to sealing, I may say, as a British Columbian, that I am perfectly satisfied with the way in which the question now stands. I have taken a great deal of interest in the question, and I think, owing largely to the able advocacy of Sir Charles Tupper with Her Majesty's Government, that the matter is in a fair way to be settled. It is in the hands of our able and astute Foreign Secretary, Lord Salisbury, and will, I have no doubt, be brought to a satisfactory conclusion. Mr. John Lowlbs: If anyone wishes to meet with truly royal British hospitality, he should go to Canada. I have been some three months in the States and finished up in Canada. I think we must all commend the enterprise and patriotism of the Canadian Government and people. They have bridged that mighty continent with a great railway and made it accessible from end to end, and when the new linie of fast steamships is set in motion, I hope a large stream of tourists will be turned in that dirf ^'' m. I feel that now is an opportune time to press the claims of Canada on our capitalists. A reaction has set in with regard to Africa and South America, while capital is accumulating and only wants an outlet. I feel sure that papers like that we have listened to this evening, and the testimony of a man of the vast experience of Sir Charles Tupper, and the publications of the Canadian Government, will have an effect on British capitalists, and will induce capital to flow in that direction. I have been largely interested in Canadian emigration, being a member of the Council of the East London Church Fund, and having an intimate knowledge of the East e nd poor, and here, I hold, is a fine field for emigrants. It is for us to S288 British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development. P become missionaries, as it were, to make known the wonderful resources of the Dominion, and, in our own individual spheres, to do our best to direct emigrants and to interest British capital. Colonel W. J. Engledup:, B.E. : As a rectntly-elected Fellow of the Boyal Colonial Institute, I feel considerable diffidence in venturing to address an audience, all of whom have a much larger experience of Colonial life and requirements than I have. My knowledge of British Columbia is comparatively small, and my attention, during a brief four months' visit last summer and autumn, was principally turned to the subject of the Deep Sea Fisheries of the Pacific Coast in British waters, a theme only lightly touched on by the reverend gentleman whose very interesting opening address we have listened to. The development of the Deep Sea Fisheries of British Columbia is of so vast an importance to that province that I must ask your indulgence and pardon if I detain you for a short time with a brief account of the industry I allude to and its capabilities of development. Up to the present time, beyond some small spasmodic attempts, no eiforts have been made to utilise the rich harvest of the sea which may be reaped from the Pacific waters on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and oif the Queen Charlotte Islands. Fishing banks exist of large area, many within the three-mile limit, which literally swarm with fish of the choicest and most Aelicate quality. Secu"9 harbours abound where fishing villages cc dd be located, and in the sheltered waters of which fishing could be t ( ried on if too stormy weather prevailed outside. Forests, producing practically inexhaustible supply of useful timber, cover a large pn ortion of the coast lands, and are capable of providing materials f ; boat-building, for the construction of houses and stores, for barrel- and box-making, and for many other requirements the outcome of a fishing industry. The land, which can be easily and cheaply cleared, is of the most fertile description, and, aided by a climate and temperature equal to those of parts of Southern Europe, but shghtly more humid, is capable of growing any crop, and on which fruit-cultivation can be profitably engaged in. To reap the full advantages of the natural resources, population and capital are required. Steps are being taken by the Government, aided by the Imperial exchequer, to promote the emigration of Scotch Crofters, who are also fishermen, and negotiations are being carried on to enable the necessary capital to be raised to start a large commercial enterprise to utilise the catches of fish, which it may be reasonably expected will bo the reward of the Crofter labour. When it is con- sidered that the supplies offish on the Pacific Coast equa/l, if they hntiah Columbia : a Prohleni 0/ Colonial Development, 280 w In ev »y nn, 3 ot* Ion ress rince a for idita some setUe pacific Queen ■witbin hoicest [fisbing ifisbing 'oresta, |r, cover :ovicling stores, jnts tbe ^sily a»^ led by a [Europe* and on [reap tbe Lpital are jd by tbe Crofters, Led on to nniercial jasonably it is con- Ll,iitbey do not excel, those of the East Atlantic seaboard, both in quantities and quaUty ; that markets exist, within a reasonable distance as regards carriage, for every description of fresh and cured fish, it can be easily understood that a vast industry is capable of being built up, which cannot fail to benefit both the Province, the Crofters, and the investor. Contingent enterprises, such as the extraction of oil from the whale, dog-fish, cod, herring, and oolachen, and the manu- facture of fish glue and of valuable fertiUsers from the fish refuse, will swell the profits and make the fishing industry of the West Coast equal in magnitude to that of the Eastern Provinces, where 70,000 fip'.ermen now find profitable occupation. As an instance of the abundance of fish, I may mention, that on laying-to in forty fathoms of water, within two miles of shore, and with only six hooka employed, the crew of the Government steamer in which I was travelling caught 600 lbs. of fish in twenty minutes, comprised of halibut from 60 to 100 lbs. in weight, and rock cod — three large halibut also broke away. Gentlemen, this is not a " fish story " in the ordinary American acceptance of the term, but is a true yam, which I can vouch for as an eye-witness. Very similar results were obtained when fishing in only six fathoms ofi: the north coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands and within one mile of shore. Herring abound in shoals so large that in confined waters it is almost impossible to row a boat through them. These are followed by " schools " of whales and dog-fish — in fact, the waters are alive. On the west coast of British Columbia, therefore, is a vast harvest of the sea; only awaiting the reaper, and which should afford occupa- tion for many hundreds of Scotch fishermen, who are now earning only a precarious existence in their own country and who are carry- ing on their vocation in the stormy waters of the North Sea under adverse climatic influences in comparison with which the calm waters and genial climate of the Pacific coast will be a veritable paradise. I will not trespass longer on your patience, and trust that I have shown you that, in addition to the many British Columbian industries mentioned by the Rev. Canon Beanlands, that of the deep-sea fishing ranks second to none in importance. Captain Gretton: Sir Charles Tupper complimented Canon Beanlands on having become a good Canadian during his seven years' residence in British Columbia ; but I think it would have been very extraordinary if the Canon had not become a good Canadian in seven years. The seven weeks which I spent in the Dominion last autumn were enough to make me a good Canadian for life ! I was unfortunately not able to reach British Columbia Si40 British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development. V \ last year, and therefore I feel rather a humbug in talking about it at all ; but I have been through the eastern townships of the province of Quebec, a great part of Ontario and Manitoba, and some districts in Assiniboia, and I wish to state that, although I am an Australian by birth and have spent many years in Australia and am naturally predisposed in its favour, I am convinced that Canada is the working man's paradise. No country in the world at present offers better inducements to emigrants of the right class thar* Canada presents. In my travels through the Dominion I found hundreds of working men whom I knew in this country two or three years ago, and who here in England had been constantly out of work during the winter, and who not only themselves had been half starved, but had seen their wives and children suffering from cold and hunger. I found these men living in comfort and prosperity, many of them living in freehold houses, half the purchase money of which they had already paid. Some of f.hem had already saved money enough to buy land of their own ; all had excellent prospects for their children, and could look forward to their old age without the fear of the workhouse before their eyes. And it was not in British Columbia, where wages are so fabulously high, that these successful emigrants were to be found ; they were in Montreal and the towns and \allages of the eastern townships of Quebec and of Ontario ; in Winnipeg, in Brandon ; on the prairies, and in the settlements along the Canadian Pacific Railway. But these emigrants were of the right sort : industrious, sober, and respectable peopl., crushed out of the race of life by over-competi- tion in England, who went out to seek their fortunes in the New World, to take any work that came to hand and to do it with a will ! It is very late in the evening, and I see that several gentlemen are anxious to speak ; so that I will conclude these few remarks by saying that if anyone present desires to have more specific infor- mation on the subject of emigration to Canada for the benefit of their working men friends, I shall be very happy to give it. I am the Honorary Secretary of the East End Emigration Fund; our office is at 44 Newark Street, Stepney, just behind the London Hospital, where a report of my journey last year, and of the Society's work, may be had on application. I shall also be happy to answer any letters of inquiry. Captain Andhew Hamilton : As Hon. Secretary of the Tower Hamlets Emigration and Colonisation Fund, Great Assembly Hall, Mile End Boad, I desire to corroborate all that Captain Gretton has stated, for as I have personally superintended the netting out of British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development. 241 Tower Lly Hall, iGretton )g out of great numbers of emigrants during the past ten years, and have traversed (and sent visitors to these emigrants in) all the prgvinces mentioned, I have great satisfaction in adding my testimony as to the opportunities offered to the right sort of people in Canada, and I hope that I shall visit Canon Beanlands in his beautiful home in British Columbia in May next. General Douglas Grant : I went out to Canada, from September to November, to visit a son of mine who went out a boy of seventeen, not knowing a soul in the country, and I found him with two farms of his own. He went out there because he did not want to go into the army. He went up to Sandhurst twice for his "prelim.," and did not pass because his tastes were not in that direction. I have two sons in the army, one of them Charles Grant of Thobal, and I am proud of my boys. But every boy cannot g into the army. The boys go up to nineteen through Sandhurst and twenty-three through the Militia, and then where are many of them if they fail? Nowhere. If any of you have boys who are not bookworms, do not send them into the army or any profession where there is a severe competitive examination, which I call civilised tortnre, but send them out to Canada when they are young. My soi had to clean his own boots, but what is there derogatory in that ? And he had to clea n. his ow-i plates and do many things which people would not think of doing in this country. I know people who would rather see their sons dead at their feet than see them cleaning their own boots and plates in this country. They cannot bear the idea of their sons going to the bottom of the ladder, but they do not mind them going to the bottom of the ladder in the army. I went right away from Montreal to Victoria, and the kindness I met with from everyone was marvellous. I believe there must be something in the Canadian air. You cannot sit still in Canada ; you must be doing something. I went into my boy's stable, where he has seven horses of his own, and I cleaned the stable out myself ; and they said they had never seen it so well cleaned out before. If you have any boys, take my advice, and before you are bothered with them — for they are a trouble — send them to Canada. Mr. C. D. Rand : I feel some diffidence in coning before you at this hour, for, although I havo prepared something on the subject, three-quarters of my speech \x&' anticipated by Sir Charles Tupper, and the remainder by Senator Macdonald, but I will give you a few figures which may be interesting. I went out to British Columbia twelve years ago, and I have never been sorry for it since. At that time Victoria consisted oi 6,000 people ; now the population is 242 British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development. IS ' 22,000, or more than quadruple. Westminster had 2,000 ; it now has 10,000. Vancouver had neither " a local habitation nor a name," and now it has 15,000. That, I think, tells very well so far as development in that respect is concerned. The farms in the country at the time I went were very few in number. Accord- ing to report current in the cities, the country was nothing but a wilderness — nothing but mosquito bogs. Now there are 10,000 prosperous and happy farmers. I remember the time when there were not more than 1,500 farmers in the country. Then, as Sir Charles Tupper had aptly remarked, we had to go through American territory to get anywhere ; now, in British Columbia, we go over our own line, and last year I had the pleasure of going from London to Vancouver in fourteen days, stopping twenty-five hours on the way, otherwise I should have performed the journey in thirteen days. When the steamers which are engaged in the China and Japan trade were first put on, they further increased our prosperity, and as the Canadian Pacific Railway have put on three neAV steamers in connection with their line, we hope we shall have the bulk of that trade. In lumber, up to the present the Americans have done the greatest trade. For instance, in 1890 the trade with Australia was 300,000,000 feet, of which British Columbia sent 15,000,000 feet, while the Americans sent 285,000,000. When the British Government gives us a line of steamers, those figures will be reversed, because the Australian merchants declare that the lumber of British Columbia is ten per cent, better than that of Puget Bound. With regard to mining, that question has been touched upon slightly, but mining is really the hope of British Columbia. The mineral wealth of British Columbia is greater than that of any other country of its size. I got the other day the returns from a few sample ores which were sent away from British Columbia. I said to the gentleman who gave them to me, " Why don't you tell this to your friends ? " and his reply was, " It would be no use ; they would not believe it." The Silver King, a mine which was owned principally by Americans, was the first mentioned, and here 112 tons produced 38,000 dollars, or a little over £60 a ton. In another mine 250 tons yielded 6,300 dollars to the ton, and another gave £25 to the ton. Within the last ninety days there has be«n a great strike made in the Kaslo country in Kootenay, and the reports by the prospectors are something enor- mous, but I have authentic information that many samples are over 2,000 dollars a ton. This promises to surpass anything ever struck in the celebrated Corastock or Leadville, and indicates great things British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial Development. 248 for British Columbia in the future. With respect to land, Lord Aberdeen made several investments, but the largest and most important was £50,000. Lord Aberdeen does not intend to hold this in one immense block of land and to sublet it, but to cut it up and sell it so that each man can have his own freehold, and that is what we believe in in our country. We have a first- class agricultural country, and I think I ought to take Canon Beanlands to task for what I may call the " black eye " he has given to the land speculators. I believe in land speculation, and I think that is what makes or aids the progress of a new country. If you had seen the country grow as I have from a mere nothing to what it is, if you had seen Vancouver as I did and as it is now, you would say there is something in land speculation after all. If it had not been for the immense profits which these land speculators made, there would not have been this progress. At this point the Chairman (Mr. Eedpath) was compelled to leave and his place was taken by Dr. Rae. Mr. Alexander Cowan : At this late hour I will not attempt to go into the general matters contained in the paper which was read this evening. That has now become unnecessary, as the previous speakers have thoroughly threshed out the whole subject. I agree to a great extent with what Canon Beanlands has said, but I think he is a little too pessimistic, perhaps, in his views. I think what he is afraid of is that Canadians may not wake up, and that the authorities may allow the best interests of Canada to slip out of their hands. But after what Sir Charles Tupper has said, I think we may rest pretty safe on the thoughts that everything will be looked after, not only by the Canadian, but also by the Home Government. Canon Beanlands deserves very well of Canada, and especially of British Columbia. He has spent a great deal of time in advocating the interests of British Columbia, and has issued a work which is published by the Government of that province. Ho has also written a geography, in which is laid down every small as well as large post-office in the country ; and that work is now, I understand, in use in the schools of British Columbia. I think, perhaps, he was a little wrong in placing agiiculture second in importance in British Columbia. That province is more than 50 per cent, larger than Ontario. There is as much good farm-land in British Columbia as in the whole of Ontario. This I satisfied myself of when resident there, and I think future investigation will bear out what I state. British Columbia is what one may call the complement of the North-West. It was necessary that we 244 British Columbia : a Problem of Colonial DevelopncU. should have such a province in order that we might get to the Pacific Ocean. We have got there through the energy and enter- prise of the Canadian Government, of which Sir Charles Tupper was a leading member. I have been very much pleased at the informal nature of this meeting. Gentlemen have sprung up and given opinions on subjects which were not quite on the programme, but were akin to it, and were deeply interesting. I hope that everything that has been said in the interest of British Columbia may be thoroughly taken to heart, and that the British public may see the benefit and importance of spending their money there rather than in foreign countries. Me. W. Sebright Green : I, as an old British Columbian, should find one fault with this paper, and that is that it is far too short ; but probably Canon Beanlands has taken a hint from our American friends, who say : " You Britishers talk and write a thing so thoroughly out that you don't leave us anything to think about." Canon Beanlands did leave something for the eloquent speakers who followed him to say. I think I may be permitted to say that British Columbia is one of the fairest provinces of the Dominion, if not the fairest ; and we old British Columbians are glad to bave it brought into notice so ably as it has been this evening. There are one or two things in which I do not quite agree with the lecturer. I do not think progress has been so slow as he would lead us to believe, although there have been many ups and downs in the life of this province. It was in the " glorious sixties " that I was in British Columbia. The com- mencement of the sixties was very glorious certainly, and everything was of the colour of gold. After that the gold panned out a little, and perhaps there were too many of us there ; the colour was not so rich ; but now the position of British Columbia is safe. At that time it was a long way off, now— thanks to the Canadian Pacific Railway — it is no longer far from us. Then the lecturer spoke of the Nicaragua Canal as likely to benefit the lumber trade : I hope the lumber trade will not wait for the Nicaragua Canal. That enterprise has been talked of to my knowledge for forty years, and I think the lumber trade is far more likely to be benefited by the Canadian Pacific Railway than by the Nicaragua Canal. Canon Beanlands has paid a well-deserved tribute to the late Mr. Dunsmuir, one of 'be pioneers in the important industry of coal mining. But it shoai^ not be forgotten that the Vancouver Coal Company were the pioneers in the coal trade of the Pacific coast. I think that mention should also be made of the services of Captain the Hon. Horace Douglas Lascelles, of the Royal Navy, in respect of this British Columbia : a Problem of Colomal Development. 245 particular coal industry, for it was owing to the timely assistance of Oaptain Lascelles that Mr. Dunsmuir was able to make the Wellington coal mines so great a success without going to the States for capital to develop his discovery. Dr. John Rae, F.R.S. : Your Chairman has been compelled to leave, and he has called upon a very poor substitute to take his place. I have attended very many meetings of the Institute, but have never been more pleased than with Canon Beanlands' paper — although I cannot say that I approve of all of it— because it has given rise to a most interesting discussion, and has brought a number of gentlemen here who have expressed ideas and given most valuable information with regard to British Columbia. I beg, therefore, to ask your most sincere and earnest thanks to Canon Beanlands for his excellent paper. The Rev. Canon Beanlands : I thank you very heartily for the kind manner in which you have received my little paper. I always like to have an excuse for everything that I do, and my excuse for my deficiencies on the present occasion is that I was suffering from your prevailing epidemic when I wrote my paper in a London hotel. Perhaps, therefore, the pessimistic views which are said to be found in the paper are the reflex of the influenza. I congratulate you that my paper brought to your meeting the greatest living Canadian statesman to speak to you. I said living statesman, and I am sure Sir Charles Tupper will not mind the qualification that I make in view of the memory of Sir John A. Macdonald, whom we all deplore, who had himself in such a prominent degree, and was so capable of inspiring in others, that spirit of widespread patriotism which runs from beginning to end of our great British Empire. With respect to the climate, I heartily endorse everything that Sir Charles Tupper has said. I have brought up a family myself in British Columbia, and I know how admirably the cUmate is suited for bringing up healthy and vigorous families. I thank you for the kind way in which you have received my immature efiforts, and ask you to signify your gratitude to the Chairman and his Deputy who have so ably filled their positions. were that Hon. i this yof,. Jjxiix » •*•"•