WESTERN CANADA.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14978, 21 May 1914, Page 8

WESTERN CANADA.

ECONOMIC EFFECTS-OF THE

CANAL.

VISION" OF A WONDERFUL

FUTURE.

(fHOU OUR OWS COB.BI3FOSDKXT.) " . LOSiHjS, April D. A most interesting paper on vhe economic effect of the Panama Canai on Western Canada was read before the Royal Colonial Institute by Mr F. 15Vrooman, who contended that the allrail trans-continental naul for the products of West Canada would coon bo a thing of tho past. The all-rail rou.it was not only prohibitive as to expense, but inadequate as to capacity. Pointing out that Liverpool sets the world's price on the world's wheat, he said that in any given point in Canada, the price of wheat, whether for export or for home consumption, was the price at Liverpool, loss tho cost of getting it there. ■ The economic advantage of tLe new Pacific drainage system was the startling fact that, grain rates from Vancouver to Liverpool via Panama would be less than half the rate from Albertian points to Vancouver.

Mr Vrooroaii considered the suggested rates, and translating these into cash', he said: "It all means that had the Canal been finished, and had there been proper " and adequate dock and harbour facilities at Vancouver to handle it. this Canal would have meant n clear gain to the fanners of Alberta alone of-about £4.000.000 on the crop of 1912. This serves to' illustrate the grain value of the Canal to the farmer alone. It says nothing for the miner or manufacturer, who equally will share in the unearned dividend. It is easy to see not far hence for the farmers of Albe. ta and' Saskatchewan a free gift from this Canal of something in the/neighbourhood of £50,000,000 a ; year in freight rates saved. '"There are two other points work- ■ ing towards, and two. against, the future shifting of the divide from east to j west, or from west to' east, of where '■ the present-rates locate it to-day. The Hudson's Bay-route and the Mississippi roui-e will tend to draw owav from the Pacific Coast. It must be remembered, however, thnfc; these routes never will influence -'shipments for the Pncvuc Ocean it-self. OnK- crrain destined for Euronean -ports will , be drawn this wny at all. -With the opening of the Pacific Hinterland* with their billion mouths to. feed—already' learnine the uses of wheat-bread—it is : not at all unlikely that tho vrdfld'ft price for the world's wheat will, bo named At Shanghai or Honji-Ivoiig, or , Vancouver, instead of Liverpool: '.- Then the great divide will be driven eastward. * ULTIMATE ECONOMIC BACKBONE. "Another tendency to keep it eastward in spite '; of the northern and southern routes; is the delay after harvest in haVilin;; the grain to the railroad vi £be \remote districts of the prairie. 'Ownng^to.the state of the loads arid;the clicapneas and facility of hauling, the'.farrher is disposed to wait for the ico or snow, whieli lie prefers to mjid. Whatever- grain 'in the debatable belt, or- rather, on the dividing Jmes, ,is'thusrleft oVer-lhtb./tlic winter is thrown into the.winter zone—that is the , larger Pacific drainagefs3;stom, arid \ tribu t-arjr ,to the Pacific Ocean. ;; It r is certain, that our ecorio-lni-c divide will.be shifting'Trotn. summer iowmtor; anil that every year. It is also certain, that the - mean annual divide will be shifting every decade, but. I Ilnye. no disposition to believe otherwise: than that ''the opening and development of the lands,, and peoples within and: around the Pacific Ocean, . backbone of the Dominion;' "vill: , coincide with the present geWraphic; dividing, lino between Canada] East -and Canada West—the liaurentian Plateau, north of Lake Superior ,'".'...-''■'.' .?'•;■'■'■ .■.•'"

Mr Vroonian 'prophesies that when settlers in "any considerable numbers hayo moved into.Hhis 'last arid 'vast Nortli-"Wcstytlie rigours and .dangers-.of its :;< climate will 'bo. greatly modified. ;■•;; He■•': found :the finest vegetables ho had ever. seen on the Yukon steamers, and these-'were prown- fit Dawson city,'* , ' where men had experienced lOOdog. in the shade. With 30,000 square'miles, of agricultural land in the whole Canadian , )Tnkoiiii basin,,they had an.important economic element 'to .conrider; Columbia, too, liad tho best"soil' in- Canada, and some of the best 'in the. worjd> He estimates tjio arable land of Pacific Canada at easily 333.000.000 acres, against. 166,000,000 in Atlantic Canada!-* '" ; '

V Just as : there will be enormously in , - Caiiatfian' ipxporie through tbo Pacific patoways, so there will be increases in through, the same qatewnys. - ;, -'.'•■".. ■■.■■■ ' ■ ".;■ FUTURE OF VANCOUVER.

Speaking of; .tho competition of Seattle and Vancouver,, the lecturer said:—"lt is at this point" that this whole matter becomes cne of Imperial interest; The problem is whether the shuttlecocks of commerce are destined to pass", backwards arid forwards between the /North ""American continent and the Pacific Ocean in its main bulk, at least north;- of San Francisco, through the; port of Seattle or the'port of Vancouver. Let- it bo remembered that, not only has overy great Canadian railway deterirsiried Vancouver for its terminal,; but "threa. great. American ■ railroads also. '.Vancouver, therefore, is the only Pacific port of Canada which .has, , or ever will, have every great railroad coming to the North. Pacific coast converging in one metropolish Therefore this, city is. to be the metropolis of "the Brijtish Empire on the Pacific Ocean, and nothing can ever stoj> it-if the people of Vancouver exercise.the same-foresight and energy in the matter of their dock" and harbour development that the people of Seattle are doing.' and have been doing for several years. Simultaneously with the birth and growth- of-Vancouver, three (treat world movements ;have been making headway, which never have been seen before.andvnever;, will .be seen They are of tlie kind that can happen but one©. The is the cuttinjr of the. Panama Canal, the second is the awakening of Asia, the third is tho peopling "of, tho prairies. "With seyon great rail-ways coming to tho Pacific Ocean at " Vancouver, .three through the United States, and four through Canada; with the ships of the Pacific Ocean under necessity of .coming here to get their traffic, and •with one of the greatest dock and harbour developments in the world abont to furnish, the key to the situation in making it possible for shirs and railroads to transact their legitimate business with each other, we find in this city one of magnificent coincidences. i Wβ have here a city crowing sinvultane- | ously with three great world movements out of a mud village into a'world ! metropolis, but it is no mean coincii denee • that the emblems. of Imperial ; might and power may be seen from our doorways'grizzled in the morning lieht with the early ,snows —two crouching lions keeping guard over the Gateway of Empire where, the seven railways meet the. shipping of tho seven eeas."