MR. MASSEY IN CANADA

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 227, 20 June 1921, Page 6

MR. MASSEY IN CANADA

TRANSCONTINENTAL TRIP

SCENERY BY THE WAY

(By H. T. 13. Drew.)

Two days were spent by tho Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. IV. F. Massey) iu Vancouver. The Government agent at Vancouver, Mr. W. A. James, and Mr. Stephenson-Smith, who represents the Dominion. at San Francisco, occupied a considerable portion of his time; and a number of New Zealanders also called. During the two days’ stay the Mayor of Vancouver (Mr. Gale) placed a motor-car at tho disposal of. the Prime Minister; and Mr. Fife-Smith, a prominent citizen concerned in the hunter industry, which is now one of Vancouver’s mainstays, entertained the i>arty. Vanooiiver, for a city thirty years old, shows wonderful progress and prosperity, though there are present evidences of unemployment and a certain amount of "set-back” duo to temporary financial stringency. Tho trip across the continent was commenced on the evening of Saturday, May 7. The route selected by tho Canadian Government was via the Canadian National railway, the first pirtio.n of which is newly constructed. This is the most northerly transcontinental line. Through the Rockies. The railway strikes the Rocky Mountains above the little lumber town of Kamloops, on the Mackenzie River. It is at this quaint settlement that you get, when you wake in the morning after leaving Vancouver, the first glimpse of the- picturesque log cabins, and unpainted shacks which arc so typical of the interior wilds of Canada. The line winds, mile after mile, through magnificent pine forests. The grade runs easily up on this route. The greatest height through the Rockies is hero no more than 3606 feet. At one stage on the westward slope of the Rockies the train runs for a couple of hours through recently-devastated forest. Last year a fire swept through here, and consumed fifty square miles of trees in less than two hours. Carried on by the gates and wind which it creates, nothing more terrifying than the leaping, devouring forest fire Of Canada can be imagined. This ruthless destroyer is the constant dread of isolated settlers; and on this occasion there were tragic fatalities. The Rockies, with their magnificent towering, snow-capped peaks, nnd glaciertraversed slopes, were climbed in the early afternoon. Vast valleys and tim-ber-clad ridges stretched away to the foot of the mountains. Grizzly bears and moose, and wolves nnd other wild xnimals still have sway in some of these parts, and often are seen from the railway cars. Numerous quiet lakes are passed, tenanted by thousands of wild ducks. Few evidenc-s of habitation are Tv next morning settlements had been reached, and Canada’s most northerly town of Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, was entered at ten o’clock. Here the Prime Minister decided to stay for a day. A number of New Zealanders live at Edmonton. Mr. Massey assisted at tho opening of the local baseball season. and was loudly applauded by thousands of spectators for failing to catch tho Premier out.

Across Canada. For the succeeding days, until Friday, the journey continued without intermission. As Saskatoon, the eleven-year-old marvel city of the Saskatchewan province. which has now a population of thirty thousand, and a stately Parliament building and imposing University, the Mayor and other notables rushed the party round in motor-cars during thirty minutes’ wait. . . At Winnipeg ex-New Zealanders brought fruit lor Mrs and Miss Massey; and the Premier of the province (Manitoba) extended a personal welcome. So it was for the rest of the journey to Ottawa. lhe Premiers of the various provinces, the Mayors and representative men of the chief towns waited at the station platforms and offered kindly, hospitable welcomes to New Zealand’s representative. Reporters at most places of any importance asked for interviews. It is remarkable, speaking generally, how wellversed are these Canadians of the northern districts in New Zealand affairs. The inquiry most generally made was as to the possibility of greater trade development between New Zealand and Canada. ....

Great Possibilities

The enormous latent possibilities of Northern Canada, the great fields her® offered for national development and sane business investment, were so per-sistently-appealing to tho visitor from a smaller country as to keep one tho whole while gazing out of the carriage windows. For two nights and u the train would speed through rich prairie lands, lands stretching back as far as the eye could reach on either side, and for hundreds of miles beyond that on land which was merely "scratched where it lay adjacent to the railway, and further north not touched at al — the finest wheat lajid in the world. Those portions which were visible were ploughed and ready for the sowing. Hereabouts also were seen multitudinous grain elevators nnd granaries, which told their story of the prolific yields. Then?there would be hours of travel through rolling downs of pastoral co’ lll ' trv; and again a day and a night, through vast, endless extents of almost untouched forests of fir trees, the trees used for paper manufacture. Only along the borders of the lino have these forests been cut. Finally as Ontario province was reached. there were barren cobalt areos, and silver mines; then more timber forests, with their game, bears, and wolves; and then the train ran out on to cleared forest land tilled bv industrious French-Canadian peasants. or used by them as dairy pastures. After that came Ottawa, the capital city of the Dominion.

Ottawa's Welcome,

At Ottawa the Prime Minister was the guest at luncheon of the Governor-Gen-eral (the Duke of Devonshire). He was also welcomed bv the Prime Minister of Canada (the Rt. Hon. A. Meighan), while the Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Borden who was at the time put of Ottawa, sent greetings. - It had been intended to sail from Montreal, but no vessel was immediately available from there, and, as Mr. Massev wns anxious to have at least three clear weeks in tendon before the sitting of the Imperial Conference, in which to attend to important matters, among them the tangled matter of the wool profits, transportation was by the Carmania from New York, While in Ottawa the party were the guests of the Canadian Government at the. hotel Chateau Laurier.