Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, MAY 1, 1900. The Fire in Ottawa.

Manawatu Herald, 1 May 1900, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, MAY 1, 1900. The Fire in Ottawa.

■♦ v Misfortunes seem to be coining upon the Empire — war, pestilence, famine and fire The war has drained the colonies of large sums of money and numbers of men ; the bubonic plague will cost a vast sum before we are free of it ; and now Canada has had a fire in the capital of the Dominion by which a loss of a million and e half pounds Will be caused. In sending the first news of the fire the bogus of Penianism and Boer intrigues were assigned as a cause, but since it has been found that the origin of it was accidental. Ottawa is situated on che south bank of the river of that name, 120 miles from its influx into the St. Lawrence at Montreal. At Ottawa the river forms the splendid Chaudie"re Falls which supply the motive power of the numerous lumber mills, flour mills, and factories. The chief industry at Ottawa is the lumber trade, as in winter there are thousands of men engaged in cutting timber and drawing it to the streams, and afterwards in rafting it down. We can understand how a fire would run from a wooden house in a lumber district in a hurricane. The cathedral laved must be the only Roman Catholic one. In all the trouble that affects the Empire there snows up strong the grand spirit of unity existing between i(he scattered portions of it. This fire is but another instance, there appears a need and monetary help is immediately forthcoming. May this unity always exist, and thus the more we all do to ease one another's burdens the nearer shall we get to that manner of living most befitting a nation of Christians.