CANADA’S PARLIAMENT HOUSE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2027, 11 September 1919, Page 2

CANADA’S PARLIAMENT HOUSE.

THE new Houses of Parliament in Ottawa, which have been completed by the laying of the final stone by lhe Prince of Wales, have been erected in place of those which were burned down in February, 1910. It was suggested that enemy agents were responsible for the lire, but a commission of investigation reported that while many circumstances encouraged a strong suspicion of Inmmr.aiv-m I here was- nothing in the evidence to justify the (hiding that the fire was causcfl maliciously. The widespread sympathy extended to Canada in the loss of buildings round which so many historic associations clustered —the Dominion Parliament ami Government had been housed there since the Dominion came into , existence —found practical expression in other parts of the Empirtj in various ways. In June, 1910, the Lord Mayor and sheriffs of London presented a new Mace to the Canadian House of Commons, and last year a new Black Hod was presented'to’the Senate of Canada by the United Kingdom Branch of the Empire Parliamenlary Association. A gift was also made by New Zealand. Xo lime has been lost in the erection of the new buildings. The cornerstone was rclnid_ by the Duke of Connaught on September Ist, 19111, and it was estimated then that the work would take three years to complete. The buildings are entirely new except for the library, and are higher than the old structure. .For once the estimate of the time required for the 'construction- of a great public work has come true. It is jast three years from-the relaying of the corner-stone. It is of interest In connection with the visit of the Prince of Wales that his grandfather, afterwards King Edward 'VJL, laid in 1800 the corner-stone of the old Parliament Buildings at Ottawa, The’same stone was used by the Duke of Cannaught in laying (he foundations of the new buildings after the lire in 1910. To the original inscription, recording that the stone was laid by Edward, Prince of Wales, on September Ist, 1800, have been added the words: “Belaid by his brother, the Duke of Connaught, on the lirsl day of September, 1910.”