PARLIAMENTARY PARTY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 99, 28 July 1916, Page 5

PARLIAMENTARY PARTY.

GREAT DOINGS IN CANADA. The special correspondent of the Auckland Star, writing from Ottawa on June 20th says: The New Zealand Parliamentary party, consisting of Sir James Carroll, Messrs. C. J. Parr, C.M.G., M.P., E.P. Lee, M.P., and

Hon. W. F. Cnrncross, M.P., passed through here on their way to London. They have had quite a royal progress across the Dominion. Members of the party say they have boon literally overwhelmed with offers of hospitality, but had to decline most of them on account of having to meet every day prominent people, inspect camps, and generally rush along. The C.P.R. Companv gave the party a special car right through Canada, and they had a cook and waiter all to themselves. Even their meals on the car were provided by the company free of cost. They insisted upon doing all this. A Colonel George Ham, who is a famous raconteur, was in charge of the party. They were put up for several days at the palatial hotels of the C.P.R. Company at Sycamuse, Lake Louise, and Banff, in the Rocky Mountains. At Lake Louise 800 people sat down to dinner in the hotel at one sitting. They were mostly United Staters, who are holiday-making this* year in Canada because of the European war. The Parliamentary representatives have had civic receptions and welcomes at every important city. Their public .speaking has been divided up. Some days Sir James Carroll replies, on other days Mr Parr, and other members. At Calgary the newspapers said that Mr Parr made “a ti ringing patriotic speech which would not soon be forgotten.” Sir James Carroll’s oratory has also l>een appreciated. It invariably struck the Imperial note. One thing which surprised the visiting members was the progress made by prohibition. Within the past six months four large States of the Dominion have gone absolutely dry and prohibitionists. They are the great provinces .of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario. They represent over four millions of people. It is anticipated that the whole of Canada will be a dry area within * two years. This result has been brought about by the men, as the women do not vote upon it here. On the 16th inst., the party were entertained at lunch at Government House as the guests of the Go-vernor-General, the Duke end Duchess of Connaught, and the same night they dined with Sir' Robert. Borden, the Prime Minister. The members have met the leading minds of Canada, and exchanged views on all the big questions of the day. Speaking t 0 onemember of the party regarding their impressions generally, he said: “One is almost appalled by the very vastness of Canada and unlimitability of its natural resources. Fancy New Zealand being absorbed about ten times over in the wheat growing lands of Canada! The Dominion offers perhaps greater possibilities -■ for fortune making than New Zealand, but tune making than New Zealand, but the American spirit of dollar worship is growing, and I think on the whole I would infinitely rather live in our easy-going, beautiful countiy of New Zealand. Land is very much cheaper _ , here than in New Zealand. I mean agricultural land. You can buy a first-class wheat growing farm with a. house and all usual improvements for five or six pounds an acre. On the other hand, the city lands, particular, ly suburban residential Iqnds, are, 1 think, a good deal higher in price here than in New Zealand.”