PARLIAMENTARY PARTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 July 1916, Page 7

PARLIAMENTARY PARTY.

DOINGS IN CANADA. A special correspondent of the Auckland Star, writing from Ottawa 011 June :-!0 says: The New Zealand Parliamentary party, consisting of Sir James Carroll, Messrs. C. J. Parr, C.M.G., M.P., K. P. Lee, M.P., and Hon. W. F. Carncross, M.P., passed through here on tlieir way to London. Tkey have had quite a royal progress across the Dominion. Moml-crs of (lie party say they have btet! literacy ovenihdmed with offers ;>f hospiiaiity, out had to decline most t! them 011 account of having to meet every day prominent people, inspect camps, and generally rush along. The C'.l'.K Company gave the party a special car right through Canada, and they had a cook ami waiter all to themselves, Even their Meals on the ear were provided by tin.' 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 'lays at the palatial hotels of the C.R.P. Company at Sycamuse, Lake Louise, ana Banfl, 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 holi-day-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. Pari; "made "a ringing patriotic speech which would not soon be forgotten." Sir James Carroll's oratory has also been appreciated. It invariably struck the Imperial note. One tiling which surprised the visiting members was the progress nude, 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 Canriht 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 10th inst., the party were entertained at lunch at Government House as the guests of the. Governor-General, the Duke and Duchess of Connaught, and the same night they jined 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 to one member of the party regarding tlieir impressions g&nerallv, 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 "reater possibilities for fortune making than New Zealand, but the American spirit of dollar worship is growing, and 1 think on the whole I would infinitely rather live in our easygoing, beautiful country of New Zealand. Land is verv 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, particularly suburban residential lands, are, I think, a good deal higher in price here i than in New Zealand." \ |