CANADIAN BATTLEFIELDS

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9042, 7 March 1908, Page 5

CANADIAN BATTLEFIELDS

PROPOSED NATIONALISATION,

Received March 10, 10.40 p.m. OTTAWA, March 6. Sir Wilfrid Laurier (Premier) speaking in the House of Commons, said that he hoped the Motherland and South Africa would contribute to the fund for the purchase of the sites of Canadian battlefields, thus producing a great effect throughout the British Empire. Speaking to the Women's Canadian Club at Montreal on December 12th, Ear! Grey, the Governor-General, appealed for steps to rescue the famous battlefields of Quebec from their present deplorable neglect. It has been suggested that the 300 th birth day of Canada should be celebrated by the consecration of the Quebec battlefields. This suggestion, said Earl Grey, had received the warm approval of the Premier of Quebec, and of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the Dominion Premier. Tne immigrant arriving at New York was greeted by the Statue of Liberty. The immigrant who looked up from bis steamer to the plains of Abraham, where the fate of America was decided (in the defeat of the French in 1759), saw no inspiring monument, but a gaol, which stood on the sacred spot where Wolfe gave up his life. The battlefield of Sainte Foye, where the French in 1760, after a desperate battle, defeated the British, and whence they would have recaptured Quebec, if a British fleet had not suddenly appeared, adjoined the Plains of Abraham.

It was proposed to include the mora important parts of the two battlefields in a national park, to be called "King Edward's Park." A large additional sum would be required to put th 3 battlefields in a worthy condition, to remove the gaol, rifle factory, and other buildingf, to erect a museum to contain the hiscorical relics, and to make an avenue round the battlefields seven miles in length, for historical interest and natural beauty, probably the first in the world. Lord Grey hoped it might be possible to erect on the Point of Quebec first visible to a steamer ccming up the St. Lawrence a colossal statue of the Angel of Peace, with arms outstretched, offering to clasp to her heart every new arrival from Europe. Canada has contributed £60,000 to the fund, the city of Quebec £20,000, and the public subscriptions are expected to reach £l2o,<^oo.