Commission in Dominion affairs. Of Mr. Taylor The Colonist said on the following day: "A quiet, unassuming, conscientious and practical business man, he has brought to the administration of his very important Department a large store of shrewd commonsense and useful experience and, in the comprehensive development of a well-considered policy of good roads for British Columbia, has already built up for himself an enviable fame.” On Jan. 26th Mr. Premier McBride received a large deputation from Vancouver Island asking for special road grants as an aid to development work, and he promised to do all that was possible. At the turning of the first sod of the Canadian Northern Railway on the Island by the Lieut.-Governor (T. W. Paterson), Mr. McBride, on Feb. 18, eulogized the work of this great corporation and the splendid future before the Island itself. A little later (Mch. 13), the Premier addressed, in Victoria, the local Federation of Labour. The workmen must be protected, but so must capital if it was to be obtained and kept in the Province. The Provincial University policy was strongly defended: "It is our determination that it shall be a People's University. Technical as well as scientific and professional education will be provided. The technical branches will be free while the other departments will be operated at the least possible cost. When the University opens it will be one of the finest in the Empire. And it is to be maintained, not by private subscription or endowment, but by the people, through the land grant which has been set aside for that purpose. The technical schools will be given the closest attention and in addition there will be agricultural and mining schools. It will be a replete and concrete assembly of all recognized branches of higher education in the confines of the Province." To the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada, and in reply to certain demands made by it upon the Provincial Government, the Premier replied over his own signature, at length and in specific terms, on Mch. 14th. Weekly payment of wages had been considered but found impracticable; the Government did not care to abolish the property qualification for Mayor and Aldermen; no system of Government pensions to workmen could be introduced that was not applicable also to other classes; the selection of Coroners' juries must remain in the hands of the Coroners; the appointment of Inspectors under the Coal Mines Act must remain with the Government; Government ownership of coal mines and telephones was not contemplated at the present time by the Government. Other requests were answered by an explanation of existing conditions. At a meeting of the Vancouver Island Development League, on Mch. 15th, Mr. McBride dealt with road construction and progress on the Island and the Government's determination to aid construction throughout the Province to the fullest possible extent. He was able to announce the approaching settlement of the Songhees Reserve question. Word had just come from Ottawa that all arrangements had been most satisfactorily completed and all that now remained was their enactment into Dominion law, which would be done at the earliest possible moment. The Provincial estimates, it may be added, had already included $750,000 for the acquisition of these famous Indian lands in the heart of Victoria and for the purchase of a new Reserve for the Indians. On Apl. 4th, following, Chief Michael Cooper, of the Songhees Tribe, formally ratified and executed the bargain and settlement of this longpending problem, with the Premier of the Province, and received payments totalling $421,552. On June 10th, in connection with the Premier's visit to London for the Coronation, a representative banquet was given Mr. McBride, with Mr. J. H. Turner, Agent-General for British Columbia, in the chair and Lord Strathcona, Lord Aberdeen, Mr. Winston Churchill, and Hon. W. J. Bowser amongst the speakers. In his speech, the guest of the occasion stated that there were 1,000 people from British Columbia in England to join in the Coronation demonstration. He eulogized or sketched the timber, fruit, minerals, deep-sea fisheries, smelters, climate, scenery and sport of his Province which, in the year 1911, was having a development "unparalleled in its history." Following his arrival at home, Mr. McBride made a trip through the interior of the Province and held meetings at Moyie, Cranbrook, Fernie, Hosmer, Nelson, Rossland, Arrowhead, Revelstoke and Kamloops. It was a campaign against Reciprocity and in support of Mr. Borden-for whom on Sept. 19th the Premier stated success to be certain in his Province whatever might happen elsewhere. Messrs. W. R. Ross, Thos. Taylor and W. J. Bowser took part in these and other meetings. Mr. McBride was understood to have declined a seat in the ensuing Borden Cabinet. Following the accession of the new Government to power at Ottawa, Messrs. McBride, Bowser and Ross went to the Dominion capital to present once more the various claims which the Laurier Government had so steadily refused to grant or recognize. They were in Ottawa on Nov. 6th, and besides the general question of better financial terms for the Province and the removal of the double jurisdiction difficulty in the Railway belt of the Province, Mr. McBride stated that there were a number of minor matters touching fisheries rights, Indian reserves, wharves and similar public works, river and harbour improvements, and the ever-vexed question of Asiatic immigration. With the Ministers was Mr. R. E. Gosnell, a well-known authority on British Columbia history and conditions. No announcement as to results was made, though it was understood that a Commission would be appointed by the Provincial Government to report upon the issues involved in its Better Terms appli cation, and the Premier stated at Victoria, on Nov. 23rd, that all questions at issue were on "the eve of satisfactory solution." In Montreal, Mr. McBride had interviews with Sir Thomas Shaughnessy and Sir William Mackenzie and, as to the latter, said: "He is determined to press to completion his work in this Province and he assures me that in very little more than two years if so long-Canadian Northern trains will be running from the West coast of Vancouver Island clear through to Atlantic ports." The 5th annual Convention of the Provincial Conservative Association met in New Westminster on Nov. 24-25, and amongst the Resolutions passed were the following: (1) Indicating the revolutionary influence of the Panama Canal completion in 1915 and urging the Dominion Government to carry out such work at all the points on the coast as shall ensure the Dominion of Canada being fully enabled to participate in the enormous benefits that must accrue therefrom to every part of the Continent which has placed itself in a position to take advantage of the opening of the said Canal; (2) suggesting the organization of a Provincial Department of Immigration and a Ministry of Mines; (3) declaring it highly desirable that a Canadian national highway should be built from the Atlantic to the Pacific and that the Provincial Government should co-operate with the Dominion Government, by increasing and aiding subsidies for new colonization roads and connection with already existing highways; (4) urging construction of a line of railway from Vancouver to the Peace River region and railway connection between Vancouver Island and the Mainland; (5) asking the appointment of a Commission to study the silver, lead and zinc industries; (6) declaring that Asiatic immigration should be altogether eliminated and fishing licenses given only to white men; (7) asking for a Royal Commission to inquire into the high cost of living and for a duty on United States fruit equal to the American duty; (8) requesting settlement of the water rights question and of the Railway belt land issue and suggesting the appointment of a Telephone Commission. During his address at the Convention, Mr. McBride stated that a comprehensive plan for railway lines was being developed so as to tap additional resources and bring settlement to the agricultural valleys. During the year progress was made in the completion and extension of the Parliamentary Buildings at Victoria under the supervision of F. M. Rattenbury, the original architect, and with $150,000 of a preliminary vote; the gradual evolution of the Canadian highway idea proceeded and the route through the Province was outlined at the close of the year by W. W. Foster, Deputy Minister of Public Works, as running from Alberni to Victoria (via Nanaimo), Vancouver, Westminster, Hope, Princeton, Rossland, thence to Trail, crossing the Columbia by the THE RIGHT REVD. OLIVIER ELZEAR MATHIEU, D.D., PH.D., LL.D., C.M.G. Appointed (1911) 1st Roman Catholic Bishop of Regina. THE REV. ROBERT PORTER MACKAY, B.A., D.D. Elected (1911) Moderator of the General Assembly, |