King Edward's realm: Story of the making of the Empire

by C. S. Dawe

4. Another discovery had already led to the colonizing of British Columbia, the country beyond the Rocky Mountains. This was the discovery of gold (1858). The Indians, canoeing down the river Fraser, brought with them quantities of the precious metal which they had found along the river-bed. The men who had ransacked California for gold now rushed to the new gold country. The hardships they had to encounter were appalling.

5. At the season when the miners flocked into Columbia the water in the rivers was at its highest, and the sand-bars in which they hoped to find gold were hidden deep beneath its surface. The rivers themselves flowed through gloomy gorges, along which not even a mule could make its way. All provisions had to be carried on men's backs, and before a mule-track could be cut the miners were reduced to a diet of wild berries. Hundreds of miles had to be traversed before the rich Cariboo district was reached, where nuggets could be picked up in an old river-bed. News of this "find" brought men into the country so much faster than flour that all were reduced to the verge of starvation. The same thing has occurred in our own day, still further north, in the district of Klondyke.

6. Gold is a powerful magnet. It is one of the best colonizing agents known. What hardships will not men face to fill their pockets with gold! Wherever gold is to be picked up, there thousands of adventurers soon gather, and if the country is suitable for a colony thousands of settlers remain. Thus British Columbia owes its position as a colony, in the first place, to the gold-nuggets sown in the sands of its river-beds.

7. Attached to British Columbia is the island of Vancouver, and here also a discovery was made, which has much enhanced its value and attracted colonists. A settlement had already been made at Victoria on its southern shores, when, one day, came some Indians from the northern part of the island, and entering a smithy were surprised to find a fire of coals. When told that the fuel had been brought thousands of miles across the sea, they were much amused, as there was any quantity, they said, of the same sort of "black stone" on that very island. And so it proved. At the present time, indeed, the output amounts to one million tons a year.

8. Canada now extended over a region nearly the size of Europe, embracing besides the old provinces in the east, British Columbia in the far west, Manitoba in the centre, and the unsettled lands of the great "North-West." The next thing was to knit together the various provinces and out of them to make one great nation. This was made possible by the Confederation Act of 1867. By this Act the Dominion of Canada came into being, with a constitution, settling the terms on which the different provinces could unite. In less than seven years all the Canadian provinces, except Newfoundland, consented to join. Thus a new nation was born on the great American continent.

9. By the new constitution each province continues to manage its own local affairs, whilst all matters of national concern are brought before the Dominion Parliament. This parliament consists of an Upper House styled the Senate, and a Lower House called the House of Commons. The former is composed of life-members nominated by the Crown, the latter of members elected by the people, and having full control of the public purse. The Sovereign is represented by the governor-general, appointed by the Crown, and no laws are valid without his consent.

10. To avoid all jealousy between the province of Ontario and that of Quebec, neither of their capitals was selected as the seat of the national or federal government. That honour was given to the little town of Ottawa, situated on their common border. Ottawa has now grown into an important city, and in its Houses of Parliament possesses two of the finest edifices on the continent of America.

(3) PROMISE OF NATIONAL GREATNESS

(Canada).

1. With the union of the Canadian provinces into the Dominion of Canada, a new nation sprang into existence (1867). As no nation deserves to be free unless it can defend itself when attacked, Canada at once took steps for guarding her existence. A law was passed requiring every able-bodied man between sixteen and sixty to enrol himself for the defence of the Dominion, and to prepare for that duty by spending a certain number of days each year in drill and rifle-shooting.