Unquestionably the prosperity of Canada rests mainly upon agriculture; and legislation that has any tendency to foster the growth of the towns at the expense of the country must in the long run prove injurious. Canada is, however, only following the example of older lands, when she rejoices in her big towns, and in the consequent massing of wealth in restricted areas, for the absence of these (at least as society is now constituted) limits the sphere of human activity; and, if Canada desires anything strongly, it is, perhaps, to be an all-round nation, possessing not only these material advantages of which we all hear so much, not only the chances for the honest worker, but also opportunities at least for the cultivation of science and art, literature and music. Now the cultivation of these is not easy in little frontier towns and hamlets and solitary farms deep in the country. But the manufacturing industries build up the towns, and the towns make possible a kind of co-operation in the things of the mind, that has been almost unheard of in the country.
Hasty visitors sometimes sweepingly and condescendingly accuse Canada of being “crude” and utilitarian, and of being in earnest chiefly about the pursuit of the “Almighty Dollar,” and assert as a matter of course that the finer side of life is neglected, but often these critics would discover, if they stayed in the land a little longer, that much patient cultivation of the higher interests of humanity is going on beneath the surface, as it were. Moreover, if much and rich flowering has not occurred, the field—of human beings—is at present extremely small. The newcomer often expects at once much too much and too little, and makes his comparisons, forgetful of the fact that outstandingly great poets or painters, altruists and heroes are rare everywhere, and that they cannot be expected to be numerous in half a century of time, amongst a population of three or four or even seven millions. At Confederation, less than fifty years ago, Canada had only three and a quarter millions of people, and, for several decades after that, the growth was very slow.
Often, I would venture to say, that the “crudeness” complained of is as much in the surroundings as in the people themselves; and the critic from the Old World should not forget that, so far as the environment of the colonists is concerned, they often have nothing about them in the way of the refinements of life which they do not owe to themselves; whereas the beautiful city or house or church with which he contrasts their deficiencies of comfort or beauty was probably largely a heritage from past ages.
But the reverse idea applies to the people themselves. Though they are dwellers in a new country, many overseas Britons are extraordinarily conscious of their own and their national past. They are more keenly conscious of what it stands for than many of the stay-at-home folk, who have some dim feeling that “colonists” (though their own sons and daughters) are people without a history and without a link to the great days and great deeds of their ancestors. His past is the cherished possession of many a Scot and many an Englishman, who has done brave work in building up the new country, and it seems rather like giving him “the cold shoulder” when a new arrival, flitting rapidly through the country, or even intending to cast in his lot with it, talks always of everything British as “ours,” and of everything “colonial,” as “yours.” As Kipling suggests, the overseas Briton looks back to “the abbey” and much else that in the old land “makes us we,” with no less love and veneration than the Englishman at home.
1. CONSTRUCTION TRAIN ON THE GRAND TRUNK PACIFIC RAILWAY.
2. CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY IRRIGATION DAM AT BASSANO.
THE OLD SMELTER MINE, NELSON.