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 THE
BRITISH
COLUMBIA
HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
APRIL, 1946 We
BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Published by the Archives of British Columbia
in cooperation with the
British Columbia Historical Association.
EDITOR.
W. Kaye Lamb.
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C.
ASSOCIATE EDITOR.
Willard E. Ireland.
Provincial Archives, Victoria, B.C.
ADVISORY BOARD.
J. C. Goodfellow, Princeton. T. A. Rickard, Victoria.
W. N. Sage, Vancouver.
Editorial communications should be addressed to the Editor.
Subscriptions should be sent to the Provincial Archives, Parliament
Buildings, Victoria, B.C. Price, 50c. the copy, or $2 the year. Members
of the British Columbia Historical Association in good standing receive the
Quarterly without further charge.
Neither the Provincial Archives nor the British Columbia Historical
Association assumes any responsibility for statements made by contributors
to the magazine.
The Quarterly is indexed in Faxon's Annual Magazine Subject-Index. BRITISH COLUMBIA
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
" Any country worthy of a future
should be interested in its past."
Vol. X. Victoria, B.C., April, 1946. No. 2
CONTENTS.
Vancouver 60th Anniversary Issue.
Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers: 1892-1926.             Page.
By D. A. McGregor     89
The Naming of Burrard Inlet.
By Sir Gerald Burrard, Bart ..   143
Vancouver's Earliest Years.
By Helen R. Boutilier -.   151
Notes and Comments :
British Columbia Historical Association    171
Okanagan Historical Society      172
Vermilion Cave, Princeton.
By J. C. Goodfellow    172
Contributors to this Issue   174
The Northwest Bookshelf:
Eleventh Report, Okanagan Historical Society.
By J. C. Goodfellow  _.   175
The Letters of John McLoughlin: Third Series.
By Willard E. Ireland    176
Holmes:  Royal Commissions in British Columbia, 1872-1942.
By Anne M. Smith    178
Bischoff:   The Jesuits in Old Oregon.
By Sister Mary Dorothea     180
Shorter Notices :
Andrew:   The Story of Summerland.   181
Goodfellow:  Memories of Pioneer Life in British Columbia...      182
Cuppage: Island Trails    183
Matthews:  American Diaries   183
Papers read before the Historical and Scientific Society  of
Manitoba, 1944-45    184 ADVENTURES OF VANCOUVER
NEWSPAPERS:   1892-1926.
Editor's Note.—The following article forms a sequel to that by
Miss Bessie Lamb, entitled " From ' Tickler ' to ' Telegram ': Notes
on Early Vancouver Newspapers," that appeared in the July, 1945,
issue of this Quarterly. Miss Lamb's account ended with the
demise of the Daily Telegram, and Mr. McGregor picks up the
threads at that point.
When the Daily Telegram suspended publication in the fall
of 18921 Vancouver was left with two daily newspapers, the
News-Advertiser in the morning field and the Vancouver Daily
World in the evening. The World was owned and edited by J. C.
McLagan and was published from the building on Homer Street,
near Pender, now occupied by the News-Herald. The News-
Advertiser was owned and edited by F. L. Carter-Cotton, and had
its offices on the Pender and Cambie Street lot now occupied by
the editorial and mechanical departments of the Vancouver Daily
Province.
Judged by any modern standards, neither paper was a very
good newspaper. There was a lack of balance about them, a lack
of variety, and a lack of the features which are considered necessary to-day to attract and maintain reader interest. There was
very little world news in either of them, and the local news ran
quite largely to politics with appallingly long reports of political
meetings and City Council meetings and sessions of the Legislature and, quite often, of Court proceedings. Party lines were
not drawn in Provincial politics at the time, but the two newspapers contrived to take opposite sides on most issues and to
make a fight of it. In Federal politics, the News-Advertiser was
staunchly Conservative while the World was Liberal, but not
consistently so.
The two newspapers were hardly in competition, seeing that
each had a field so clearly its own, and there was no outside •
rivalry to cloud the clear journalistic skies.    All the same, for
(1) Bessie Lamb, "From 'Tickler' to 'Telegram': Notes on Early
Vancouver Newspapers," British Columbia Historical Quarterly, IX. (1945),
p. 198.
British Columbia Historical Quarterly, Vol. X., No. II.
89 90 D. A. McGregor. April
one of the newspapers there was worry enough and it arose
within its own domestic circle. When Carter-Cotton assumed
control of the News-Advertiser in 1887 he had as partner R. W.
Gordon, a Scotsman of some means who had not been long in
Canada.2 The two men were also partners in the San Juan Lime
Company, which owned a valuable piece of land fronting on Burrard Inlet, near where the sugar refinery stands. In 1888 Gordon went off to the Old Country, leaving Cotton in charge of his
interests. When he returned several years later he found that
the water-front lot no longer belonged to the San Juan Lime
Company, and that 20,000 shares of News-Advertiser stock had
been sold. He claimed $15,000 from his partner, but Cotton
could not pay and Gordon entered suit against him. When the
case came to trial Cotton refused to tell to whom he had sold the
stock, and Mr. Justice Drake sentenced him to three months in
jail for contempt of Court.
The jail was in New Westminster and thither Cotton was
taken, and from his cell there he conducted his newspaper for
several weeks. Each morning some member of the newspaper
staff had to visit the jail to receive the publisher's instructions,
and usually it was the junior reporter who had to go.3
Finally, as a result of an out-of-Court arrangement, Cotton
was released, but not before the Provincial election of 1894 had
taken place. Cotton had been elected to the Legislature from
Vancouver in 1890, along with J. W. Horne, one of his particular
political enemies, and was now a candidate again. Despite the
handicap which kept him behind the bars during most of the
election campaign he was re-elected, his associates, this time,
being Adolphus Williams and Robert McPherson. His plight
played quite a part in the election, but the incarcerated editor
(2) See ibid., p. 191, where Gordon is described as " an Edinburgh-born
financier of large means." It would perhaps be more correct to describe
him as being comfortably off, rather than wealthy. He was a successful
Scottish farmer, who had left Scotland because his landlord had refused
to renew his lease to lands upon which he had made extensive improvements.
After spending some time in England, he came to Canada. He settled first
in Winnipeg, where he lost heavily in real estate, and then moved on to
Vancouver.
(3) The junior reporter was Roy W. Brown, now editorial director of
the Vancouver Sun. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 91
received very little sympathy from the press in either Vancouver
or Victoria.4
So far as is known, Cotton never gave any one the information he refused to give the Court. His story was that part of
the Inlet lot was required for trackage for the new sugar refinery, to which the city had donated a site by way of bonus, and
that he had entered into a bargain with the city and the Canadian
Pacific Railway through which he was to get title to another
water-front lot. In the end he did not get title because the
C.P.R. itself did not get title. Meanwhile the bank from which
he and his partner had borrowed substantial sums was pressing
for a reduction of the loan. He had to sell some of the News-
Advertiser shares, and as there was no ready market for such
securities was compelled to appeal to friends. These had accommodated him, but on the understanding that he would not reveal
their identity.6
For six years the Neivs-Advertiser and the World had the
daily newspaper field to themselves. Their circulation was small
—about 1,500 each6—but the city was small, too. The 1891
census gave the population as 13,685, but the boosters, of course,
claimed more, some of them going even to 20,000. During these
six years no rival threatened the peace of mind of either publisher. Light, a weekly journal of political comment started in
the spring of 1894, changed its name to the Mainlander in the
following September, and in March, 1895, came out as the B.C.
Budget. There were rumours from time to time that its publishers intended to issue an evening daily, but the Mainlander
scotched these wilh a denial. The World, it said, " as a purveyor of news is exceptionally efficient, even if its editorial
notions are exceptionally eccentric."7 John A. Fulton and N. C.
Schou, ex-alderman, were the moving spirits in the Mainlander,
(4) See Province, June 9, 1894;   Victoria Times, June 5, 1894.
(5) Gordon's side of the case is presented in a letter published in the
World on June 19, 1894. Cotton gave his side in a speech in Vancouver
on April 28, 1894.
(6) Canadian Newspaper Directory, Montreal, 1892, pp. 185-6.
(7) Mainlander, February 23, 1895. 92 D. A. McGregor. April
while William Baillie, William Wilson, and T. H. Hawson were
the men behind the B.C. Budget.8
All was not, however, as serene as it seemed. While the
World and News-Advertiser were congratulating themselves that
all was safe and secure, a new competitor was trying its wings
in Victoria. This was the Province, whose first number was
offered to the public on March 3, 1894, just three weeks before
Light began to shine in Vancouver. The Province was a weekly
journal built somewhat on the lines of Labouchere's Truth, with
some features adapted from the Spectator. " In the strict sense
of the word," it said in a later issue, " the Province is not a newspaper. It is intended to be a journal of critical comment and a
vehicle for the expression of independent thought."9
It was a small paper, 9 by 12 inches in size. Its founder was
Hewitt Bostock; its first editor A. H. Scaif e, who, when he was
contributing fiction, as he frequently did, used the pseudonym
" Kim Balir." There were three directors—Mr. Scaife, Mr.
Bostock, and Archer Martin, a rising Victoria lawyer. Later
Mr. Scaife and Mr. Martin retired from the board and Walter
Nichol and Ian Coltart took their places.
The Province explained its mission in its salutatory editorial :—
We have entered the lists prepared and determined to win our way to
public approval, if necessary through many encounters.
We venture to hope that we may in some measure be successful in filling
a want which to our own and other minds has been apparent for some time
past.
No weekly journal, precisely on the lines laid down by our paper, is published on this side of the Rocky Mountains. We think that there is room,
and further that there is need for such a publication. The outcome of our
opinion is the present issue of THE PROVINCE.
(8) Nicolai C. Schou had come from England to British Columbia about
1888. He was associated with the Commonwealth and the Ledger in New
Westminster, and joined the News-Advertiser staff in the early nineties.
He remained with the News-Advertiser eleven years and died on Christmas
Eve, 1903, a few weeks after becoming assistant editor of the Victoria
Colonist. He was the first Reeve of Burnaby, and was re-elected ten times.
He served one term as a Vancouver alderman. William Baillie bought the
plant of the New Westminster Ledger, when it went out of business, and
brought it to Vancouver.
(9) Province, October 23, 1897. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers.   . 93
Untrammeled as we are by ties of party, uninfluenced by vested or other
interests, bound to no special denomination, we trust that our pages may
prove of general utility, and offer a medium for the ventilation of opinions,
from whatever source they may emanate, provided only that they are put
forward with a view to the advancement of British Columbia.
There is however one point upon which we desire that there should be
no mistake as to our views.
We are opposed to protection in every shape and form, and we advocate
the adoption of free trade, or as near an approach to it as may be consistent
with the requirements of revenue on a basis of the greatest economy.*"
A little later the young periodical amplified its attitude on the
tariff in this wise:—
British Columbia is truly a patient ass, so far as the tariff is concerned,
for it bears uncomplainingly the heavy burden of a high impost from which
it receives no benefit, but only ill, receiving in return an occasional carrot in
the shape of a niggardly grant from Ottawa, doled out with a sparing
hand. . . . But to ask a British Columbian to vote for the tariff because
it is going to benefit some hot-house monopolist two thousand miles away, is
like asking a man to sand-bag his mother in order that the undertaker in
the next street may swell his bank account from the profits of the funeral.1'
Mr. Hewitt Bostock, founder of the Province, was a young
Englishman of means. He was born in 1864, graduated in 1885
from Trinity College, Cambridge, was called to the bar at
Lincoln's Inn, and came to British Columbia in 1888.12 He
bought a ranch at Monte Creek, near Kamloops, and returned to
England to be married. By 1893 he was back in British Columbia, and the following year started the Province. His experience
in the Interior and on the Coast had convinced him that there
were various abuses to be righted, and he offered himself to help
right them. He decided to go into politics for the sake of the
service he might render and thought a newspaper might help
him.    Hence the Province.
The Province did help, too. It started out by making itself
a readable weekly journal. It had departments dealing with
such topics as politics, the Courts, books, music and drama, men
and affairs. Gradually it developed correspondence from near
and far—from Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Quebec, London,
and Paris.    There were budgets of news and comment, too, from
(10) Ibid., March 3, 1894.
(11) Ibid., March 31, 1894.
(12) Encyclopedia of Canada, Toronto, 1935, I., p. 259. 94 D. A. McGregor. April
Vancouver Island points and Interior towns. Interesting letters
were published and particular attention was paid to mining.
Though the Province had no politics it took a stand on all
sorts of local and national issues. It adopted the slogan, " Free
Trade and Direct Taxation," and nailed this motto to its masthead.13. By free trade it said it " meant exactly that and not
the partial free trade in operation in England." No legislature,
it added, " had as yet adopted the one common sense and practical method of raising revenue, viz. by direct taxation."
Quite early in its career the Province organized an expedition
to explore Vancouver Island from Carmanah Point southward.
The expedition failed to complete its journey the first year, but
went back reinforced a second time and pushed its way through.
The Province published the diary of the trip.
It took an active part in Victoria municipal elections, calling
for a specific statement of a definite civic policy to be laid down
in black and white. There should be an end, it insisted, to
" vague and indefinite assurances of general present good intentions to be later followed by particular failures.   .   .   ."u
It opposed the guarantee of bonds for the Nakusp & Slocan
Railway.16 In a series of articles it suggested a trade policy for
British Columbia.16 It took strong exception to the Dominion
Government's policy on representation for the West. The West,
it said, had been practically without representation in Parliament since 1878. The Government had used it as a storehouse
for needy partisans, most of the members from western constituencies being merely echoes of Ottawa. Also, there had been
no proper cabinet representation.17
The paper showed an interest in harbour improvements,
rarks, playing fields, boulevards, fishing regulations, voters lists,
architecture, mail service, freight rates, cheaper gas. It devoted
a lot of space to cycling, campaigned for good roads, and published maps of the environs of Victoria and Vancouver.   As early
(13)
Province, November 2, 1895.
(14)
Ibid.,
January 11,
1896.
(15)
Ibid.,
January 18,
1896.
(16)
Ibid.,
January 18,
25, and February 1,
1896,
(17)
Ibid.,
April'25, 1896. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 95
as June, 1897, it was asking why British Columbia did not have
a university.18
When the authorities were remiss, it criticized them; when
the citizen neglected his duties as in failing to shovel snow, it did
the same for him. It took Canon Beanlands, of Christ Church
Cathedral, to task for preaching a political sermon.19 It found
fault with the ladies of Victoria when they " plumped " on election day for two women candidates for the school board.20 It
called the attention of the Government to the streets of Rossland
which, it said, were in a disgraceful condition.21
It protested that it was time the steamer Charmer was
replaced on the Victoria-Vancouver run by a vessel better suited
to the requirements of modern civilization.22 Later it complained of the insanitary conditions on the Charmer: " There is
surely enough water between here and Vancouver to keep a
steamer clean."23
The Province took an active part in the Federal by-election in
Victoria in January, 1896, supporting William Templeman, Liberal, against Col. Prior, Conservative. The issue was the Manitoba School question, and the campaign was notable for the
appearance for the first time on the Pacific Coast of Hon. Joseph
Martin, who, before the century was out, was to cut quite a figure
in British Columbia politics.
In the general election of June, 1896, Mr. Bostock, who ran
as a Liberal, was elected in Yale-Cariboo. The victory was considered a resounding one, for Cariboo had gone Conservative
through nine previous elections and Yale through eight. It was
also the beginning of Mr. Bostock's political career. In that
election of 1896 every British Columbia constituency, save Victoria, returned Liberal members. Victoria elected Col. E. G.
Prior and Thomas Earle. Mr. Templeman suffered defeat for
the third time. In Winnipeg, Joseph Martin, who had championed British Columbia in the previous Parliament, also went
down to defeat, and it was this circumstance, coupled with his
(18) Ibid., June 26, 1897.
(19) Ibid., January 11, 1896.
(20) Ibid., January 18, 1896.
(21) Ibid., January 18, 1896.
(22) Ibid., August 29, 1896.
(23) Ibid., July 10, 1897. 96 D. A. McGregor. April
failure to get a post in the Laurier cabinet, that turned him to
British Columbia.
After the election the Province spoke critically of the Dominion Franchise Act, pointing out that on June 23 there had been
only two qualified voters in Trail, which had a population of
1,000 to 1,200, and only seventeen in Rossland, which had over
4,000 people.24
It took exception to the practice of putting men who held
prominent official positions on the directorates or advisory boards
of private corporations, and named specifically Hon. F. G. Vernon, Agent-General in London, Premier Turner, and Hon. C. E.
Pooley, President of the Council.26 It criticized the action of
Hon. Edgar Dewdney, Lieutenant-Governor, in going to London
to help'F. Augustus Heinze raise money to build the Columbia
& Western Railway.26
Vancouver, a raw town with many growing pains, received
weekly attention from the Province. If there was anything in
the Mainland city like a musicale or dramatic entertainment that
merited mention, the event was duly reported with encouragement and discriminating praise. But there were frequent prods,
too. For instance: " When is the City Council of Vancouver
going to put Georgia Street in proper order? This sounds rather
like the problem, ' What are the wild waves saying? ' both being
apparently incapable of solution."27
On another occasion, the Vancouver correspondent took
exception to the " miserable little houses," the " architectural
monstrosities," the " row of mustard-pots" on Georgia Hill.
"At the bottom is a pepper-box (of dirty white shade), then come
the mustard-pots, of colour violent enough to knock you down,
save at the top of the row where the condiment has evidently
become a trifle dry and consequently of a duller hue; truly
' every prospect pleases ' and only this cruet-stand (and such like
enormities) are vile! "28
There were two Province companies at this time, the one
which owned and operated the Province, known as " The Prov-
(24) Ibid., August 15, 1896.
(25) Ibid., August 15, 1896;  November 27, 1897.
(26) Ibid., August 22, 1896.
(27) Ibid., September 4, 1897.
(28) Ibid., March 14, 1896. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 97
ince Limited Liability," and " The Province Publishing Company," which operated job printing plants in both Victoria and
Vancouver. Early in 1897, the Vancouver World published a
letter casting reflections on the Province Publishing Company,
stating that the Company was discharging its white workmen
and replacing them with cheap Japanese labour. The Company
issued a writ for libel, the World expressed regrets and published
a denial of the truth of the charge, and the suit was withdrawn.29
Starting from zero, the Province built circulation rapidly.
By May 25,1895, it had a circulation of 1,450. By May 23, 1896,
the circulation was 3,508. By November 6, 1897, it was possible
to announce that the weekly had a larger circulation than any
other paper, daily or weekly, published in British Columbia.30
Late in 1896, Arthur Hodgkin Scaife, who had been editor of
the Province since its inception, and who had taken some part in
Victoria's civic affairs as well, suffered a break-down in health
and, during his absence, Clive Phillipps-Wolley took charge.31
Mr. Scaife returned for a few months, but finally it was decided
that he should go on a trip to England, and on October 2 it was
announced that, during Mr. Scaife's absence, the editorial chair
would be filled by Mr. W. C. Nichol, late of the Hamilton Herald.
Thus a new era began for the little weekly.
Walter Cameron Nichol was 31 at the time. He had been
born in Ontario, son of a small-town lawyer and grandson of
Col. Robert Nichol, who had been quartermaster-general of
militia through the war of 1812.32 He had served his time on
Hamilton, London, and Toronto papers, and had been one of the
founders of Saturday Night, working with E. E. Shepherd.    He
(29) Vancouver World, April 22, 1897.
(30) Province, November 6, 1897.
(31) Captain Clive Oldnall Long Phillipps-Wolley, born in Dorsetshire
on April 3, 1854, served for some years as British consul at Kertch, in the
Crimea, published a book on Sport in the Crimea and Caucasus, studied
law, was called to the bar at the Middle Temple, published several other
books, including a novel, Gold, Gold in Cariboo (1893), came to British
Columbia in 1896, and spent the remainder of his life in the Province. He
was knighted in 1915, and died at Somenos on July 8, 1918. His later books
included The Ghicamon Stone, a story of the Cassiar, Songs of an Englisl
Esau, and Songs from a Young Man's Land.—Encyclopedia of Canada,
Toronto, 1937, V., p. 115.
(32) See ibid., p. 4. 98 D. A. McGregor. April
was thoroughly trained in newspaper work, had a quick, intelligent mind, and was master of a tantalizing, incisive style.
Mr. Nichol had come West, as so many thousands of others
had done, hoping to make his fortune. From the East there
seemed several possibilities: the Kootenay country, in which
there was great mining activity and excitement; the Yukon, just
opening up and with a strong appeal to the young and adventurous; and the Coast cities. Mr. Nichol tried the Kootenays
first; had a look at Rossland, and passed it up; spent some
months at Kaslo working on the Kootenaian, and came on to the
Coast. Before he left the East he had received from the Canadian Pacific Railway the promise of financial assistance if he
should find some spot in which to found or buy into a newspaper.'
His job at Victoria gave him an opportunity to look round.
On the Province he took hold at once and the weekly became
a brighter though perhaps less dignified journal than it had been
under the scholarly Mr. Scaife. Mr. Scaife was sometimes severe'
in his criticisms, but always mature, always the gentleman.
Mr. Nichol was not infrequently the small boy with a pea-shooter.
Usually he hit lightly, but he hit repeatedly with a puckish persistence not untouched with malice. He flicked until he created
a wound, then kept on flicking until his victim writhed and
fumed.
He liked to goad J. C. McLagan, of the Vancouver World.-
Mr. McLagan had hoped to get a senatorship, but the prize had
gone to William Templeman of the Victoria Times, and the
World, as a consequence, was a bit cold toward the Laurier
Government. The Province was sympathetic. It called Mr.
McLagan " Senator " anyway, and made out that Laurier had
" jilted " him. The World spoke of the Province as " an obscure
and very puerile weekly publication in Victoria," and Mr. Nichol
replied:—
. . . when Senator McLagan, of the esteemed Vancouver World, smites
The Province hip and thigh with the editorial jawbone it is distressing
indeed. . . . Does he suppose for one moment that the Liberals of this
province are prepared to bow down to the World, its man servants, its maid
servants, its ox and its—Senator McLagan ?33
(33)  Province, January 8, 1898. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 99
■The next week he went after the Senator again:—
. . . The Province must confess to a very genuine admiration for him
both as a man and as a journalist, and especially as a journalist. The
Senator always appeals to The Province as being a combination of the
Walters family, Henry Labouchere, Sir George Newnes, Ltd., James Gordon
Bennett, C P. Woolley, the late George Brown, and the later Charles A.
Dana rolled into one. What can one do other than place him on a pedestal
and worship him from afar with looks of tremulous ecstasy and feelings
that almost compel tears, even if he does rush around like a mad bull at the
sight of the red flag.34
But Mr. Nichol did not always mock. Sometimes he lashed
out savagely:—
But why should the Senator plume himself as he does on being a lifelong Liberal? It is not so very long ago that he was supporting the Conservatives tooth and nail through a Dominion campaign and everybody
knows that he is willing to black the Legislature's boots as long as Premier
Turner and his associates are willing to toss him odd coppers for the job.35
Captain Wolley was treated more urbanely but no less effectively :—
Speaking of versatility, Capt. Clive Phillipps-Wolley seems to have
a full share of it. What with acting as an expert witness in prosecutions
for criminal libel, refereeing mounted sword contests and flooding the market
with novels and poems of marked ability, the Captain must find his time
fairly well occupied, to say nothing of his having to keep a watchful eye
and nose on the drains and cesspits of the province. It is not every man
who knows how to go blithely through life scattering the buds and blossoms
of soulful poesy with one hand and chloride of lime with the other.3*
The reference was to Captain Wolley's position as sanitary
inspector for the Province.
Mr. Nichol had a flair for brief and vivid description and
was fond of affixing nicknames and using them till they stuck.
He referred to the Colonist frequently as " the Daily Dunsmuir."37 Hon. G. B. Martin was " G. Bologna Martin " at first,
afterwards " Chinese Martin." Hon. C. E. Pooley was " Christian Endeavor Pooley." There were references in the Province
to " the blighting influence of the Dunsmuirs." The passenger
coaches of the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway were described as
" vestibuled box cars."38
(34) Ibid., January 15, 1898.
(35) Ibid.
(36) Ibid., January 8, 1898.
(37) Ibid., January 1, 1898.
(38) Ibid.,  January 8, 1898. 100 D. A. McGregor. April
Mr. Nichol had not been much more than a month with the
Province before he involved himself and his associates in a suit
for criminal libel which ran on for a considerable time, and
became famous in the legal annals of the Province. He revived
Mr. Scaife's old charge that Hon. J. H. Turner, the Premier,
and Hon. C. E. Pooley—Mr. Nichol liked to refer to him as " the
equally Hon. C. E. Pooley "—had been using their official positions for the purpose of inducing the investing public of Great
Britain to buy mining stocks. But he went considerably further
than Mr. Scaife had ventured to go. In a lengthy article he
charged that the two ministers were trading on their portfolios
for personal gain; that they were " posing as decoy ducks to
bring the dollars into the game bags of the needy promoters
hiding behind the weeds "; that either they were making the
Government of British Columbia subservient to their own private interests, and the interests of their company associates, or
they were obtaining money from the British public under false
pretenses- Either alternative, he said, was sufficiently discreditable to damn them for ever.39
The article was a deliberate challenge and the ministers took
it up, laying a charge of criminal libel against the three directors,
Mr. Bostock, Mr. Nichol, and Mr. Ian Coltart, and against Senator Templeman, publisher of the Victoria Times, which had reprinted the article.
The case came up in Police Court before Magistrate Farquhar
Macrae for preliminary hearing, and Archer Martin, who was
appearing for Mr. Nichol and Mr. Coltart, tried to put the complainants on the witness stand. Mr. Robert Cassidy, who appeared for Messrs. Turner and Pooley, objected and the magistrate sustained him, committing the accused for trial. When Mr.
Bostock's case was called later, Mr. Martin created quite a sensation by throwing up his brief because, he said, he could get
no justice for his client in that Court.40
Magistrate Macrae had before him in this one case, had he
only known it, four young men who were to make great names
for themselves and fill important positions in Canada.   Mr. Tem-
(39) Ibid., December 11, 1897.
(40) Ibid., January 15, 1898;   see also ibid., February 12, 1898, supplement. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 101
pieman was to be for nine years a member of the Laurier Government; Mr. Bostock was to become a member of the King
Government, and Speaker of the Senate; Mr. Martin was to
become Chief Justice of British Columbia; and Mr. Nichol
Lieutenant-Governor.
The object of the libel suit, apparently, was not so much to
convict the accused as to stop comment on the charges which the
Province had made against the two ministers and to prevent
discussion in the Legislature, which was about to meet. Discussion was prevented in the Legislature, but, though the case was
sub judice for months, Mr. Nichol found the means of discussing it obliquely whenever he felt inclined to do so. On one occasion he draped the front page of the Province in black, and
announced in lugubrious language that the Hon. J. H. Turner
" and the equally Hon. C. E. Pooley " had died of broken hearts
because Magistrate Macrae and Mr. Cassidy, their counsel, would
not allow them to tell in Court what they knew about the rewards
that come to politicians when they lend or sell their names to
mining stock promoters.
" Drape the world in black," ran the dirge, " and let the
dread signals fluttering from the doorposts tell their solemn story
to the winds that sigh a requiem as they pass. . . ." And so on
for a column and a half of mockery till the page ended. Then on
page 2 it was recorded that, just as the Province was going to
press, word had come that the men were not dead. And this
gave an opportunity for more quick slashes and sly stabs.41
It was in an atmosphere of high comedy such as this that
the decision was made to transfer the Province to Vancouver
and turn it into a daily. There were good reasons for the move.
Mr. Bostock had been losing money on the weekly and was growing tired of meeting bills. He already had a building and a
printing business in Vancouver, and could publish a daily newspaper without much additional expenditure except for a newspaper press. There was a growing excitement in the Yukon,
and a developing trade in Vancouver, with the promise of more
trade and more population. Obviously, if a daily was to be
started, Vancouver was the place.
(41) Ibid., January 29, 1898. 102 D. A. McGregor. April
The venture was interesting to Mr. Bostock; it promised to
help him cut his losses, and he realized that a daily in Vancouver
could probably help him more politically than a weekly in Victoria. It was interesting to Mr. Nichol, too. This was the opportunity he had visioned when he came West. And he must have
thrilled a little in anticipation as he thought of the many battles
he would have at short range with his irrascible friend, " Senator " McLagan.
Mr. Bostock and Mr. Nichol no doubt had an understanding
.that the latter should have an opportunity to buy into the property they were founding, and that agreement was implemented
within eighteen months. The first number of the daily was
issued on March 26, 1898, from the plant on Hastings Street
of the B.C. Printing and Engraving Corporation. The building
still stands on the south side of the street, midway between
Abbott and Cambie. The corporation still exists, too. It is now
the B.C. Printing and Lithographing Company, located at Homer
and Smithe.
There is always excitement when a new publication is launched
and Volume 1, Number 1, is sent out to take its chances with the
fickle public. What thought goes into its writing, into its composition, into its dress! What hopes are attached to it! what
dreads! How will the public take it? What will other publications say? How will the competitors react? Will it survive a
month—six months—a year? Will it make a fortune or will
it be a flop? The odds against the survival of a baby periodical
may be appreciated when it is stated that something in the
neighbourhood of 300 such infants have seen the light in Vancouver since the charter was granted sixty years ago.
There are a few men still about who were present at the birth
of the Vancouver Daily Province, and though forty-eight years
have passed since then, they can still recall something of the
excitement. Everybody present at the cradle had something to
do; everybody wanted to do something. Mr. Nichol, in spite
of his years of experience in " putting the paper to bed," was
all nerves—so the story runs—and when the foreman, W. B.
Hughes, thrust a roll of proofs into his hand and bade him read
them, he was too excited to concentrate, and made such a mess
of the job that the foreman was disgusted and called George 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 103
Perry, temporarily in charge of circulation, to revise the poor
work of the boss. History does not say anything of the language
Mr. Hughes used as he transferred the proofs, but one may
guess. Bernard McEvoy, who joined the Province staff a few
years later, wrote on one occasion of the unspoken profanity
and malediction he sometimes found filling Mr. Hughes' dark
eyes. One could travel far without finding a more kindly heart
than that of Bill Hughes. But patience and equanimity were not
among his virtues. He believed in speaking his mind, and Mr.
McEvoy must have been the only one about the office to whom
his maledictions were unspoken.
For a year or so the Daily Province experimented with formats and presses. It first came out as a seven-column four-page
sheet, printed on a flat-bed press that would not print more
than four pages at a time. The original intention was to publish
only four pages, with eight pages on Saturday; but too much
advertising offered to pursue that policy and, after a few weeks,
a Goss press capable of printing four or eight pages was installed,
and soon a Potter press, which was sold to the Seattle Star about
1910, when two Duplex, Battle Creek tubular presses were
installed.
For fourteen years after the advent of the Province the three
Vancouver dailies ran along unchallenged by any formidable
rival; the News-Advertiser appearing each morning except Monday, the World and the Province coming out every evening except
Sunday. In Victoria, where the Colonist has for many years
published a Sunday morning edition but has taken Monday off,
the blank Monday morning never seems to worry any one. But
it did worry Vancouver, and it was an attempt to fill the blank
that brought the Vancouver Daily Ledger into the world.
During most of 1902 the Ledger was issued as a weekly,
coming out on Mondays before noon. Its editor and manager
was Dr. F. J. Reynolds, an American by birth and a veterinary
surgeon who had practised in several Interior mining camps,
and had for a time published the Ashcroft Journal. On December 29, 1902, the Ledger became a morning daily. In the first
number the publisher announced that the newspaper would give
general support to the Liberal-Conservative party, and would
pay particular attention to the mining industry.    It carried a •104 D. A. McGregor. April
good deal of local news but not much telegraph. George Perry,
who served the Greater Vancouver Water Board for many years
as secretary, and has now retired, was managing editor, and
other members of the staff were Bruce Bennett and Lawrence
McRae, afterwards Sir Richard McBride's private secretary.
John Hendry, moving spirit in the old Hastings Mill, was
Reynolds' financial backer, and was represented on the directorate by Thomas Wilson, his confidential secretary. Wilson's Scottish conscience compelled him to do thoroughly any job he undertook, and this involved k constraint upon the publisher of the
Ledger which that gentleman did not like. By some means or
other he succeeded in ousting Wilson from the directorate, and
moved the newspaper plant from the basement of the Flack
Block, where it had been installed at the outset, to a building on
the west side of Granville Street a little south of Pender. There,
one day, he was visited by Hendry's lawyer and a bailiff. The
door was padlocked, and the Ledger was through. The last
number in the British Columbia Archives is that of March 31,
1903.
From Vancouver, Dr. Reynolds went to Ladysmith where he
published the Ladysmith Ledger. Later he started the Nanaimo
Herald, carried it on for a time and sold it, about 1910, to J. S. H.
Matson, of the Victoria Colonist.
The Ledger ran as a daily only a little over three months.
Then Vancouver settled back to its three dailies again. The
Province had, in the interval, established itself quite firmly. It
got its first foothold by cutting subscription rates. The World
and the News-Advertiser had been selling at a dollar a month.
The Province started out at ten cents a week, and the World
immediately cut its rate to that figure. " See," jeered the Province, " because the Province has come to you, you can now get
two newspapers for less than you formerly paid for one."
The man in charge of the Province's circulation during most
of the first seven years was Louis D. Taylor, who was also for
a time business manager and secretary of the Company. " I built
that paper up," said Mr. Taylor not long ago, in a reminiscent
mood.   " I helped to make it pay."
The Province ran for eighteen months under the ownership
of Mr. Bostock and the editorship of Mr. Nichol.   Then the latter 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 105
achieved his ambition. He was allowed to buy into the property.
On September 30, 1899,42 the business was incorporated as the
Vancouver Printing and Publishing Company, with a capital of
$100,000, divided into 1,000 shares. Mr. Bostock transferred the
business and all its assets to the Company, and also advanced
enough money to purchase the newspaper press and other plant
from the B.C. Printing and Engraving Corporation. For this
he received 496 paid-up shares in the Company, and agreed to
sell half of these to Mr. Nichol for $10,325. The other shares,
save for a few qualifying shares to directors and potential directors, were unissued. On February 1, 1900, L. D. Taylor was
appointed secretary of the Company.
Though the newspaper built up circulation and made money
■from the start, it appears at first to have had some trouble with
financing. In its first thirteen months it had three different
bankers, coming finally to the Bank of Montreal. Mr. Bostock
had other interests which were more important to him than the
Province. He was in Parliament. He had his ranch at Ducks,
and the printing and engraving business in Vancouver. He
needed money, and this was Mr. Nichol's opportunity. He made
a trip to Montreal in the late summer of 1901 and saw Thomas
Shaughnessy. The promise made several years before was kept,
and the Canadian Pacific Railway, through the Royal Trust Company, furnished enough money to buy out the Bostock interest
in the newspaper. Shares of the Company were issued to the
trust company as collateral for the loan, and Mr. Nichol was
given an option to purchase them any time within seven years.
He purchased them in less time than that, and became sole owner
of the newspaper property. It is interesting to note that the
witness to Mr. Nichol's signature on the agreement was George
McLaren Brown, an old friend of Hamilton days who had already
risen high in the service and confidence of the Canadian Pacific,
and was to rise still higher.
Vancouver's three newspapers in the last couple of years of
the old century and the first three or four of the new formed
an interesting study in contrasts. They were as unlike one
another as the three men who dominated them—three men of
(42)  Date of incorporation taken from the original minute book of the
Company. 106 D. A. McGregor. April
quite different backgrounds, who had come to the publisher's
desk along quite different routes.
F. L. Carter-Cotton, publisher of the oldest paper, the News-
Advertiser, was an Englishman who had had some experience
in the diplomatic service and in India before coming to this
continent, and had reached British Columbia by way of the
United States. He had lived in no other part of Canada. He
was a scholarly man, well-read in the English classics. He knew
finance, and wrote in a polished and vigorous style consciously
modelled on that of the English essayists. His attitude to problems was judicial. He liked to discuss questions of public interest, balancing the pros and cons, tipping the scales a little to his
own side, perhaps, but was rarely violently partisan in any controversy. His weakness was that he had come into newspaper
work at the top, and had had no experience of reporting or selecting or editing news. His great interest was politics, and the
best news story to him was a detailed report of a session of the
Legislature or of a public meeting. The report had to be detailed
and accurate or it was no good.
One of his old reporters used to tell of being censured by
Mr. Cotton because he had not ended a report of a City Council
session with the sentence, " The meeting then adjourned." " Is
the meeting still in session ? " asked the old Chief, bringing the
copy to the reporter's desk. " No, of course not," answered the
reporter.   " Then you should say so," was the tart reply.
Another story relates to the economy practised in the News-
Advertiser office:—
" With exemplary economy he took all the disused envelopes
in the office, pasted them out in long strips like rolls of ancient
papyrus, and on the backs wrote his editorials in a hand like
copperplate engraving."43
In such things as sport, social chit-chat, and the light and
frivolous things which newspapers depend upon to-day to attract
readers, Mr. Cotton had no interest. It used to be said of the
News-Advertiser about the turn of the century, when Harry
Cotton was city editor and Sheldon Williams telegraph editor,
that the only way to get a local news story a front-page position
(43)  James Morton in Vancouver Sun, magazine section, February 17,
1945. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 107
was to take it out to Hastings or New Westminster and have it
wired in. When the steamer Islander went down in 1901 with
some fifty passengers and crew, largely British Columbians,
aboard, Mr. Cotton, who had the story exclusively, did not think
it worth an " extra," and his business manager left him in
protest.
J. C. McLagan, one of the founders of the World and its
principal owner, was a Scotsman by birth. He had come to
Canada with his family when 15, and had been apprenticed
shortly after to the printing trade in the office of the Sentinel
at Woodstock, Ontario. When he was 23, he was foreman in
the office of the Guelph Advertiser, and the next year he and
James Innes, afterwards Member of Parliament for South Wellington, bought the Guelph Mercury, a weekly. The partners
carried on the Mercury for seven years, and then Mr. McLagan
withdrew and went into other business. He sat for several years
on the Guelph City Council, and suffered the loss of four of his
children in nine days in a diphtheria epidemic. He was in British Columbia in 1881, but found nothing interesting and returned
to Winnipeg. He was part-owner of the Winnipeg Sun for a
time, then with the Free Press. In the fall of 1883 he was back
in British Columbia again, in the real-estate business at Victoria,
but doing some writing on the side for eastern newspapers,
notably the Toronto Globe.4*
When the first number of the Victoria Times was published
on June 9,1884, the manager was Thomas Gardiner. On August
25 Mr. Gardiner announced that, owing to the continued severe
affection of his eyesight, he was compelled to desist from active
duties and that " Mr. J. C. McLagan, a gentleman of rare journalistic ability and of great experience," would take the management until further notice.
Mr. McLagan's " great experience," it will be noted from
this sketch, had been attained chiefly as a foreman printer, and
his real experience as a journalist began when he joined the
Victoria Times. He remained with the Times for four years,
then disposed of his interests, and in September, 1888, began
(44) The Port Moody Gazette of April 5, 1884, tells of the visit to Port
Moody of " Mr. J. C. McLagan, travelling correspondent for the Toronto
Globe." 108 D. A. McGregor. April
the publication of the Vancouver Daily World. While he was in
Winnipeg his wife died in Guelph, and shortly after he became
manager of the Victoria Times he married Sara Anne Maclure,
member of a well-known Matsqui family.45
An able newspaperman who worked in Vancouver during
practically all of Mr. McLagan's years with the World, and for
long after, has given his opinion of the venture:—
Room for the World there was, and as time passed and population
increased it attained a reasonable measure of prosperity. But the World
under Mr. McLaglan's management failed utterly to grasp its opportunity.
As a newspaper it was even less enterprising and far less conscientious than
the News-Advertiser, and in comparison with those of the morning paper its
editorial utterances, on which it relied for much of its influence, were utterly
puerile.46
Walter Nichol, of the Province, was born in Canada, went to
Canadian schools, grew up in a Canadian atmosphere, learned
his trade on Canadian newspapers. He had a sharp nose for
news, a good idea of what people wanted to read, and a desire
to give them what they wanted. He was interested in politics
only in so far as politics was news. He was interested in politicians because they were figures in the public eye, and people
knew them and wished to read about them. But he had decided
notions as to how much politics, and how much about politicians,
the people would stand for. He had an idea that his readers
had other interests and set out to create demands and satisfy
them. In his first editorial in the Daily Province he told his
readers frankly that his newspaper was to be, " first and last,
a business enterprise." It would endeavour to print the news
of the day brightly and attractively, and to " take the world
philosophically and good-naturedly as it finds it." He made no
declaration of principles, set himself no elaborate programme.47
In his paper he devoted a good deal of space to sports. He
developed the social page. He published special features about
Vancouver churches, Vancouver people, ships that plied the Coast
waters.   He had a number of clever young writers, and gave
(45) Bessie Lamb, " From ' Tickler ' to ' Telegram,' " British Columbia
Historical Quarterly, IX. (1945), p. 190.
(46) J. B. Kerr, " Journalism in Vancouver," British Columbia Magazine,
VII. (1911), p. 578.
(47) Daily Province, March 26, 1898. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 109
them considerable scope. He published all the news he could
get, but he wanted it written brightly and lightly. If there was
any humour in an incident, he wanted that humour brought out.
The space he saved by cutting down long reports he devoted to •
stories by George Ade and Mr. Dooley and Ella Wheeler Wilcox
and others. He could write light prose himself, and light verse,
and for a time did so. While Cotton and McLagan were always
pontificating, or thundering, or arguing, Nichol preferred to
entertain. For a considerable time there was a poker story in
the paper every few days. He told his readers he had no desire
to influence their decisions or their actions. When a problem
arose which he thought was of public interest, he would elucidate
it if he could and leave the public to do what they would about it.
He had a fondness for the indirect approach and used several
devices to attain it. At first the Province reported the morning
" caw-cus " of the Haro Street crows, which had a habit of discussing civic and Provincial questions. It was this " caw-cus "
that first suggested that Joseph Martin be asked to be a candidate in Vancouver for legislative honours.48 A short column on
the front page, " What the Dickie Bird Says," gave bits of wisdom in brief compass. It was probably the work of J. R. Burde,
the newspaper's first city editor. The most successful of the
devices was the False Creek Record, an imaginary newspaper
conducted by Shad Farron, and from which the Province made
a practice of quoting. Shad had a mild and ready but penetrating wit, and an urbane impertinence that provoked laughter but
did not offend. His " With Worsnop to Steveston," a war correspondent's story of the dispatch of the militia to keep order in
a fishermen's strike, was a tour de force that old-timers still talk
about after forty-six years. The False Creek Record claimed to
be the only newspaper that knew things about people that they
did not know themselves. So, its information was always
exclusive.
But the Province did not always follow oblique courses. It
could be direct enough and persistent enough when it chose.
(48) Ibid., May 9, 1898. The following day the Province discussed the
suggestion of the crows seriously. Liberals and Conservatives alike, it said,
were disgusted with the Government. " From the point of view of the
Province the solution of the problem lies in inducing Joseph Martin to come
out and lead the opposition forces."- 110 D. A. McGregor. April
There is no parallel in British Columbia journalism to the venom
and ridicule with which it pursued Hon. G. B. Martin, Commissioner of Land and Works in the Turner Government, until he
was defeated in the election of 1898. In a speech in the Legislature, Mr. Martin had stated that he had employed all sorts of
men on his ranch but that the best he had ever had was a China-:
man who had worked for $15 a month. That was all that was
needed. The Province dubbed the minister " Chinese Martin,"
and took after him full cry with such barbs as these:—
" Chinese Martin ought to run as member for Chinatown."
" They say Hon. Chinese Martin means to wear a pigtail,
now."
" If Hon. Chinese Martin gets elected in North Yale it will
be by the Chinese vote."
" Everybody knows where to place Chinese Martin, now. He
has given the world a queue."
" If that $500 poll tax is clapped on the Chinese, where is Hon.
G. B. Martin going to be at? "
" They say there is no truth in the rumor that Hon. G. B.
Martin is about to open a Chinese laundry."
" The Province owes an apology to its readers. It forgot to
say anything about G. B. Martin on Saturday."
Mr. Nichol's somewhat frivolous attitude toward politics and
politicians as contrasted with the serious attitude adopted by his
competitors is demonstrated in a report from the Legislature in
one of the early numbers of his daily—that of April 2, 1898. It
is given complete, heading and all:—
WINDY WALKEM TALKS
His Breezy Words Blew through Booth's Whiskers and Ruffled the Draperies
of the Plaster Couchee Couchee Dancers in the Legislature, Yesterday.
Victoria, April 1 (special).—This was Walkem Day in the local Legislature. The hon. member for South Nanaimo furnished solid fun for nearly
two hours. He succeeded splendidly in maintaining his reputation as an
irresponsible talker, beslavered the Government with his nauseating praise
and finally presented his masters with numerous rhetorical bouquets and a
certificate of character.^
(49) The " Booth" referred to was J. P. Booth, Member for North
Victoria and Speaker of the Legislature from 1898 to 1902. The " Walkem "
was Dr. William Wymond Walkem, brother of Hon. G. A. Walkem, third
Premier of the Province. He sat for Nanaimo District through the 7th
Legislature, and was a well-known physician of pioneer days. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. Ill
The years at the end of the century were years of political
turmoil in British Columbia, and there was exciting political
news. The Yukon was opening up, and there were stories of
hardship and adventure and tragedy and of mines fabulously
rich. There was development in the Kootenay and Okanagan,
in the Cariboo and Cassiar. Someone always had a plan to build
a railway from somewhere to somewhere else. For much of
their news the Vancouver newspapers were thrown on their own
resources. The telegraph service was costly and meagre, but
that did not mean that Vancouver was cut off from the rest of
the world. The city was at a cross-roads on a new world highway, and world travellers were constantly passing through it.
Travellers from the East, ships from the Orient, ships from the
North, all brought stories and Vancouver reporters were under
pressure to get them. So they interviewed everybody above
decks and below, and the interview, because of Vancouver newspapers' necessities, took on a new importance in Vancouver.60
In the matter of circulation the Province rapidly outstripped
its two rivals. It was not a month old before it was challenging
the News-Advertiser and World to produce their circulation figures and allow them to be examined by a committee of leading
business-men.61 Before the year was up it was claiming a circulation greater than that of its two competitors combined. In an
affidavit, Mr. Nichol gave the circulation as in excess of 4,300,
and the South African War added nearly 2,000 more.
Williams' Directory for 1899 gives the personnel operating
the three daily papers as follows:—
News-Advertiser:
Managing Editor, Hon. F. L. Carter-Cotton.
City Editor, A. H. Cotton.
Business Manager, C. F. Cotton.
Circulation Manager, E. Whitaker.
Collector, F. Hodgson.
Reporters, R. S. Williams, H. P. Sands, E. Sands.
Foreman, John Powell.
Night Foreman, T. Spink.
(50) J.   B.   Kerr,   " Journalism   in   Vancouver,"   British   Columbia
Magazine, VII. (1911), pp. 578-9.
(51) Daily Province, April 25, 1898. 112 D. A. McGregor. April
Composing Room: E. L. Woodruff, compositor; William Pond,
—. Blackwood and Gus Dunn, operators, and Joseph Bonneau,
machinist.
Pressman, G. H. Pound.
' World:
Manager, J. C McLagan, Sr.
Sec.-Treas., J. C McLagan, Jr.
Editor, J. M. O'Brien.
City Editor, S. R. Robb.
Journalists, R. Brown, F. A. Hicks, T. F. Paterson.
Accountant, W. A. Gillis.
Sporting Editor, Mat Peard.
Clerk, G. W. Bayley.
Operators, George Bartley, D. E. VanDyke, E. Whitworth.
Pressman, William Bayley.
Asst.-Pressman, Charles Bayley.
Apprentice, William Weiss.
Province:
Editor, W. C Nichol.
Subscription Manager, L. D. Taylor.
City Editor, J. R. Burde.
Advertising, B. F. Dickens.
Reporters:  T. M. Bowerman, A. M. Burns, Carlyle Ellis.
Accountant, W. A. Cox.
Clerks, R. Doherty, C. Sawers.
Foreman Composing Room, W. B. Hughes.
Compositors, R. Langdale, A. C Campbell, W. H. Lewis, C. S. Campbell, J. H. Watkins, J. H. Browne.
Press Room:   J. Howard, Foreman, B. Cook, and Frank McCanna,
stereotyper.
In the spring of 1901 J. C. McLagan died. He had been in
poor health for some years, but had worked indefatigably.
When he could no longer go to the office he conducted the business
as well as he could from his bed at home. After his death the
paper was conducted by Mrs. McLagan and her brother, Fred
Maclure. For some years L. D. Taylor had been handling the
Province circulation on a contract basis. In 1905 his contract
expired, and when it was not renewed he and B. F. Dickens, who
had been advertising manager of the Province some years before,
made an offer for the World and it was accepted. Victor W.
Odium, who had returned not long before after serving in the!
South African War, was a junior partner. He did not put any
money into the business, however, and withdrew before long. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 113
Indeed, nobody put up much money because nobody had much
to put up. The purchase price was $65,000, of which $35,000
was represented by a chattel mortgage held by Hon. James
Sutherland, of Woodstock, Ontario. The partners bought the
property on a shoestring. They even bought a new press, agreeing to pay $5,000 on it when the press was installed and running.
The chattel mortgage was due, and Mr. Taylor thought he ought
to go East to see about it, but there was no money in the treasury
for travelling expenses.
" L. D." was not the man to allow a little thing like that to
baffle him. He went to the Canadian Pacific Railway. He had a
new press coming from New York, he said. Would the Company
like the business of transporting it? The Company would. So
" L. D." made an offer. If the C.P.R. would give him transportation to Woodstock and return, he would have the press shipped
C.P.R. The bargain was struck, and the ingenious publisher
saw Mr. Sutherland, who agreed to extend the mortgage on condition that the World would support the Laurier Government.62
That did not worry Mr. Taylor. He was a Laurier man anyway,
and supporting the Liberal Government would put him on the
opposite side of the fence to the Province, which, Liberal at first,
had swung into the Conservative camp not long before when
Richard McBride became Premier.
Thus began a newspaper rivalry which ran for a full ten
years, and gave rise in its course to much excitement and no little
bitterness, and many an amusing incident. Mr. Taylor, who had
been secretary of the Province, was succeeded in that position by
R. G. Nichol, and on the latter's death in 1909, by F. J. Burd,
who, after coming down from the Yukon in 1901, had spent two
years with the News-Advertiser, and then joined the Province
as business manager. The circulation of the World at the time
of the sale was 3,000, and that of the Province 8,000.
Mr. Taylor's first editor was the redoubtable D. W. Higgins,
who had founded the Victoria Chronicle more than forty years
before, had later owned the Colonist, and used it to fight his old
enemy, Amor de Cosmos, and had presided over the Legislature
(52) Information given by L. D. Taylor to Ronald Kenvyn, and published
by the Daily Province in an account of " L. D.'s " life, February 27-March
16, 1939. 114 D. A. McGregor. April
in the time of the Turner Government.63 Later the editorial
work was shared by J. Edward Norcross, who had come to the
World from Nanaimo, by R. H. Hill, afterwards a war correspondent in the First World War, and by T. B. Cockburn. The
newspaper needed money, and some came in from the Jonathan
Miller estate, and with it came F. J. Miller, who acted as
secretary-treasurer, and his sister, Mrs. A. H. Berry, who was
assistant manager.    Mrs. Berry afterwards married Mr. Taylor.
The rivalry of the two evening papers was as keen as it is
possible to imagine. Not only did the World set out deliberately
to oust the Province from its leading position, and the Province
to hold all it had won, but there was a clash of personalities
between the two publishers. In spite of the fact that they had
worked together more or less closely for seven years, neither
liked the other.
It was well known in the city that the money with which Mr.
Nichol had bought out Mr. Bostock had come to him from the
Canadian Pacific, and there were rumours to the effect that the
C.P.R. was the real owner of the Province and dominated its
policies. The C.P.R. was not very popular in Vancouver at the
time, for it had had a long and costly lawsuit with the city, which
had gone to the Privy Council, and had cost the city the loss of
all its street-ends on Burrard Inlet from Burrard Street to Gore
Avenue. The Province was friendly to the C.P.R., but the railway had no financial interest in the newspaper, and Mr. Taylor,
who had been secretary of the Vancouver Printing and Publishing Company, knew this. All the same, the World gave currency
to the rumours, and Mr. Nichol, who had pretty much given up
writing by this time, sat down and himself penned a scorching
editorial in which he said a number of blunt and bitter things
about his rival. The result was a libel suit, vigorously prosecuted and stubbornly defended. The jury found that the Province's statements were not libellous, and assessed costs of $900
against Mr. Taylor.   The Province had won a victory, but it did
(53) Higgins was a Nova Scotian who had reached British Columbia
via California in 1858, and had taken part in the Fraser River gold-rush.
From 1886 to 1898 he had represented Esquimalt in the Legislature, and
for the last eight years of that period had been Speaker of the House. He
retired from the World in 1907, and died in Victoria, November 30, 1917.
He was the author of The Mystic Spring and The Passing of a Race. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 115
not like it very much, for the legal costs were very high. That
experience, coupled with his earlier experience in the suit Premier Turner and Hon. C. E. Pooley had prosecuted against him,
soured the Province publisher on libel suits, and he rarely went
into Court afterwards. His staff was enjoined to be particularly careful and when, through error or inadvertence, actionable
statements were made, as they are made on every newspaper
occasionally, they were almost invariably settled out of Court.
The libel suit formed the subject of an editorial in an early
number of the B.C. Saturday Sunset, a weekly journal which had
been started in the summer of 1907 by John P. McConnell and
Richard S. Ford, his brother-in-law. As it sums up the two contestants rather neatly, it may be quoted:—
Now that the cruel libel war is over and both the Province and the
World claim victory, I trust that those two eminent journals will forget their
spat and settle down to the business of giving the public all the news and of
illuminating the atmosphere of British Columbia with trenchant editorial
utterances of which each is so capable.   .   .   .
Both are good papers, and in this respect Vancouver is better equipped
than any other city of its size in Canada. Each has a constituency that
swears by it, and all that either needs to do is to keep on publishing all the
news and making for itself a reputation for fairness and reliability to be and
become all that any newspaper man with ideals could wish it to be.64
There was a good deal of money afloat in Vancouver during
the boom days and, as real-estate advertising was on a lavish
scale, the newspapers reaped a harvest. With the profits that
came to them they built up their properties. They enlarged their
staffs, they improved their plants, they bought features and services, they used more and better pictures.
At first the only news service available was that provided by
the two telegraph companies. It was rather meagre at best, and
had to be supplemented by special dispatches, which were costly.
In 1907, the western dailies joined to form a co-operative service,
the Western Associated Press, which was much better, and, three
years later, the Canadian Press was founded, a co-operative service to which all the dailies in Canada contributed and from
which they drew. This service, like the Western Associated
Press before it, was a subscriber to the Associated Press service
of the United States.    It is still serving Canadian newspapers
' (54)  B.C. Saturday Sunset, July 13, 1907. 116 D. A. McGregor. April
and has, with the years, been greatly expanded. Papers which
wished to be individual had still, of course, to depend upon special
dispatches or subscribe to supplementary services like the United
Press, which Mr. Taylor secured for the World, or the International News Service, which the Province used for a time.
Mr. Taylor's political ambitions were both an advantage to
him and a handicap. They kept him constantly in the public eye
in contrast to Mr. Nichol, who preferred to remain in the background. But they offered his rival numerous targets to shoot
at, which he would not have had if " L. D." had confined himself
to operating a newspaper. While he was still in charge of the
Province's circulation Mr. Taylor had been elected Licence Commissioner, and had a plan for the reform of the liquor business
which the Province opposed as too extreme. He ran for alderman but was defeated, and in 1910 announced that he was a
candidate for the mayor's chair.
" Don't you do it, L. D.," warned a candid friend who met the
candidate on the street just before the announcement of his candidacy. " The man who controls a Vancouver newspaper of
good circulation has more influence than any mayor—more even
than the Premier." But " L. D." would not listen. He was a
candidate and he won, and from that he went on. Sixteen times
he ran for mayor, and eight times he was elected, serving eleven
years in all.
In 1910 Mr. Cotton sold the News-Advertiser to J. S. H.
Matson, owner of the Victoria Colonist. The price was a boom
price, $5*00,000. Mr. Matson placed the management in the
hands of John Nelson, former manager of the Victoria Times,
and brought from the East as editor Dr. S. D. Scott, who had
been editor of the St. John Sun for many years and had represented various Maritime newspapers in the Press Gallery at
Ottawa.
It was the custom of the day in Vancouver, as in other places,
for new newspapers to spring up at election times, shine brightly
for a time, then, when the voting was over, fade quickly out of
sight. Such a paper was the Morning Guardian, started in Vancouver in 1907 by Joseph Martin, with the assistance of Sam
Gothard, who had, not long before, been publisher of a short- 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 117
lived labour paper, the Trades Unionist, and was afterwards to
publish Truth.
Mr. Martin had been Attorney-General of Manitoba, and had
sat in the House of Commons. After his defeat in Winnipeg in
1896 he had come to British Columbia and, after a clash with the
benchers of the Law Society, had started to practise law and
interest himself in Provincial politics. The Province had encouraged him to become a candidate in Vancouver in the election
of 1898, printing among other pleas this editorial note: " To
Mr. Joseph Martin, Dear Sir: Please run. Yours truly, The
People."66
The Province had supported him in the election, and he had
been elected with three other city members, F. L. Carter-Cotton,
Robert McPherson, and C. E. Tisdall. The Turner Government
had been defeated at this election and the Semlin Government
had succeeded. Mr. Martin and Mr. Cotton had both been taken
into the cabinet, the former as Attorney-General and the latter
as Minister of Finance. The two, however, had proven unable
to agree, and Mr. Martin had been ousted and had gone into
opposition. When the Semlin Government was dismissed by
Lieutenant-Governor T. R. E. Maclnnis, in February, 1900, Mr.
Martin had been asked to form a ministry, and had done so over
the protests of the Legislature. In the election of 1900 he had
been re-elected in Vancouver, while his enemy, Mr. Cotton, had
been defeated. His ministry, however, had been defeated after
a little over three months in office. Mr. Martin remained in the
Legislature until it was dissolved in 1903. He never returned
to the House after that, but did not lose his desire to do so, and
the Morning Guardian was his bid for election. It did not succeed, and soon petered out.
Mr. Martin started another paper, the Evening Journal, in
1915, after returning to Vancouver from his adventure into
British politics. George M. Murray was his editor. Martin was
a disillusioned and rather pathetic old man by this time, but one
in whom the fires of ambition still burned. There was no reason
for the Journal except that Joseph Martin wished to assert himself.    Vancouver had grown and changed, however.    It didn't
(55) Daily Province, May 10, 1898. 118 D. A. McGregor. April
know Joe Martin any more, and showed no enthusiasm for his
newspaper.
The Evening Journal carried on for some time, building up a
considerable circulation but losing money steadily. At last;—so
the story runs—Mr. Martin sought the assistance of B. T.
Rogers, principal owner of the B.C. Sugar Refining Company.
Mr. Rogers was interested. He admired the Journal, he said,
and would be glad to buy the World and let Mr. Martin operate
the two newspapers together. There was only one consideration.
Mr. Rogers would, of course, have to have full say as to the
paper's policy.66
One can imagine " Fighting Joe," old as he then was, agreeing to any such proposition as that. One can also imagine the
explosion that ended the interview. Another short-lived newspaper about this time was the Evening Times, managed by J. C.
Charlesworth.
But the Times and the Journal are carrying us ahead of our
story. A number of things had, in the meantime, happened in
Vancouver. The boom had collapsed, and with it had gone the
easy money from real-estate advertising. The World had felt
itself cramped in its quarters on Homer Street, and had built
itself a new and elaborate home at Pender and Beatty, overlooking the old Great Northern station. The war had come,
throwing new responsibilities on newspapers, and offering them
vast opportunities for service to their public. Also, a new luminary, the Sun, had risen on the newspaper horizon.
The collapse of the boom had found various Vancouver businesses overextended, the World among them. The new building
had been a costly affair and there were several mortgages on it,
the principal being held by James J. Hill, of the Great Northern
Railway. The investment did not turn out at all well. The
newspaper was committed to payments amounting to $18,000 a
year for rent.67 It had hoped to clear enough from renting offices
and loft space to meet its bills, but the war and the collapse of
the boom quenched its hopes. The bondholders pressed for the
sale of the World's assets, and the Court issued an order to that
(56) J. B. Williams in Daily Province (magazine section), May 30, 1936.
(57) L. D. Taylor to Ronald Kenvyn.   See note 52 supra. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 119
effect. The purchaser was John Nelson, who had been manager
of the News-Advertiser for the previous five years.
But buying the assets of the World and getting them were
two different things. The World Building Company had a bill
against the World for arrears of rent, and the new owners were
afraid that the building company would hold the machinery until
its account was met. They had no intention of meeting the
account, and wished to hasten the establishment of the World in
its new quarters as much as possible. So they decided to take
out as much of the plant as they could during a quiet week-end,
while no one was looking. They had not bought the press, but
the office furniture, the stereotyping plant, the linotypes, and the
various forms and fonts and miscellaneous gear in a newspaper
composing-room were theirs—if they could get them. The
removal, as it turned out, was quite spectacular. Somehow, the
news got abroad and a crowd gathered. L. D. Taylor, who had
no intention of losing his paper if he could avoid it, hired an
electrician to put the freight elevator out of business. But
the new owners had an electrician in their party; the lift was
repaired, and the work went on.68 The plant was removed to
the building on the north-east corner of Richards and Hastings
streets, where Woolworth's store now stands. Later, the World
moved to Richards and Pender streets, its last home.
The World's difficulties were the Province's opportunities,
and it did not hesitate to take advantage of them. The war was
Canada's war and there was an instant and insistent demand for
news and more news from the fighting fronts. The World, with
its troubles, lacked the funds to buy services and special stories
and pictures. The Province had the money and spent it. The
result was that the Province built up a great circulation of its
own, and cut seriously into that of its rival's.
The Sun, like the Province, was a development from a weekly.
The B.C. Saturday Sunset has already been mentioned. It was
started in mid-June, 1907, and was issued first from a basement
on Hastings Street, later moving to good offices on the west side
of Seymour Street, just south of Pender. Its moving spirit was
John P. McConnell, who had come west from Toronto some years
before, riding through the mountains With John Innes, the
(58) Ibid,
s 120 D. A. McGregor. April
artist.59 The paper was frankly modelled on Saturday Night,
on which McConnell had been employed, and its pungent, frontpage comment, written by McConnell, was signed " Bruce," as
that in Saturday Night was signed " Don." E. E. Shepherd,
founder of Saturday Night, is said to have suggested the pseudonym as McConnell had been born in Bruce County.
John McConnell was a romantic. He liked the West and its
picturesque, outdoor people. He gloried in the great open spaces
and liked to write about them. He had a ready pen and a rich
vocabulary, plentifully larded with terms of abuse. He was a
writer rather than a manager or editor, but he made the Saturday Sunset an interesting and readable weekly newspaper with
various attractive departments. Chiefly, however, the weekly
was a journal of comment, and its great attraction was Bruce's
own uninhibited comment on page 1.
The Saturday Sunset was a success from the first and, besides
their newspaper, the partners built up a substantial job-printing
business. So they were quite prosperous. Within a year their
circulation was 5,000.60 The Sunset claimed to have no political
affiliations, and obviously it had none, for it boxed the compass
in its political comment. The year of its founding was the year
of the anti-Oriental riots in Vancouver, and the Sunset was
accused by the Province of inciting those who took the law into
their own hands. Almost at the outset Bruce launched two campaigns, one for a white British Columbia, opposing particularly
the influx of the Japanese, the other for pure milk, supporting
Dr. Underhill, the city medical health officer.
The Legislature had passed the " Natal Act" unanimously,
and Lieutenant-Governor Dunsmuir, who employed Orientals in
his Vancouver Island coal mines, had refused his assent. " If
ever the will of the people . . . were brazenly set at defiance,"
Bruce asserted, " it is being done by Lieutenant-Governor Dunsmuir."61 He attacked the McBride Government for " its placid
acquiescence to Dunsmuir rule."62 He didn't even spare the
Laurier Government.    In refusing to modify the agreement with
(59) J. B. Cowan, John Innes, Painter of the Canadian West, p. 14.
(60) B.C. Saturday Sunset, June 6, 1908.
(61) Ibid., August 10, 1907.
(62) Ibid., October 12, 1907. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 121
Japan, " Sir Wilfrid," he said, " is recreant to his duty as Premier of Canada . . . and is prepared to drive to the verge of
sedition a province which has always been among the most loyal
in the British Empire."63
Of the Province, which was by no means pro-Oriental, but
which did not follow Bruce in his double-barrelled policy of white
immigration and Oriental exclusion, Bruce said:—
The Vancouver Daily Province stands for nothing. Instead of being a
leader of public opinion, a journal with courage, stamina and virility, it is
a servile, spineless laggard behind popular opinion, a jellified adapter to the
conditions in which it and its alleged proprietor may find themselves."64
A week later it published a cartoon by Norman H. Hawkins
showing a jumping-jack hanging on a fence. The limbs were
labelled " Vancouver Daily Province," and the face more or less
resembled that of W. C. Nichol. The caption read: " Pertinent
Query: If a jumping-jack sits on a fence, which side will it fall
on when the strings are pulled ? "66
The Province replied, and Bruce came down on it again,
repeating the old rumours about subserviency to the C.P.R. The
Province, he said, was " a rubber-spined/ napkin-carrying, tip-
seeking, knee-bending advocate ... of the C.P.R. . . .
willing to swallow a diet of railroad spikes and wheel-grease."
It was a " journalistic jumping-jack and weather cock, with its
ear to the ground or a wet finger in the air " to measure " the
strength and direction of coming winds and trims its sails
accordingly."66
But the Province was not alone in being spattered with the
vitriol from Bruce's pen. Here is another example of his forthright style:—
Magistrate Williams has given another exhibition of his usual fatheaded
method of dealing out justice in the Police Court. A boy who comes before
this pompous misfit of the bench is almost certain to be railroaded into jail
on the most trivial charge. The latest example of his perverted ideas of
enforcing law and order is the sentence of a sixteen-year-old boy to six
months in prison for misappropriating $1.85. The boy should never have
been brought up in a Police Court to begin with.    He might as well have
(63) Ibid., October 12, 1907.
(64) Ibid.
(65) Ibid., October 19, 1907. Norman Hawkins, besides being a cartoonist, was an architect and an authority on heraldry and freemasonry.
(66) B.C. Saturday Sunset, October 19, 1907. 122 D. A. McGregor. April
appeared before a dragon as before Magistrate Williams, whose dealing with
juvenile cases is notorious for eccentricity and disproportionate sentences.
Magistrate Williams appears to lack even an elemental understanding of a
boy's nature.67
Bruce met W. L. Mackenzie King when the latter, as Deputy
Minister of Labour, came to Vancouver in the fall of 1907 to
investigate the circumstances surrounding the anti-Oriental
riots. The two had some disagreements, and at first Bruce was
highly critical; but later he came to think highly of the young
administrator and wrote in his paper:—
One of the outstanding figures in Canadian affairs today is W. L. Mackenzie King, C.M.G. No young man in public office in this country has
behind him a more distinguished record of useful public service than he has.
He has been entrusted with many delicate and difficult tasks, all of which he
has discharged with credit to himself and to the advantage of the interests
involved, and of the country. As deputy minister of labor Mr. King has
done more, perhaps, than any other man in Canada to bring about a good
understanding between employer and employe and to settle disputes which
have arisen from time to time, since his incumbency. I do not recall a single
instance of dissatisfaction with his methods of handling disputes, either on
the part of employer or employe.
What we have seen of his work in Vancouver has commanded a growing
admiration and respect for his ability, fairness, and his ability to seize the
salient facts in the Asiatic problem, not only from the point of view of this
province, but from that of the empire. It is regrettable that Sir Wilfrid
Laurier has not always availed himself of the experience and grasp of the
subject which Mr. King possesses.68
Saturday Sunset devoted a great deal of space to the discussion of railway problems, then stirring British Columbia. It
paid serious attention to the developing fruit industry of the
Okanagan, and to the municipal growing pains of Vancouver.
Ethel Cody Stoddard, who, under the pseudonym " Lady Van,"
conducted a column of miscellany " About Things in General,"
wrote strongly against the limp building regulations and lack of
zoning which permitted the erection anywhere of those long rows
of cabins which were Vancouver's first apartment-houses. That
was twenty years before Vancouver had a zoning by-law.69
In the Dominion election of 1911 the Liberal party received
a terrible beating in British Columbia, every candidate in the
(67) Ibid., September 12, 1908.
(68) Ibid., June 20, 1908.
(69) Ibid., March 28, 1908. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 123
■Province being defeated. In the post-mortem it was decided
that the reason for this disaster was lack of adequate newspaper
support. So it was resolved that Liberalism must have a daily
paper on which it could depend. The evening field in Vancouver
was already occupied by the World and the Province, both of
which had substantial circulations. The News-Advertiser's circulation had never been large, so it was felt there was an opportunity to shoulder into the morning field. The first issue of the
new daily was published on February 12, 1912. The birthday
was a Monday, and the Sun rose auspiciously to fill Vancouver's
Monday morning blank. The first issue tells the story of the
newspaper's birth:—
Last spring a number of Liberals in this city took steps looking toward
the establishment of a daily newspaper. The necessity for a paper to consistently advocate the principles of Liberalism had been making itself felt
for some time. There was no paper in the city that could be considered as
consistently Liberal and it was felt that the first step toward rehabilitating
the party in British Columbia should be the establishment of a daily newspaper. Efforts were made to buy out one of the existing newspapers, but
it was found that newspapers, like Hastings Street real estate, had grown
immensely in value during the last few years and that the cost of acquiring
one of the two papers which ought [to] have been turned into a Liberal
organ would have been prohibitive, even had they been for sale.
Overtures were made to the owners of the Saturday Sunset to establish
a morning newspaper and in due course an agreement was reached. A company [The Burrard Publishing Company, Limited] was organized and stock
was sold. . . . The printing business established and owned by Messrs.
Ford and McConnell was taken over strictly on its merits as a business
proposition and it was at that time earning twelve per cent, on its valuation,
with every promise of a considerable increase in the immediate future.™
The Ford-McConnell plant contained practically all the
machinery needed for publishing a daily newspaper, except a
newspaper press. It went into the company, it is understood, at
a valuation of $80,000. A press was found in San Francisco.
It had been through the fire, but had been rehabilitated and was
adequate. The directorate of the new company consisted of the
following:—
Presidenf>-F. C. Wade, K.C.
Vice-president—E. B. McMaster.
Directors—Richard S. Ford, John P. McConnell, T. F.
Paterson, George E. McCrossan, and G. F. Risteen.
(70) Vancouver Sun, February 12, 1912. 124 D. A. McGregor. April
R. S. Ford was named general manager and J. P. McConnell
editor. John Henry Gerrie was brought from New York to act
as managing editor. John B. Kerr, an old-time newspaperman
who had been city editor of the News-Advertiser and for many
years editorial writer on the Province, was engaged to write
editorials. Arthur M. Burns was the first city editor, but died
not long after the start, and was succeeded by Ned Sheppard.
Bert Coleman looked after marine; Wilbur Bryan after sports;
John Linkie was telegraph editor; Bradford Hyer financial
editor. Pollough Pogue wrote feature stories and assisted with
the editorial page. Graham Hyde drew cartoons and was succeeded by John Innes. William Carswell was advertising manager.    Altogether, it was a very capable and well-trained staff.
There is an interesting story of the way the Sun got its name.
McConnell had worked on the Toronto Globe in his younger days
and, remembering its influence in Ontario, was ambitious to
make his paper the Globe of the Pacific Coast. J. C. McLagan
had had the same hope in starting the World twenty-four years
before. McConnell thought it would be a good idea to call the
new paper the Vancouver Globe. "Thus it would carry prestige
from the start. Others suggested other names. To a working
member of the staff who heard some of the discussion they all
seemed equally bad. They had no meaning. " You have the
Sunset," he said. " You are going to have a morning paper.
Why not call it the Morning Sun? " So the Sun it was. It did
not become the Morning Sun in name for another twelve years.
The Sun started out as a very good newspaper with great
enthusiasm among the owners and the members of the staff. It
did not have much advertising at the beginning, and so had
plenty of space for news and features. It had good writers, and
these made a very good selection, and turned out a readable and
interesting journal. Had the paper been started earlier, when
business was better, it might have had greater success. But the
boom had passed its height in 1912, and financing became more
and more difficult. Then came the war, which reduced revenues
and increased expenses.
In 1914 the Burrard Publishing Company was placed in the
hands of a trustee under a mortgage, and early in 1915 the mortgage was foreclosed.    Ford and McConnell were out.    In July, 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 125
1915, the B.C. Saturday Sunset, which the trustee had carried on
for six months, suspended.    In its valedictory it said:—
Let it not be thought, however, that we feel disappointed in the real
work that has been accomplished by the Saturday Sunset. By sincere criticism we believe that it has righted many wrongs and has served a useful
purpose in many ways. It has been essentially a British Columbia weekly
and has given the people outside of the province much valuable information
about British Columbia. It has ever been on the Side of justice and right.
Were it not for the fact that the publishers have another medium for carrying on the same work, the Saturday Sunset would remain in the field.
Today the daily newspaper carries its message into every home and it is
a message straight from the battlefront. That is what the people demand
above all things.71
So the Sunset set, and left the Sun to carry on. Ford went
into business in Vancouver, importing goods from the Orient.
McConnell bought the Western Call, a weekly which H. H.
Stevens and Professor E. Odium had been carrying on for six and
a half years, and at the beginning of 1916 began the publication
of J.P.'s Weekly. He thought he could re-establish himself and
perhaps create another Sunset; but something was missing.
Either the old fire was not there or the demand was absent.
J.P.'s Weekly sputtered along for nine months and then went
out, and " J. P." himself went placer-mining in the Cariboo.
Among other things in his active life, he had tried his hand
at politics, running as a Liberal in Yale in the Provincial election
of 1912—the same election in which L. D. Taylor contested Rossland, also as a Liberal. Both were badly beaten. The contest
in Yale is significant only for one of Bruce's snappy bits of
repartee. Hon. W. J. Bowser, then Attorney-General in the
McBride cabinet, was making a speaking tour of the Province,
and invited " J. P." to meet him on the platform at Hope and
discuss public issues. " J. P." replied that he was too hoarse
with much speaking to meet the Attorney-General. Bowser
accepted the excuse but, wishing to make a bit of capital out of
it if he could, turned to the gallery of reporters accompanying
him and asked, " Can't one of you fellows write me a verse about
Bruce and his throat?" The prize went to Jim Morton of the
News-Advertiser, who produced this gem which Bowser read
from the platform:—
(71)  B.C. Saturday Sunset, July 17, 1915. 126 D. A. McGregor. April
Because his words are loud and coarse,
Poor Bruce's throat is sore and hoarse.
And now, it seems, his Sun has set
Although the World is wobbling yet.
Bruce flared up instantly when the verse was brought to his
attention. " Bowser's poetry is like his politics and his administration," he said.    " They are all equally rotten."72
The syndicate which took control of the Sun after the foreclosure of the mortgage was headed by F. C. Wade. Mr. Wade
was a lawyer who had made good in the Yukon and, like so many
Yukoners, had come to Vancouver to live. He had an important
practice in the city, but his interests were wider than law. He
was deep in politics. He was well-read in legal lore, history, and
the English classics, and liked to write. He wrote very well, too,
in a balanced style, but his articles were too detailed, too lengthy,
too diffuse, too completely documented for these modern days,
when men must read and run.
Early in 1916 Sir Richard McBride, who had been Premier
for nearly twelve years, retired from the premiership and went
to England as Agent-General. Hon. W. J. Bowser, who succeeded him, undertook to recast the Government and appointed
two new ministers—A. C. Flummerfelt of Victoria, as Minister
of Finance, and C. E. Tisdall of Vancouver, as Minister of Public
Works. Mr. Tisdall was already a member of the Legislature
but, under the law of the time, had to return to his constituents
for re-endorsement. At the by-election he was opposed by M. A.
Macdonald, afterwards Chief Justice of the Province. Mr. Wade
and the Sun took an active part in the contest:—
The present contest is not purely political. It is a critical period in the
history of a great province and will have a great deal to do with the future
prosperity of British Columbia. Mr. Macdonald is young and has a splendid
record. Mr. Tisdall, older and perhaps more versed in so-called practical
politics, has an even longer record, but it is one of abysmal silence whenever
a government policy came under criticism. Throughout his political life
Mr. Tisdall has been a hanger-on, following his leaders with dog-like fidelity
that is more pathetic than amusing. Without individuality of any kind, he
has been a pliable instrument in the hands of men who did not scruple to
use him. Mr. Macdonald is a man; Mr. Tisdall merely a well regulated
machine.7*
(72) Details related to the writer personally by James Morton.
(73) Vancouver Sun, January 24, 1916. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 127
This by-election was merely a preliminary canter for Mr.
Wade. He helped defeat Mr. Tisdall, and in the general election
which followed later in the year he played a major part in defeating the Bowser Government and in bringing the Brewster Government into power. Of his effort in this connection, General
V. W. Odium was later to say:—
But it was the F. C. Wade pen that made The Sun become a power.
Steeped in Canadian history and constitutional lore, and gifted with a ready
and musical flow of language, Mr. Wade proved himself the outstanding
British Columbia editorial writer of his time. . . . Mr. Wade, like Mr.
Carter-Cotton, was a scholar; but he did not have the Carter-Cotton reticence. The Sun under Mr. Wade, was largely responsible for destroying
public confidence in the Bowser Conservative government and for bringing
about the changes which took place in 1916.74
The Bowser Government was destroyed, but the victory was
won at great cost to the victor. While the campaign lasted and
the party needed its support, the Sun had to be kept going and
Mr. Wade, who was already deeply committed, not only borrowed heavily for the Sun but issued his own personal checks
to meet pressing bills. When the smoke of the campaign cleared
away, he was some $30,000 behind. He hoped that in some way
the new Liberal Government would be able to reimburse him for
his losses. But no way was found. Premier Brewster died after
less than sixteen months in office, and Hon. John Oliver, who
succeeded, admitted the value of Mr. Wade's services but not
the obligation of the Government to reimburse him for his losses.
He did do something, however. He appointed Mr. Wade Agent-
General in London. Mr. William Braid, who knew Mr. Wade's
losses and the cause for which they had been incurred, left his
old friend $30,000 in his will. The legacy, however, was seized
by Mr. Wade's creditors, and not a dollar of it ever reached the
man it was intended to benefit.75
In London, Mr. Wade became a very good Agent-General.
He threw himself into the duties of his office with great enthusiasm. He had a wide and detailed knowledge of British Columbia, its resources, its beauties, and its needs, and it was his
pleasure to make these known.   In his spare time he found re-
(74) Vancouver Morning Star, February 1, 1926.
(75) Information given by Mrs.  Marjorie Wade, daughter of F.
Wade, to Vancouver City Archives. 128 D. A. McGregor. April
laxation hunting up the haunts of famous Londoners of by-gone
days like Dr. Samuel Johnson and Charles Dickens and, on occasion, telling Londoners things they did not know about London.
Strangely enough, he and Premier Oliver never seemed to hit it
off. " Honest John " would never communicate with his Agent-
General directly, but would instruct his secretary to write: " I am
directed to write you as follows: "
Mr. Wade was a man of strong personality, great ability, and
sound scholarship. One wonders what he would have made of
himself had he been content to concentrate his efforts in any one
of the three fields in which he played notable parts, the law,
politics, and journalism.
When Mr. Wade relinquished control of the Sun in 1917, Mr.
R. J. Cromie stepped into his shoes. Mr. Cromie entered the
newspaper field as the confidential secretary of Colonel J. W.
Stewart. Colonel Stewart was a famous railroad-builder, member of the firm of Foley, Welch & Stewart. He had had important contracts on the Canadian Northern Railway in British
Columbia, and his firm had the contract for the construction of
the Pacific Great Eastern. Just what his relations with the Sun
were has never been disclosed. The Sun, practically from its
inception, needed money. Colonel Stewart had money and, as
his contracts were the subject of public investigation he also
needed, or thought he needed, a newspaper that would be
friendly. At any rate, he put a good deal of money into the Sun
and eventually took the paper over, placing Mr. Cromie in charge.
Then he went off to the First World War, in which he served
with considerable distinction, and returned a Major-General.
How the newspaper passed permanently into the possession of
Mr. Cromie is another of the mysteries of Vancouver newspaper-
dom.
Mr. Cromie knew nothing of the newspaper business when he
took hold of the Sun, but he set himself to learn and he learned
rapidly. He was a great reader and had an infinite curiosity.
He liked to travel and talk to people and ask questions. He was
fond of making experiments. He was never afraid of making
mistakes or of getting his feet muddied. He was somewhat
erratic.at first, and had a procession of managing editors. Bui
he learned something from each and at last knew what he could 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 129
do and what he wanted to do. He upset the somewhat comfortable traditions that had developed in Vancouver newspaper
circles. The Sun under F. C. Wade had been aggressive enough
politically. Under Mr. Cromie it adopted aggressive news policies
and sales policies as well. It put up a strong fight for circulation
and advertising. It posed as the champion of British Columbia
against what it called selfish eastern interests. It took up the
fight for more equitable freight rates, for better rail connection
with the Interior. Mr. Cromie had little interest in playing the
game of party politics, but he had a deep and consistent interest
in building up his newspaper, and no scruples about using politics
and parties to do it.
On September 1, 1917, the Sun took over the News-Advertiser, paying J. S. H. Matson only $100,000 for it, it was said.
At one stroke Mr. Cromie did two good pieces of business. He
eliminated a rival, which, though not very aggressive at the time,
might any day become an aggressive rival; and he added that
rival's circulation to his own. The circulation of the News-
Advertiser at the time was 8,000, that claimed by the Sun 10,000.
On the morning of the amalgamation the Sun had this to say of
its new venture:—
In the past the two journals have been lavish beyond their means in
supplying the public demand for news. Owing to the war and the greatly
increased demand for information from all parts of the world, the tax on
them has been much greater than ever before. In addition to supplying the
news, the two journals have in their editorial utterances appealed to two
separate and distinct schools of thought, sometimes, doubtless, adopting
views which could not but be regarded as extreme. Now that the Sun has
undertaken to serve all classes, it will endeavor more than ever before to
present only those views which will commend themselves to an intelligent
public. At the same time, nothing but an aggressive policy can be promised
or need be expected.76
The extinction of the News-Advertiser left Vancouver with
three daily newspapers. The Sun, which had adopted the
name The Vancouver Sun with which is incorporated the News-
Advertiser, was published every morning, Sunday included. The
Province, owned by W. C. Nichol, and with Frank Burd as business manager and Roy Brown as editor, was issued six days in the
week in the evening.    The World, under the management of John
(76)  Mr. Carter-Cotton survived the extinction of his old newspaper
by about two years.    His death occurred on November 20, 1919. 130 D. A. McGregor. April
Nelson, and with J. E. Norcross as editor, was also issued in the
evening. When Mr. Cromie took over the Sun, Pollough Pogue,
who had been Mr. Wade's assistant, remained as editorial writer.
He was succeeded by Frank McNamara and he, in turn, by
Harold Weir. After J. B. Kerr left the Province for the Sun in
1912, the Province editorials were written by L. W. Makovski
until the disappearance of the News-Advertiser. Then Dr. S. D.
Scott transferred his activities to the Province, and continued
there until his death. Dr. Scott conducted also a weekly column
of miscellany, " The Week-End," in which he discussed men,
affairs, and literature. He had begun this on the News-Advertiser and took it with him to the Province. Bernard McEvoy
assisted Dr. Scott, reviewed books and wrote a column, " Street
Corners," using the pseudonym " Diogenes." On coming back
from the war, James Butterfield tried his hand at various things,
then, on the suggestion of Ernest Paige, editor of the Veterans'
Weekly, started his " Common Round," which he continued for
many years. The World's editorial writer in John Nelson's time
was Arthur C. Cummings, now editor of the Ottawa Citizen,
while its columnist was Francis Bursill, whose pseudonym was
" Felix Penne." All three papers claimed to be independent in
politics, but the Province leaned to the Conservative side and
the Sun to the Liberal, while the World supported the Prohibition Party.
In his younger days in Vancouver, Mr. Nichol of the Province
had voiced his opinions quite freely on local and political issues,
but as his wealth grew and his newspaper became prosperous
he became more and more cautious. Not only did he cease to
write vigorously himself, but he watered down the enthusiasm
of his staff. It was his argument that he was conducting a business, and that in business it was foolish to say things that might
offend a lot of one's customers. Dr. Scott, who had been trained
in the Maritime Provinces, where they take their politics straight,
and who had had a completely free hand on the News-Advertiser,
must have wondered at times what he was doing in this particular set-up. But he was a first-class newspaperman of long experience, and managed to walk the tight rope easily and give
a finished performance. The editorial in which he commented
on the creation, late in December, 1921, of the first Mackenzie 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 131
King Cabinet was a little masterpiece in the difficult art of rounding a political corner:—
" It will be agreed by most reasonable men," wrote Dr. Scott,
" that Mr. Mackenzie King has performed the first public task in
his new position with some credit to himself and his party."
Each of the new cabinet members was accorded a brief mention
and the editorial concludes :—
Not many months ago we were called upon to announce a new ministry
under Mr. Meighen. Mr. Mackenzie King brings his administration into
being under somewhat safer auspices. But he, too, is called upon to face a
situation of great difficulty and delicacy. The Prime Minister is entitled to
the courtesy of a generous welcome and the compliments of the season.77
As for Mr. Nichol, it is necessary, in giving him his due, to
record that he was much less cold-blooded than his theories. He
liked to think of himself as a James Gordon Bennett, but he was
not ruthless enough to act the part. He often said that the
proper way to run a newspaper was to engage bright young fellows, use their brains and their legs while they were active and
fresh, and discharge them when their usefulness began to wane.
But he never followed his own precepts. Either he couldn't
bring himself to do so, or his business manager and editor, both
of whom had quite contrary ideas, and who really had more to
do with giving the Province its character than the owner had,
would not let him. At any rate, when he severed his connection
with the paper there were several men on the staff who had been
on it for many years, and in the mechanical department a few
who had been there from the beginning.
The first major change in Vancouver newspapers in the postwar years came in 1921, when John Nelson and his associates
sold the World to Charles Campbell. It was not that Mr. Nelson
wished to sell. He was conducting a good newspaper, though
under difficulties, and would gladly have gone on. But the World
was not making any money. The Province had gained too great
a lead during the war, and had forged still further ahead during
the blank period between Mr. Taylor and Mr. Nelson. For a
time the Province actually subsidized the World to keep it going.
At length, Mr. Nelson's chief financial backer, John Davidson,
(77)  Vancouver Daily Province, December 30, 1921. 132 D. A. McGregor. April
a well-known contractor, grew weary of the burden and insisted
that the property be liquidated.78
Charles Campbell at the time knew nothing of the details of
operating a newspaper. As a boy he had sold newspapers on
Vancouver streets, and as a prominent Liberal had had some connection with the organization of the Sun in 1912. He may have
been in the background in later deals, but it was as the proprietor
of a storage and warehouse business that he was known. He had
recently sold his warehouse to the Provincial Government for use
in connection with Provincial liquor control. The price was
regarded as a handsome one. So Mr. Campbell had a considerable sum of ready money.
His father used to tpll the story of the purchase of the World
in this way:—
Charlie came to me, one day, and said, "Father, I want to buy the World.
Will you help me? "
" Charlie," I said, " What do you know about running a newspaper? "
" Father," Charlie answered, " I don't know a thing."
" Very well, Charlie," I said to him, " I'll help you."    It seemed to me
that when a man admitted frankly that he knew nothing about a business
and yet was willing to risk considerable capital in it, it was safe to go
along with him.    He would learn.    So we bought the World.
The price was $250,000. To help him with his new property
and teach him something of the business he admitted he did not
know, Mr. Campbell brought C. F. Crandall from Montreal. Mr.
Crandall had been managing editor of the Montreal Star and for
a time had an option on the World. After leaving Vancouver
he became general manager of the United Press.
The next Vancouver newspaper to change hands was the
Province. W. C. Nichol, who may properly be referred to as the
founder, seeing that it was his idea and his energy that started
the daily on its way in 1898, had been appointed Lieutenant-
Governor in 1920. During his term of office he had developed a
fondness for Victoria, and did not wish to return to Vancouver.
(78) After selling the World, Mr. Nelson devoted himself to magazine
writing for a time, then joined the staff of the Sun Life Assurance Company
as a public relations officer. He became interested in promoting better
relations among the Canadian Provinces, then in fostering international
friendships. His interests took him into the Institute of Pacific Relations,
and into Rotary. He became president of Rotary International, and did a
great deal of travelling.    He died in Chicago on January 24, 1936. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 133
The Province and his other business interests had made him a
very wealthy man, and he had been thinking for some time of
disposing of his newspaper property if he could get a suitable
offer. The offer came in 1923. William Southam & Sons, a
company which owned large job-printing plants in Eastern Canada, as well as newspapers in five Canadian cities, were desirous
of extending their operations to the Pacific Coast and entered
into negotiations. Before the end of the year the deal was completed, the figure a little short of $3,500,000. The new company
was known as The Vancouver Daily Province, Limited. Mr. F. J.
Burd became managing director, and Mr. R. W. Brown continued
as editor. Some years before, the Province had outgrown the
old building in which it had started in Hastings Street, and had
taken over the E. W. MacLean Building, immediately to the west,
to house the overflow. It had now outgrown the two buildings,
and it was decided to seek larger quarters. The Pender Street
lot immediately to the rear of the Hastings Street property was
purchased, and some consideration was given to plans for a new
building which would run from Hastings through to Pender,
leaping the lane. Finally, the two buildings which had been
erected some years before by F. L. Carter-Cotton, on the east
side of Victory Square, were purchased and adapted to newspaper purposes. The move was made on January 17, 1925, and
was celebrated by J. B. Fitzmaurice in a half-page sketch of " the
great trek." In purchasing these two buildings the Province
established itself on the sites occupied by two of Vancouver's
pioneer newspapers. The Weekly Herald, published by William
Brown from June 1, 1887, to June 30,1888, had been issued from
the Hastings-Cambie corner, and the News-Advertiser was
issued from the Pender-Cambie corner for several years after
1890. Then it moved across the square to the north-east corner
of Pender and Hamilton.
After conducting the World for three years, Mr. Charles
Campbell announced, on March 11, 1924, that he had sold the
property to the Sun, that is, to R. J. Cromie. The price mentioned was $475,000. The World's circulation at the time was
17,000. On purchasing the World, the Sun split its personality.
In the morning, the Morning Sun came out, and in the evening the
" Evening Sun ivith ivhich is incorporated the Daily World." 134 D. A. McGregor. April
The Evening Sun's first issue was on March 12. The sub-title
was retained until June 20, after which the World was seen no
more. After the amalgamation, in the second quarter of 1924,
the Audit Bureau of Circulation gave the Morning Sun's circulation as 21,537, that of the Evening Sun as 16,256, that of the
Sunday Sun as 41,751, and that of the Saturday edition of the
Evening Sun as 24,147.
It is often asked how it was that the News-Advertiser, which
had a start of eleven years over the Province, and the World,
which had a start of ten, failed to hold their lead and failed even
to stay in the field, while the Province went on and prospered.
There are several reasons.
The News-Advertiser suffered under the handicap of being a
morning newspaper, and a morning newspaper has a hard time
unless it serves a large community. No matter what a morning
paper's excellences may be, the majority of the people in its community have no time to read it while its news is fresh. They
have their jobs to attend to. Their reading time is in the evening. So they prefer an evening paper. The New York Times
and the Toronto Globe and Mail are sometimes cited as evidence
supporting a contrary theory. But the New York Times has a
very large and select local constituency, and sufficient prestige to
make people outside its local constituency willing to wait for it.
The Globe and Mail is read in the morning in Toronto and Hamilton, and in the evening over a great section of rural and industrial Ontario. The News-Advertiser had no such advantages,
and was under the additional handicap which all Pacific Coast
morning papers endure.    The time element was against it.
The Province made its first inroads on newspaper circulation
in Vancouver by cutting the price. It sold for 10 cents a week
while its rivals were charging $1 a month. The World cut its
price, but the damage was done. The Province published a different sort of paper when it was apparent a different sort of
paper was in demand. Its publisher was a trained newspaperman, while the publisher of the World in the beginning was a
printer, and the publisher of the News-Advertiser a financier and
politician. Later, when Mr. L. D. Taylor took over the World,
he dissipated a lot of his energies in civic politics and in governing the city.   Mr. Carter-Cotton was, through most of his news- 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 135
paper career, a member of the Legislature, and held posts in two
Governments. Mr. Nichol, in contrast, devoted himself to the
conduct of his newspaper.
A further reason for the Province's success is that it has
always had the money to make whatever improvements, whether
mechanical or in the matter of services, the circumstances
seemed to call for. From the time Mr. Nichol negotiated his
loan from the Royal Trust Company for the purchase of the
Bostock interest, he was never in difficulties. His rivals, on the
other hand, had to watch the pennies much more closely than he,
and were in a poorer position to watch.
In purchasing the World, Mr. Cromie apparently neglected
to stipulate that Mr. Campbell should stay out of the Vancouver
newspaper field. At any rate, Mr. Campbell did not stay out.
On June 2, 1924, he started publication of the Evening Star,
invading the very portion of the field on which Mr. Cromie was
pinning his greatest hopes. The Evening Star was a six-day
paper with a reduced news service, selling at 1 cent a copy on
the street and at 30 cents a month delivered. The Star, its publisher announced, would cover the news of the world in condensed form. Its slogan would be: " If it will help make a
greater Vancouver, the Star is for it."
The Province at the time was selling at 75 cents a month,
delivered, and the Evening Sun at 50 cents. The Star's cut rate
was real competition, and a sort of newspaper war began. The
Province and Sun wholesalers tried to prevent the street vendors
who were members of their organization from selling the 1-cent
paper, and the Star took full advantage of this, proclaiming
itself the champion of the under-dog.
The Evening Star was not much more than six weeks old
when its publisher sold it to General Victor W. Odium and his
father, Professor Edward Odium. Professor Odium became
president of the company, and contributed a column largely on
philosophical and religious lines. General Odium became publisher and J. E. Norcross, who had been for many years with the
World, took charge of the editorial page. The newspaper's
slogan became: " If it makes for a greater, a better and a cleaner
Vancouver, the Star is for it." 136 D. A. McGregor. April
With three newspapers dividing the evening field, competition
in Vancouver was keen. The Sun cut its rate to 25 cents a week,
but later made an arrangement with the Star by which both
adopted a 40-cent rate. The Province maintained its 75-cent
rate, but in October added a magazine section edited by Lukin
Johnston to its Saturday edition. On February 1, 1925, after
moving to its new building and acquiring an elaborate outfit of
new machinery, it began the publication of a Sunday edition, and
continued on a seven-day basis until June 1, 1933.
In January, 1926, General Odium and Mr. Cromie made a
deal which stabilized the newspaper situation and had the effect
of eliminating a lot of senseless and profitless competition. The
Evening Star became the Morning Star, taking over the Morning
Sun's circulation, while the Sun acquired the Star's evening circulation and withdrew from the morning field altogether. At the
same time, the Sunday Sun, which was a relic of the Sunday
morning edition of the old News-Advertiser, ceased publication
as a Sunday newspaper, and became the Saturday edition of the
Evening Sun.
Announcing the change, the Morning Star went into journalistic genealogies:—
Through the purchase of The Morning Sun, The Star inherits the historic associations of the old News-Advertiser, of respected memory, and of
The Sun itself, both as it was when in the hands of Messrs. Ford, McConnell
and Wade, and as it became after it was acquired by Mr. R. J. Cromie and
• by him consolidated with the News-Advertiser.   .   .   .
The Star is pleased to take over The Sun's rich inheritance; by so doing
it has acquired a mixed family tree. In its veins now run traces of puri-
tanism and of " black sheep." Some of its antecedents have been loved
because they have been so good; others because they have been so bad.
Taken all in all, they have formed a very interesting and decidedly able
family and they have played considerable part in shaping the history of
British Columbia.79
Thus, in 1926, Vancouver, at forty, found itself again, as it
had been through so many years, with three daily newspapers,
one issued in the morning, two in the evening. But the papers,
whatever ancestry and inheritances they might claim, were not
the same as those that had served the pioneers. The News-
Advertiser and the World were gone, and in their stead were the
(79)  Vancouver Morning Star, February 1, 1926. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 137
Province, founded in 1898, the Sun, founded in 1912, and the
Star, a 2-year-old baby.
This story of the adventures of Vancouver newspapers can
not go on indefinitely, and this seems as good a point as any at
which to stop. But first there are a number of loose ends to
tie up.
The dailies are not the only newspapers that have served or
tried to serve Vancouver's needs. The weeklies and monthlies
—there have been hundreds of these—are worthy of an article
of their own. Only a few of them can be mentioned here. They
fall into several categories, according to the need they have
tried to fill. Most numerous, perhaps, have been the community
weeklies: George Murray's Chinook, which was published in
South Vancouver and ran for many years; the Western Call,
which H. H. Stevens published in Mount Pleasant in the days
before he went to Parliament; the Gazette, which served Point
Grey under the management of J. A. Paton, and which is still
serving it as the News-Gazette; the Citizen, which merged with
the Gazette; the Express, which George Bartley started in North
Vancouver, and which became the North Shore Press.
There are the old-time journals of comment like Light and
the Mainlander, the B.C. Budget, the Monitor, the Two Voices,
and Public Opinion, which described itself confidently as " Canada's Best Weekly." There are more modern periodicals of
somewhat the same nature like J.P.'s Weekly, the Western Idea,
and the Vancouver Eye Opener. There were more ambitious
publications like the Globe, the New Deal, and the Critic, all
three run by L. D. Taylor, and the Hook and the Saturday
Tribune, published by J. S. Cowper.
There are more than a score of labour journals, one rivalling
another, and one growing out of another until it is nearly impossible to determine the line of descent. They run from George
Bartley's Independent, and R. P. Pettipiece's Western Clarion,
through the old Federationist to the Labor Statesman of to-day.
There are trade papers and papers devoted to special interests, like the B.C. Lumberman, the Western Canada Mining
News, Harbor and Shipping, the Garden Beautiful, Sea Lore, the
Veterans' Weekly, and the Masonic Bulletin. There are financial
and commercial papers like the Building Record, the B.C. Finan- 138 D. A. McGregor. April
cial Neivs, the B.C. Financial Times, and the Journal of Commerce. There are papers devoted specially to women, like the
Chronicle, the Ladies' Mirror, the Western Women's Weekly, and
About Town. There are religious papers like the Bulletin and
the B.C. Catholic; house organs like Nabob and Telephone Talk;
comic journals like the Klondyke Liar, the Ozonogram, and Ye
Hornet; sporting sheets like the Sporting News and Al Hardy's
Green Sheet.
A special word about the comic journals should be in order.
Ye Hornet was started by two men each of whom had special
talent in his own field; by A. M. R. Gordon, who achieved some
fame later by writing the poem on Kaiser Wilhelm, " Meinself
Und Gott," and John Innes, the painter of Western Canada.
Ozonogram was the brain-child of two old-time printer-journalists, R. T. Lowery and W. McAdam. Both were better known in
Interior mining camps than on the Coast. Lowery ran the New
Denver Ledge, the Greenwood Ledge, and other papers. McAdam
issued the Sandon Paystreak. The Klondyke Liar was published
about the turn of the century by Jack Lawson, who went afterwards to Texada Island, where he published the Coast Miner,
the pioneer newspaper north of Vancouver.
There have been magazines, too, in Vancouver, some of them
ambitious and quite substantial. There was Westward Ho,
started by Percy Godenrath, who afterwards founded the Portland Canal Miner. The Man to Man Magazine, operated by Dr.
Elliott Rowe, secretary of Vancouver's 100,000 Club in the days
when the city was much smaller than it is now, was taken over
by the Saturday Sunset for a printing bill, and put in charge of
Pollough Pogue, who changed the name to the B.C. Magazine.
It was an interesting periodical and might have succeeded, but
it starved to death. The business office at the Sunset developed
the idea that any contributor to the magazine whose name was
printed over his contribution was unreasonable to seek any other
remuneration. The publicity was reward enough. The Outpost,
a magazine edited by S. N. Dancy, lasted only one issue. More
fortunate was the annual Scarlet and Gold. It is still running.
The B.C. Monthly, edited by D. A. Chalmers, started in 1911 and
ran on to the end of 1927. 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 139
All these scores of publications did not come off the presses
day after day and week after week without the devotion, attention, and hard work of scores of newspapermen and printers.
Some of these have been mentioned in the pages that have preceded. There are many more, and good stories are told about
a lot of them.
Vancouver's youth corresponded with the time of the printer-
journalists and the tramp printers. It was not difficult to start
a newspaper of sorts in those days. All that was needed was
some type and a press, and often one or the other could be
borrowed. Early presses passed round and round, and some of
them had quite a history of their own.
The tramp printers roamed from city to city, worked a few
days or weeks, and passed on. Some of them had regular or
irregular circuits. They would follow the sun, working in the
north in the summer, and managing to get to California for the
winter months. In spring they would start north again. One
of these was Seneca G. Ketchum, known as the " minstrel
printer." Some time in the nineties he and Percy Whitworth
started a comic weekly in Vancouver, boasting that their joint
capital at the time of commencement was $3.50. Their paper
was The Idea. According to reports, it was quite a brilliant
effort, but no one seems to have thought of preserving a copy of
it.   It did not last long.
Another of the itinerant printers was " Dummy " Campbell,
who was quite a dandy in his way. He made a point of spending his winters in Honolulu.
Shad Farron and his False Creek Record have been mentioned. Shad had a hand with Bill McAdam and T. A. McDonald
in founding a short-lived daily, the Mainland News. Nothing
is remembered of it now except that it succeeded in scooping all
the other Vancouver newspapers on the story of the attempted
relief of Port Arthur in the Russo-Japanese War. Shad was in
poor health—he died of tuberculosis at a fairly early age—and
the other reporters used to do what they could to save him " leg-
work." The writing he could look after himself. One stormy
night, Shad had a dispute with John Grady, the city jailer, and
was thrown out of the police station. It was many a day after
that before any reporter could be persuaded to write a good word 140 D. A. McGregor. April
about Grady.    Do what he would, the jailer was always getting
a " bad press."
One night Shad turned up at the Province office after having
visited rather many bars in his search for news. He realized
his condition, but was not worried as he could always write best
when he had had a few drinks. He sat down at his typewriter
and, as his custom was, pounded out his story without looking at
the copy. When the story was completed, he pulled the last page
out of the machine and glanced over his product. Then he was
worried. He could not read a word of what he had written.
The letters were there but the words made no sense. Sadly he
pondered the situation for a time, then carried the copy to the
man in charge of the night desk.
" See what I have written," he said. " Do you think there is
anything wrong with me ? "
The night editor gave him no consolation, but in a few days
Shad learned that one of his colleagues had purposely unscrewed
the letters on the typewriter and scrambled them, hoping to give
Shad a scare.
Sam Rob was one of the brilliant young men of the early days.
He held various positions on the World in the time of J. C.
McLagan and later, ending up as market reporter for the Province. When Rudyard Kipling paid his first visit to Vancouver,
Sam was assigned the job of interviewing him. When Kipling's
train came in in the evening, Sam was on hand, but the poet did
not get off, and Sam was told that he intended to spend the night
in his compartment, and had given the porter orders that nobody
was to be allowed to see him.
Sam thought he would try persuasion and wrote a little note,
which he bribed the porter to deliver. In the note he pointed out
that he had been specially assigned to see Mr. Kipling, who had
been granting interviews in Winnipeg. He suggested that if he
were refused an interview terrible things would happen to him
when he went back and reported his lack of success to his city
editor. Before long the reply came, something like this:—
Dear Mr. Rob:
I am very sorry to disappoint you with your city editor, but the Winnipeg
interviews you mention were the product of the fertile imagination of
Winnipeg newspapermen, and, as a humble worker in the field of fiction 1946 Adventures of Vancouver Newspapers. 141
I have no doubt I shall read with interest in The World tomorrow of your
interview with me tonight. RUDYARD KIPLING.*)
Bill Harkin had come to Vancouver after years with the Montreal Star. He had had a wide experience, and among his
assignments for the Star had been that of reporting the trial of
Louis Riel at Regina. In Vancouver he took down the story of
Sir Charles Tupper's life from the old statesman's dictation, and
it was afterwards published in book form. In the days of the
railway building excitement on the Coast, Bill did a lot of
publicity work for the Canadian Northern magnates. He had
his reward, too. He was given a receipt for the first payment
on a couple of lots in the Port Mann townsite.
J. T. Wilkinson, popularly known as " Wings," worked first
for the Province, then for the World, but it was as the World's
" Man on the Wing " that he achieved his reputation as a traveller
and writer. " Wings " was always going somewhere or getting
back, and in between he told the story of his experiences. Even
after he retired from newspaper work and became a top-notch
life insurance salesman, he continued his flights abroad. The
last of them was to South America.
J. B. Fitzmaurice started cartooning as a youngster on the
Province, and came back to the Province after some years in the
East. He never pretended to be an expert draughtsman, but had
few equals in his ability to find the humour in a situation. One
of his most famous efforts showed Joe Martin addressing an
audience made up entirely of Joe Martins. In the first World
War, when emphasis was laid on victory gardens and the home
production of 'vegetables, eggs, and meat, " Fitz " ran a useful
and hilarious series featuring " Horace, the pig." A later
cartoon, showing Professor Odium taking his son Victor across
his knee, roused even the applause of the victim.
J. Francis Bursill, who wrote under the name " Felix Penne,"
was an old Fleet Street character transplanted by some happy
accident to the Pacific Coast. He brought quite a large library
with him when he came from England, and was the founder of
the Bursill Institute, at Collingwood. He was interested in
literature and art, had a vast fund of stories, and wrote on books
(80) James Morton in the Vancouver Sun (magazine section), February
17, 1945. 142 D. A. McGregor. April
for the News-Advertiser, and later conducted a column, " The
World's Window," for the World. With his straggly grey beard
and armful of newspapers he was a striking figure about town,
and added an interesting Bohemian touch to Vancouver newspaper life. For a time he maintained a sort of salon on Pender
Street near Cambie—a great room cluttered up with old furniture and books. Here he would entertain his friends, and occasionally would add to his meagre earnings by renting the place
to such organizations as favoured it for a meeting. The Vagabond's Club, which claimed Felix Penne as its father, held its
fortnightly gatherings there in its best days.
Time and mortality have sadly riddled the ranks of the men
—printers and reporters, editors and publishers—who supplied
Vancouver with its news and opinion in the dozen years or so
about the turn of the century. Most of them are gone, but a few
remain, their, heads grey, their shoulders bowed, and their legs
a bit doddery.
L. D. Taylor comes out on rare occasions, jaunty as ever with
his red tie. J. F. Bledsoe, who has been mining engineer and
fisheries inspector as well as editor and reporter, lives at Victoria
and pursues his hobby of polishing stones. At Victoria, too,
and still contributing occasional pieces to the papers, is James
Morton, long political reporter for the News-Advertiser, and
later secretary to Hon. John Oliver and author of Honest John's
biography.
In Vancouver, Noel Robinson, first of the biographers of the
old-timers, is a happy survivor of times fast receding. So is Bert
Greenwood, long night-editor of the Province, and sworn enemy
of all whistling newsboys and telegraph messengers. Lew
Gordon, long city editor of the Province, and British Columbia's
first moving picture censor, is raising mink in Langley. R. J.
MacDougall, another city editor, after years of publishing the
Herald at Penticton, now rules the town as mayor. Hugh
Savage, who explored the Peace River country as a reporter in
days before there were airplanes or railroads or an Alaska
Highway there, and afterwards helped in a cougar hunt in
Stanley Park, keeps a fatherly eye on the fortunes of the
Cowichan Leader, and has adopted the Canadian flag as his
hobby- D. A. McGregor.
Vancouver, B.C. The arms of the family of Burrard of Walhampton. THE NAMING OF BURRARD INLET.
The name of Burrard was given by Captain George Vancouver, the great explorer, to the well-known Inlet in 1792. How
could he have guessed that a great city would there arise, and
that arm of the sea become its harbour, perpetuating alongside
his own name, in so conspicuous a manner, the name of Burrard,
endeared to him by the ties of a close friendship?
He thus began an association of the two names which has
ever been a source of intense pride to the members of the Burrard family, the tradition of which they have preserved and
handed down through four generations since Vancouver's death
in 1798.
That tradition has unwaveringly associated the name of Burrard Inlet with that of Sir Harry Burrard, the first Baronet,
who was born in 1707 and died in 1791.
I confess, therefore, to have been surprised to discover that
the belief is now widely held that Vancouver's intention was to
honour the second Baronet, Admiral Sir Harry Burrard-Neale,
because the explorer stated in his journal that he had named the
channel after " Sir Harry Burrard of the Navy."
It is true that at first sight this statement seems to suggest
conclusively that Vancouver had in mind at the time the second
Baronet, a young naval officer who later became Admiral Sir
Harry Burrard-Neale, G.C.B., G.C.M.G. But I think that impartial consideration of contemporary history must show that
this conclusion is not quite so unquestionable as it may seem.
In the 1770's Vancouver was a young officer of great ability
who had undoubtedly gained invaluable experience and considerable credit from having served as an " A.B." and midshipman
under Captain Cook. He had risen from the lower deck—all the
more honour to him—and on the return of Cook's third expedition, in 1780, Vancouver must have had a hard task to make his
way in the service, in which an officer's chances of appointments
and promotion depended in fact more on the influence of some
friendly patron than upon professional zeal and personal merit.
In this respect the Navy differed in no way from other Govern-
B ritish Columbia Historical Quarterly, Vol X., No. n.
143 144 Gerald Burrard. April
ment services: the patron was a product of the times, now
happily long dead.
I would make it quite clear that I do not wish to suggest anything which might appear to belittle Vancouver's memory or
reputation. We must accept facts as they were, and there can
be no doubt that a young naval officer without some sort of influence had a very poor start in the race for promotion when his
competitors mostly had " friends at Court." To have ignored
the chance of a useful word spoken in the right place by the
right man would have been merely foolish, and Vancouver was
certainly not that.
It is a fact that about this time Vancouver used to stay
regularly at Walhampton, on the Hampshire coast, the seat of
Sir Harry Burrard, the first Baronet, and it is safe to state that
the friendship to which I have already alluded began then.
Now Sir Harry Burrard was a person of considerable influence. Born in 1707, he was associated with Court circles at
a very early age. Later he was Member of Parliament for
Lymington, the borough close to which he lived, for forty-four
years. Members of his family had represented Lymington in
Parliament regularly since 1679. Among other offices he held
were those of Gentleman Usher to Frederick, Prince of Wales
(father of George III.), Ranger and Warden of the New Forest,
a Commissioner of Customs for the Port of London, Bow Bearer
to the King, and Governor of Calshot Castle. He was, in fact,
just the man who could have spoken a word in the right quarter
on behalf of his young friend George Vancouver.
There is no evidence that he ever did, but when one remembers the times and the first Sir Harry Burrard's opportunities
to serve a young friend, I think that it will be agreed that he
would have been distinctly ungenerous if he did not. At any
rate the possibility must be accepted.
Next let us consider his nephew, young Harry Burrard, the
elder son of Colonel William Burrard, the first Baronet's bother.
Young Harry was born in 1765, and so was quite a boy when
Vancouver first came to stay at Walhampton. I do not think it
far fetched to suggest that Vancouver's tales of his voyages with
Captain Cook may have influenced young Harry in his choice
of a naval career, and my father always subscribed to this view. 1946 Naming of Burrard Inlet. 145
When Vancouver sailed on his own great voyage of exploration
in 1791, young Harry was only 25, and although his career was
already full of promise he had yet to win his spurs, if such an
expression is permissible in the case of a sailor.
Which of these two Harrys is the more likely to have been in
Vancouver's mind when he named Burrard Inlet? The elder,
who had certainly been his host for considerable periods, and
who had possibly been of service to him, or the younger, then a
comparatively unknown officer and considerably younger than
himself?
Then as to Vancouver's entry in his journal: " . . . after Sir
Harry Burrard . . ."
Vancouver sailed from Deptford on his memorable voyage on
January 7, 1791. The first Sir Harry Burrard was then an old
man of nearly 84, but very much alive apart from failing eyesight.
There were heavy gales, in the English Channel, and Vancouver's voyage was considerably delayed, so that he did not leave
England finally behind until he sailed from Falmouth on April
1, 1791.
Old Sir Harry was still alive, although he died eleven days
later, on April 12. But although eleven days is not a big margin, it is more than enough to ensure that Vancouver could not
possibly have known of his death before leaving England for
good.
It has, I know, been suggested that old Sir Harry was suffering from a long illness of which Vancouver knew before he
sailed, and so knew also that this illness could only mean death
in a short time. There has never been a shadow of evidence to
support this suggestion. In fact, family papers which survive
indicate that the first Baronet's death was a sudden one (like that
of his younger brother, Colonel William Burrard, who died one
afternoon in 1780 after spending the morning fishing for pike),
and that he retained a remarkable degree of vigour to the end.
It has also been suggested that since the first Baronet was
so old, Vancouver assumed that he must be dead when he named
Burrard Inlet in 1792. Such a suggestion is an insult to Vancouver's memory. It is true that 84 is a good age, but it is not
phenomenal.    For example, in my own family alone, both the 146 Gerald Burrard. April
third and sixth Baronets lived to be over 87. Vancouver naturally knew that the younger Harry was the heir, and that with
the ordinary expectation of life he was bound to succeed his
uncle. But the argument that Vancouver was so completely
lacking in all the canons and customs of good taste as to give the
younger Harry the title before receiving definite news of the
elder's death can not be regarded seriously.
And there is another point of importance. When Vancouver
left England for good the younger Harry was plain Harry Burrard. When he returned this same younger Harry had become
Sir Harry Burrard-Neale, since he had assumed the additional
surname of Neale on his marriage with Miss Grace Neale. So it
will be realized that Vancouver never personally knew the
younger Harry as Sir Harry Burrard.
Thus it will be seen that if Burrard Inlet was so called after
the younger Harry, Vancouver must somehow have been informed of the elder's death during his historic voyage.
Next there is the problem of the entry in Vancouver's journal : " . . . after Sir Harry Burrard of the Navy."
Actually this is the sole definite evidence to support the belief that Vancouver had the younger Harry in mind when he
entered up his journal. But it is strong evidence and needs
investigation.
I have already stated that the elder Harry held many positions of influence, and that among them was that of Governor of
Calshot Castle. The western entrance to the Solent was guarded
in those days by three dominating forts, all built by Henry VIII.,
namely, the Castles of Hurst and Calshot on the mainland, and
that of Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. I have no knowledge
as to who was then Governor of Hurst Castle, but the elder
Harry was Governor of Calshot and his younger brother, Colonel
William Burrard, whom I have already mentioned, was Governor
of Yarmouth. These positions were then of importance—it
was not so very long before that a French squadron had sailed
into the Solent and bombarded Yarmouth—and it seemed possible
to members of my family that the Governors of these three forts
may have exercised some sort of limited control over naval
vessels sailing in those waters, and that it was also possible
that the elder Harry may have stressed this authority when talk- 1946 Naming of Burrard Inlet. 147
ing to young Vancouver, and that the latter used to humour the
former.
It seemed equally possible that the elder Harry may have held
.other offices, or honorary ranks and titles, of which there is now
no record, for unfortunately when the family home was sold
many old papers and documents were lost. It is recorded, however, that John Burrard, an uncle of the elder Harry's, held the
ranks both of Lieutenant-Colonel of Infantry and Vice-Admiral
of Hampshire. This latter office entailed the responsibility for
the defence of the Hampshire coast, and if the elder Harry had
followed John Burrard the same responsibility would have fallen
on his shoulders before the Navy had crystallized into its fully
professional state, which it did in the latter half of the eighteenth
century.
It must be remembered that Sir Harry Burrard, the first
Baronet, belonged to the generation before Vancouver's and that
he may easily have been somewhat pompous and obstinate in his
adherence to the conditions prevailing when he was a young
man, and that Vancouver, certainly out of politeness and possibly
out of gratitude, humoured the old man.
So it will be realized that the solution of the problem depends
on the answers to two questions:—
(1.) Did the elder Sir Harry hold any office which could
justify the description " of the Navy "?
(2.) Did Vancouver get news of the elder Sir Harry's death
after sailing from Falmouth on April 1, 1791?
Accordingly I .sought the help of a friend at the Admiralty.
He in turn appealed to Mr. L. G. Carr Laughton, the Admiralty
Librarian, whose knowledge of all that pertains to naval history
needs no emphasis from me. Mr. Carr Laughton was kind
enough to become deeply interested in the story and made all
possible researches. He found no record of the elder Sir Harry
having held any office to justify the description " of the Navy,"
and his remarks on the second question interested me so much
that I am taking the liberty of quoting them in full.
Mr. Carr Laughton writes:—
Sir Harry Burrard died on 12th. April 1791, and was succeeded by
Commander Harry Burrard, R.N., who since November 1790 had been in 148 Gerald Burrard. April
command of the sloop Orestes, and was also M.P. for Lymington. The
Orestes was based on Portsmouth, and, being employed on the preventive
service (i.e., cruising against smugglers) in the Channel, between Dunrose
and the Start, was at Portsmouth at short intervals.
Vancouver sailed from the Thames for Portsmouth on 26th. January-
1791, and anchored at Spithead on 5th. February.    He was there till 27th.
February, as his ship the Discovery needed some repair;   he then moved
down to St. Helen's and did not sail thence till 4th. March.
As there can be no doubt that he knew the younger Sir Harry, who,,
especially as he was in Parliament, must have come into Spithead while
the Discovery was there, it is a fair supposition that the two must have
met between 5th. February and 4th. March, either on board or at Lymington.
It is of interest at this point to notice that Vancouver, though he had
Admiralty orders to put into Falmouth, was free to choose his own course
beyond that point. He did in fact, more or less by chance, call at Sta
Cruz de Teneriffe, whence he went on to the Cape. He had a very slow
passage out, anchored in False Bay on 9th. July, moved to Simon's Bay
on the 10th., and remained there until 17th. August, i.e. more than five
weeks. There were ships from England in Simon's Bay when he reached
it, and others probably came in before he left. Thus there is a distinct
probability that he may have had news from England while at the Cape—:
if anybody knew that he was likely to be there.
Now as it is likely that Vancouver was in touch with Commander Harry
Burrard at Portsmouth, it is decidedly possible that he may have told him
that, being free to choose his own route after leaving Falmouth, he intended
to go to the Cape.
In that case Burrard may have decided to write to him at the Cape,
especially after 12th. April, when the news of the elder Sir Harry's death
was received. If he did so, there was a period of more than four months,
to 17th. August, available for a letter to reach Vancouver before he sailed
into unknown waters.
Also if Sir Harry the younger did not write, it is likely that Vancouver
may have learnt of the uncle's death from newspapers brought out by the
ships touching at the Cape.
I have not considered the possibility of Vancouver's having received
news from England at a later stage of his voyage, though this cannot be
altogether ruled out.
" Of the Navy" definitely points to the younger Sir Harry, for his
uncle never did hold any appointment which would justify his being so
described.
In my opinion the probability is very strong that when Vancouver
wrote " Sir Harry Burrard of the Navy," he referred to the second Baronet;
transferring to the nephew the allegiance he had borne to the uncle as
long as he lived. It does not seem at all necessary to suppose that he
would have named the inlet after the nephew during the lifetime of his
uncle.    Indeed it is more likely that, but for the old friendship for the 1946 Naming of Burrard Inlet. 149
uncle, Vancouver would not have thought of using the name Burrard as a
place name.
Although even this so admirable and authoritative summary
still leaves some uncertainties in existence, I think myself that it
provides the most reasonable and satisfactory solution. The
difficulties are explained, including that of family tradition.
And it is with this that I would end as it was with family tradition that I began.
My grandfather (the late Colonel Sidney Burrard, Grenadier
Guards) was intensely interested in family history and tradition. He was born in 1826, within thirty years of Vancouver's
death, and died in 1893; and my father (the late Colonel Sir
Sidney Burrard, F.R.S.) always assured me that my grandfather was ever insistent that Burrard Inlet was named after
the generation before that of Sir Harry Burrard-Neale. Now
my grandfather was guided by his father and my great-grandfather (the Rev. Sir George Burrard, 3rd Baronet), who was
Sir Harry Burrard-Neale's younger brother and contemporary,
having been born in 1769, and who also knew Vancouver personally.
I do not think that the family tradition handed down thus
should be dismissed lightly. But be that as it may, nothing can
dim the pride of the members of my family in the association
of the name of Burrard with that of Vancouver.
Gerald Burrard.
Wuxow Lodge,
hungerford, berks.,
England. ■—Courtesy City Archives, Vancouver.
Part of the site of down-town Vancouver as it appeared in 1884,
showing " Spratt's Oilery."
—Courtesy City Archives, Vancouver.
Vancouver in 1946. The smallest of the white buildings in the
photograph above still stands in the shadow of the Marine Building
(centre). —Courtesy City Archives, Vancouver.
The arrival of the first through passenger train at Vancouver,
May 23, 1887. The train consisted of engine No. 374, the tender, and
four cars.
—Courtesy City Archives, Vancouver.
Engine No. 374 photographed alongside a present-day Canadian Pacific
locomotive upon its return to Vancouver in August, 1945. VANCOUVER'S EARLIEST DAYS.*
Vancouver, Canada's third largest city, was incorporated on
April 6, 1886, but the foundations of its history go back at least
a quarter of a century earlier. Nor is the story of these first
days lacking in variety, for Greater Vancouver traces its origin
not to a single settlement, but to several small communities that
sprang up on the shores of Burrard Inlet in the sixties and
seventies.
The city bears the name of the first British explorer of the
vicinity. Captain George Vancouver, R.N., of H.M.S. Discovery,
was the British official sent out under the terms of the Nootka
Convention of 1790 between Spain and Great Britain "... to
receive back, in form, a restitution of the territories on which
the Spaniards had seized. . . . "* More important in the opinion
of the navigator-explorer were the instructions to examine the
coast from 30° to 60° north latitude; that is to say, from Lower
California to southern Alaska. Vancouver did not discover the
mouths of the Columbia, the Fraser, and the Skeena rivers, but
his thorough charting of the coast laid to rest a ghost, the
mythical Strait of Anian, which had haunted mariners for generations.   Vancouver's own comment was:—
... I trust the precision with which the survey of the coast of North
West America has been carried into effect, will remove every doubt, and
set aside every opinion of a north-west passage, or any water communication navigable for shipping, existing between the North Pacific, and the
interior of the American continent, within the limits of our researches.
The discovery that no such communication does exist has been zealously
pursued, and with a degree of minuteness far exceeding the letter of my
commission or instructions;   .   .   .2
At long last, the coast must attract attention for its own sake,
and not as a possible channel permitting a short route from
Europe to Asia.
Though maritime fur-traders thronged to the coast, and Fort
Langley was built on the Fraser River for the Hudson's Bay Com-
* The presidential address delivered at the annual meeting of the British
Columbia Historical Association, held in Victoria on January 18, 1946.
(1) Captain George Vancouver, A Voyage of Discovery to the North
Pacific Ocean .  .  ., London, 1798, I., p. x.
(2) Ibid., III., pp. 294-5.
British Columbia Historical Quarterly. Vol. X., No. II.
151 152 Helen R. Boutilier. April
pany in 1827, it was not until the days of the gold-rush that any
great attention was paid to what is now the site of the City of
' Vancouver. It was a coal deposit that first aroused serious interest in the Inlet. In June, 1859, Captain G. H. Richards, of
H.M. Surveying Ship Plumper, which had been sent to examine
the mouth of the Fraser River and Burrard Inlet, reported that
members of his crew, under Mr. Brockton, had taken coal from
seams on the south shore of the Inlet and that it had proved to
be of good quality. Richards sent the cutter Shark, with 2 tons
of the coal, to Governor Douglas in Victoria to substantiate his
report. Later in the summer Walter Moberly and Robert Burnaby headed a party that set out from New Westminster to
explore the coast and to examine the coal deposits. Word of
Indian troubles reached the officials, and it was feared that the
party would come to harm. The rumours proved false, but once
more the Plumper visited the Inlet, and Moberly, years later,
told of the pleasant party which followed her arrival. He
wrote:—
They [the sailors] landed, as we had done, at the foot of what is now Bute
street, and later brought a keg ashore. Then we lit a roaring fire of logs
as night came on, and our party and the English sailors spent one of the
jolliest nights I remember. Many rollicking old sea songs were sung and
many a toast was drunk.s
Unfortunately the several seams which they found on the shore,
both above and below high water, at " Coal Harbour," so named
by Captain Richards, were all under a foot thick.
Interest in Burrard Inlet at that time was largely confined
to its use as a defence for New Westminster, the capital of the
mainland colony of British Columbia, and as a " backdoor " entrance and exit for that city when the Fraser River was frozen.
In 1859 Colonel R. C. Moody planned a trail, to be cut by the
Royal Engineers, from the capital to the anchorage at Port
Moody, and another to be opened up by civilians to False Creek
and along the shore to the English Bay anchorage. The first
went straight north, and is now the North Road to Barnet. The
second was to follow a route approximately the same as the
present Douglas Road via Burnaby Lake.
(3) Noel Robinson, Blazing the Trail Through the Rockies: The Story
of Walter Moberly and his Share in the Making of Vancouver [Vancouver,
1916], p. 24. 1946 Vancouver's Earliest Days. 153
In January, 1860, settlement on Burrard Inlet began, following Governor Douglas's proclamation of the first land laws of
the colony. Robert Burnaby, Moody's secretary, filed the first
known pre-emption claim on the site of the future city for a
location, the present " West End," on the east side of the
" Government Reserve," now Stanley Park. Included in the
claim was District Lot 185, subsequently pre-empted by John
Morton, Sam Brighouse, and William Hailstone, and surveyed
by the Royal Engineers in February and March, 1863, and by
them marked " Brickmaker's Claim." In 1862 plans were laid
for the erection of a sawmill on the north shore of the Inlet, but
the Pioneer Mills did not actually start operations until the following June. In August, 1863, the steamer Flying Dutchman
took the first cargo of 3-inch planking from Burrard Inlet for
the New Westminster river levee. The first " foreign trade "
lumber shipment was made in November, 1864, when the Ellen
Lewis took a cargo from the Burrard Inlet mills to Adelaide,
Australia.
The year 1865 marked the appearance of certain names which
later became well-known. The clearing on the North Shore
became Moody's Mill, later Moodyville, honouring Sewell Pres-
cott Moody, who had acquired the Burrard Inlet mills in December, 1864. Oliver Hocking opened a stopping-place at the " End
of the Road " from New Westminster. Captain Edward Stamp
founded the British Columbia and Vancouver Island Spar,
Lumber, and Sawmill Company, or, to give it the names by which
it is better known, Stamp's Mill and, later, Hastings Mill, at the
foot of the present Dunlevy Avenue. Jeremiah Rogers set up
his famous " spar camp " at " Jerry's Cove," now Jericho, from
which the Admiralty was supplied with spars. Rev. Ebenezer
Robson held the first divine services for the mill-workers. Forty
years later the pioneer missionary described his trip to Burrard
Inlet in this manner:—
On Sunday, July 30th, 1865, after holding Class Meeting at 10 and preaching at 11 a.m. in New Westminster (where I then resided), I snatched a
hasty lunch and mounting Wm. Grieves' clumsy cart horse, turned her nose
toward the north for my first service on what is now the site of Vancouver
city. The Scott road [meaning the Douglas Road, which had been built in
part by " Colonel" J. T. Scott] from Columbia street, New Westminster,
to the shore of Burrard Inlet at what is now called Hastings, was nine 154 Helen R. Boutilier. April
miles less three chains in length. There was not much width to it, as it
was but a roughly constructed trail. But the cart-horse was a good
rougher. As my time was limited I could not afford to let him walk;
trotting was hard on the rider and so I urged him to a lope with the result
that he stumbled and went down with violence, head on, scraping a patch
of skin off his brow and piling himself and rider in a heap in the dirt;
then rolling over upon me, rubbed me in the mud. Objecting to that form
of spreading the Gospel, I got from under and, righting myself and the
bronco, climbed aboard once more and put him to his best trot.   .   .    .4
Even after reaching Hastings a rough 3-mile trip had to be made
in an Indian " dug-out" to Hastings Mill, where the service was
held.
The text was I Tim. 4:8 "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having
the promise of this world and of that which is to come," from which I tried
to show the boys how to make the most of both worlds. I had a poor time
of it . . . and I suspect the boys also had, for they gave me no collection,
though the trip cost me three dollars in cash, besides some blisters and
bruises.6
The year which marked the union of the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia—1866—also witnessed the end
of Victoria's monopoly of pilotage on the Inlet. Until this time
the sailing vessels seeking cargoes were dependent upon tugs
from the Island. On July 28, 1866, the steamer Isabel was
launched in Victoria for Stamp's mill. She was the " first owned
by any sawmill on the mainland. . . . She was a side-wheel
vessel, 146 feet long, 24 feet beam, and 9 feet hold. . . ."6 An
example of her services to the mill company and its customers
(4) Originally published in Western Recorder, May, 1905, republished
in " Jubilee Glimpses of Our Church History," Western Recorder, Vancouver, July, 1936, pp. 3-4.
(5) Ibid, p. 4.
(6) F. W. Howay, " Early Shipping on Burrard Inlet," British Columbia Historical Quarterly, I. (1937), p. 10. These figures appeared in
the account of the launch of this vessel in the Victoria Colonist, July 30,
1866. The Register of Ships, Port of Victoria, 1867-1880, in the Provincial
Archives gives the following details: " Length from the forepart of the
Stem under the Bowsprit to the aft side at the Head of the Sternpost 142
feet 4 tenths Main breadth to outside of Plank 22 feet 6 tenths Depth
in Hold from Tonnage Deck to Ceiling at midships nine feet one tenth "
and reports she was built " for transactions by the British Columbia and
Vancouver Isld. Spar Lumber and Saw Mill Company Limited." An interesting incident relating to the activities of the Isabel is given in F. W.
Howay, " The Case of the Moneta," British Columbia Historical Quarterly,
V. (1941), pp. 185-90. 1946 Vancouver's Earliest Days. 155
may be shown by reference to the barque Jessie Stowe, which was
in port at Hastings Mill in October, 1871. Towage charges from
Victoria to Burrard Inlet were $180, and pilotage $40. The outward trip, en route to Valparaiso with lumber valued at $7,925,
was made about two months later, and the charges were towage
$220 and pilotage $65.
While Eastern Canada in 1867 was celebrating the achievement of Confederation, activity was growing on Burrard Inlet.
In June, Stamp's Mill made its first cut, and the next month
W. R. Lewis, a hotel proprietor of New Westminster, established
a semi-weekly stage service to " Brighton," now Hastings, by
way of Douglas Road, and in October a daily stage was instituted.
The tiny steamer Sea Foam gave ferry service between Moodyville and Stamp's Mill. Her captain, James Van Brenner,7 was
engaged in marine business on the Fraser River in 1866. He
subsequently purchased the steamer Chinaman, and then constructed the LiUie, using the machinery from the Sea Foam.
In 1876 he built the Leonora, a 15-horse-power screw vessel,
which, with the Senator built in 1880 and the tug Skidegate,
became the nucleus of the Union Steamship fleet. The year 1867
also marked the arrival of that colourful character whose nickname of " Gassy Jack " caused a spot on Burrard Inlet to be
called " Gastown," even on such official records as Admiralty
Charts.
Captain John Deighton was born in Hull, Yorkshire, in 1830.
According to his own story, " The November night when he was
born it blew like on the North Sea, and he caught enough
wind to toot his own horn."8 He was a sailor, who tried his
fortune at gold-mining in both California and British Columbia.
In the south he had a measure of luck in finding gold, but was
not entirely successful in its disposal. In the Fraser River rush
his ability at entertainment and as a river pilot far outweighed
his success in securing nuggets. For a time he was associated
with the Globe Saloon in New Westminster, but his claim to a
place in Vancouver's history rests upon Deighton House.   This
(7) In records of the Hastings Mill the name is spelled " Vanbramer,"
and in the Mercantile Navy List it appears as " Braener."
(8) " Gasey [sic] Jack." The Eccentric Character who gave Granville
the name of " Gastown." By an " Ancient Mariner," in Vancouver News,
September 14, 15, 1886.    Signed Whyawhy. 156 Helen R. Boutilier. April
hotel, complete with saloon, stood at the junction of the present
Water and Carrall streets, in a beautiful little Indian clearing
known in the Squamish tongue as " Luck-lucky," i.e., " beautiful
grove." Deighton is usually remembered as a rather blustering,
kindly soul, who did his good deeds without thought of reward.
On his death in June, 1875, the Victoria Colonist referred to him
as " an energetic, useful, citizen."9
By 1868 the Burrard Inlet community had taken the form it
was to maintain for some years. Its life centered around two
sawmills, Moody's on the North Shore and Stamp's on the South,
with Jerry Rogers sending spars from Jericho. In November
the subdivision of Hastings, named after Captain (later Rear-
Admiral) the Hon. George Fowler Hastings, C.B., commander of
the North Pacific Squadron, was surveyed by B. W. Pearce.
Actually, the location was not new, for it had been known at
different periods of its history as " Hocking's," " Brighton," and
"The End of the Road." Later still "Hastings," bestowed
officially in 1869, was to give way to the less formal " Maxie's,"
after Maximillien Michaud, who conducted a hostelry, and who
on May 15, 1869, was gazetted as postmaster at New Brighton.
The following year interesting events were of a different
type, " more cultured " perhaps. Mount Herman Lodge, of the
Masonic Order, was organized at Moody's Mills. A meeting
room and library for mill employees was opened at Hastings
Mill. At first this was known as the London Institute, but the
name was soon changed to the Hastings Literary Institute.
Telegraphic communication was established between Hastings
and New Westminster, and Governor Musgrave visited Burrard
Inlet.
March 1, 1870, witnessed the birth of " Granville." The
town was surveyed, named after the Secretary of State for
Colonies, and officially proclaimed to exist. Its approximate
boundaries were Carrall Street, Cambie Street, Hastings Street,
and the Inlet, although actually the modern Water Street marks
what was then the shore-line. In April there was the first sale
of town lots, with purchases being made by the " squatters "
(9) Victoria Colonist, June 10, 1875. An obituary notice appeared in
New Westminster Mainland Guardian, June 9, 1875. See also ibid., June
12, 1875. 1946 Vancouver's Earliest Days. 157
who were already occupying certain properties. Moodyville
opened its first school in July, and began the seemingly incessant'
search for a teacher—incumbents soon forsaking the desk for
the kitchen. In the same year the name " Hastings Mill" became official.
Once British Columbia entered Confederation in 1871, and
construction of a railway to the Pacific was assured, the one
question heard everywhere was " Where will the terminus be? "
Actually there was little apparent change in the colony for some
time. In 1872 there were three post-offices on Burrard Inlet—
Hastings, Moodyville, and Hastings Mill. The mails were
brought daily from New Westminster to Hastings by stage, and
were taken by boat to the other two offices. Canadian postage
came into general use, and the Canadian flag was raised over
Deighton House on April 24. The first bridge was opened over
False Creek, so that travellers on the False Creek Road to New
Westminster and the new road down the southern slope to the
North Arm of the Fraser no longer had to cross False Creek
in a canoe and swim their horses. But George Black, the butcher
who brought cattle to his slaughter-house on False Creek, still
had to drive the animals through the water, as the bridge was
not always secure enough for such traffic. On December 20,
1871, a start was made to organize a school district, and thanks
to the energy of Captain Raymur a school-house was erected and
classes were in operation by the end of February, 1872.
By 1873 the population of Granville was sixty-five, with many
languages being spoken by the mill-workers. Indians employed
at the mills lived at the rancherie, also known as " the Mission,"
in what is now North Vancouver. Rev. James Turner, the
Methodist missionary whose field extended from the American
border to the North Pole, and from the Coast to the Prairies,
established his parsonage in Granville. Raymur continued his
campaign to improve conditions in the town, and published a
notice in the Mainland Guardian to the effect that he would
oppose the granting of a licence to any Burrard Inlet houses
open after 12 p.m., or where cards were played on Sunday.10
(10) New Westminster Mainland Guardian, August 9, 1873. The
advertisement was signed J. A. Raymur, J.P., C M. Chambers, J.P., and
J. Rogers, J.P. 158 Helen R. Boutilier. April
The first steamer of which there is definite reference was
built on the Inlet in 1873, for James A. Raymur. She was the
Maggie, a wooden vessel, 72 feet long, 16 feet wide, and 4.5 feet
depth. Her engines were 20 horse-power and her gross tonnage
72.11 Less conventional, but nonetheless useful, was the creation known as the Union, or, more popularly, the Sudden Jerk.
The craft was a square-built scow, powered by a threshing-
engine, the side-wheels being connected by chain-gearing. Landings and departures were difficult, being manceuvered by a pike-
pole and a long sweep, as the engine was not provided with reverse gear. The Union had several well-known masters, among
them George Marchant, George Odin, and Asbury Insley. Her
last days were spent in the service of the Moodyville Mill Company, " who operated her until she became so tender that it was
customary to put a stout chain around the engine and attach a
line and buoy, so that it might be located if it should happen to
drop through the bottom while making a trip."12
A second False Creek bridge was built because teredos had
destroyed the first. Moody's steam mill was destroyed by fire in
December, but reconstruction was speeded, and by May, 1874,
operations were in full swing, and a night shift was working to
make up for lost time.
These were dark days for the Inlet, as they were for the whole
Province. The railway project was not popular in Ottawa, and
British Columbia was decidedly " agin the government." In
1874 Joseph Mannion, soon nicknamed "the Mayor of Granville," opened the Granville Hotel. Visitors to the Inlet commented upon the activity of the mills and the fact that workmen
of all nationalities were to be found there. However, Indian
residents still formed such a large proportion of the community
that visitors considered their headquarters worthy of description.    One traveller remarked:—
The houses of the aborigines are the most complete ' whited sepulchres ' one
can imagine.   The fronts, facing the harbour, are generally clean-looking
(11) The Mercantile Navy List and Maritime Directory for 1886, London [1886], p. 115.
(12) E. W. Wright (ed.), Lewis and Dryden's Marine History of the
Pacific Nprthwest, Portland, Oregon, 1895, p. 209. 1946 Vancouver's Earliest Days. 159
and well whitewashed;  but the backs, the sides, and the interiors are filthy
beyond description.1*
Travellers, however, failed to record the family life of the
community. There was a growing settlement in which the comforts of life were not forgotten. The dignified ladies of Burrard
Inlet were just as interested in fine clothes as their sisters anywhere in the world. Their cottage-style homes, consisting of
parlour, dining-room, kitchen, and bedrooms, frequently contained furniture brought from England, and while Hastings Mill
Store could provide practically everything needed from the
cradle to the grave it was customary to buy " best clothes " in
New Westminster or the capital city. There was no want of
social activity. Parties were held in the reading-rooms and
dramatics and musicals took place in the mill cook-house. Hospitality was freely given and strangers were well received.
Ships visiting the Inlet reciprocated the kindness, and there were
many happy dinners held aboard. On the occasion of the visit
of the flagship of the Pacific Squadron in the 'seventies, a ball
was held, to which the ladies of the Inlet and New Westminster
were invited.
In 1875 both " Gassy Jack " and " Sue " Moody, two very
different characters who figured so prominently in the early
days on the Inlet, passed away. Deighton had returned to his
" House" after spending some time piloting steamers on the
Fraser River, and it was there that he died, but Moody was
drowned in the sinking of the steamer Pacific off Cape Flattery.
The first church was built by the Indians for the Methodists
under the pastorate of Rev. Thomas Derrick, who had succeeded
Rev. James Turner. The latter, because of his enormous field
of operations, had been known as the " Minister of the Interior,"
and the new incumbent's name immediately suggested " Old
Hoisting Gear " to the fun-loving populace of Granville. The
church was erected through the combined efforts of representatives of many denominations on what is now Water Street, just
east of Abbott. Steps led from the Indian Church, as it was
known, down to the beach, where canoes could be tied to the steps
during the service.
(13) J. W. Boddam-Whetham, Western Wanderings, London, 1874, p.
300. 160 Helen R. Boutilier. April
In 1877 the road between Granville and Hastings was completed and Lewis extended his stage route to Gastown.
The railway problem was still at a standstill, and cries of
" secession " were heard in 1878. Prime Minister Mackenzie's
statement of May 23, cancelling the selection of Esquimalt as a
terminus and his choice of Burrard Inlet on July 12 did little
to comfort Island residents. Probably Burrard Inlet inhabitants
were not quite so glum, but even they welcomed the return of
Sir John A. Macdonald to office, although he did hesitate for a
time to confirm his predecessor's choice. The Moodyville Tickler, the Pioneer Advocate of Burrard's Inlet, made its appearance
on July 20. Readers of this Quarterly probably recall the colourful stories of the lumber-clerk-editor and his jokes about obituary
notices, with depth of black column dependent upon monetary
considerations.14
In 1881 one of the best-known churches in Vancouver was
opened—St. James Anglican—with Rev. George Ditcham as
rector. In the same year Spratt's oilery made its appearance.
Joseph Spratt, formerly of the Albion Iron Works in Victoria,
acquired a small business which had been started by Andrew
Rusta on the shore-line west of the present Marine Building.
Herring were plentiful in the inlet, and a lucrative trade in salted
fish and fish-oil was carried on.
In the next year, 1882, Morton and Brighouse divided part of
their land into town lots, and filed a ground plan of the " City of
Liverpool " with the Registrar-General in Victoria. This city
covered the area now bounded by Burrard and Nicola streets,
between Coal Harbour and Georgia Street. The mills were still
the most important factor in the life of the community, but
other interests were beginning to creep in.
The year 1883 belongs to Port Moody. Steel rails arrived,
and the first locomotive landed in October. Lots were offered
at $1,500 to $2,000, and a newspaper, the Port Moody Gazette,
was established. The paper was an offshoot of the New Westminster Mainland Guardian, but it boasted it would soon have an
independent existence.    The  Admiralty made  a  final  hydro-
(14) See Bessie Lamb, "From 'Tickler' to 'Telegram'; Notes on
Early Vancouver Newspapers," British Columbia Historical Quarterly, IX.
(1945), pp. 175-199. 1946    . Vancouver's Earliest Days. 161
graphic survey of the Inlet, in preparation for the traffic which
would follow the meeting of rail and sail.
The hey-day of Port Moody was short-lived, and with its
decline fortunes, real and imaginary, took wing. While the
official terminus remains to this day at Port Moody, Coal Harbour and English Bay were selected as the actual terminus of
the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1884. The President of the
railway, W. C. (later Sir William) Van Horne, was responsible
for the changing of the name from " Granville " to " Vancouver." He desired a name which would have some meaning in
all parts of the world, and stoutly defended his choice in the face
of opposition from Vancouver Island, where it was felt confusion
would result if city and island bore the same name. Some of
the local residents shared this opinion. Years later R. H. Alexander, who in 1884 was manager of the Hastings Mill, recalled
the circumstances in an address to the Vancouver Canadian
Club:—
When the question first arose the old residents naturally thought the old
name good enough, but Sir William Van Horne used all his influence with
us for the name of Vancouver; but we said, " This is the Mainland; we
don't want to be confounded with Vancouver Island." " Never mind," he
said, " if you call it Granville or Liverpool, or any other name, it conveys
no idea of location." Now people will remember that at school in their
atlases they saw an island called Vancouver away up at the left-hand corner
of North America, and though they may to some extent confound the city
that is to be with the island, still it gives them a notion of where abouts
in the world it is, and so it was named Vancouver^
(15) R. H. Alexander, " Reminiscences of the Early Days of British
Columbia," Canadian Club, Vancouver, Addresses and Proceedings, 1910-
11, p. 16. The late L. A. Hamilton, who met Van Horne at Granville in
1884, recalled discussing the new name with him, and according to his
recollection Van Horne expressed himself somewhat as follows: " Hamilton!
This is destined to be a great city; perhaps the greatest in Canada. We
must see to it that it has a name commensurate with its dignity and importance, and ' Vancouver' it shall be if I have the ultimate decision.'.'
See the letter from Hamilton to Major J. S. Matthews, Vancouver City
Archivist, dated Kissimmee, Florida, April 30, 1934. One of the earliest
appearances of the new name in print will be found in the September, 1884,
issue of The West Shore, an illustrated journal then published in Portland,
Oregon. A note in the Montreal Star, December 18, 1884, states: " The
name of Vancouver has been chosen by Van Horne for the terminus of Coal
Harbour on Burrard Inlet." 162 Helen R. Boutilier. .   April
The new terminus did not achieve its importance without a
struggle, but on Christmas Day, 1884, the first Canadian Pacific
survey stake was driven in at the eastern boundary of Gastown.
L. A. Hamilton, the railway's Land Commissioner, drove a stake
where Hastings and Hamilton streets now meet, and used it as a
departure post for his survey of the townsite.
The promise of the railway caused considerable activity in
Granville. The number of buildings increased rapidly, and so
did the aspirations of the inhabitants. The first newspaper, the
Vancouver Weekly Herald and North Pacific News, appeared on
Friday, January 15, 1886. In that issue there appeared the
following notice:—
At a public meeting held here on Friday evening last a committee was
appointed to draw up an act of incorporation for the City of Vancouver.
The names are Messrs. Ferguson, Black, Hamilton, Miller, Blake and
Johnston.
On February 15 a petition, signed by one hundred and twenty-
five residents, was presented to the Provincial Legislature, praying for the incorporation of " the present village of Granville
with its vicinity " as the " City of Vancouver."16 It was the
extension of the railway and the consequent increase in population which necessitated the construction of roads and wharves
and increased facilities for the preservation of law and order.
The Act of Incorporation received its third reading on April 2,
and became law on April 6, 1886: the " village of Granville "
officially became the " City of Vancouver."
Voting qualifications for civic elections were very vague. In
a city where such a large proportion of the inhabitants were new
arrivals it was always difficult to establish the residence qualification demanded of voters. For the elections for mayor and council on May 3, any man who had been resident in the city for
two weeks was considered eligible.17   This caused doubts later,
(16) The original petition was presented to the City of Vancouver in an
interesting ceremony held in the City Hall, March 13, 1944. Henry Blair,
whose signature appears on the petition, is still resident in Vancouver
(March 8, 1946).
(17) At least seven of those who voted at the first election are still
alive: W. D. Haywood, V. Wallace Haywood, Calvert Simson, and James
Myers resident in Vancouver; Chris. L. Behnsen in North Vancouver;
Henry J. Newton at Port Hammond; and Allan K. Stuart at Hope.
(March 9, 1946.) 1946 Vancouver's Earliest Days. 163
and there was an attempt to unseat the successful mayoralty
candidate.
The first meeting of the City Council was held on May 10, and
in his inaugural address Mayor M. A. MacLean outlined the
business with which it had to deal. His speech, reprinted in the
Vancouver Advertiser, expressed the views of the whole community :—
We commence to-day to organize rules, laws and regulations to lay the
foundation of a city which is destined at no distant day to take a prominent
place amongst the most progressive cities of Eastern Canada as well as
those of the Western coast, and I venture to say that before many years
will pass we will take our stand in the front for the province of British
Columbia, and second only to San Francisco on the Pacific coasts
He outlined the officers to be appointed, but there was one official
for whom there was no immediate need. As for the City
Treasurer, he said: "I don't see any particular hurry for this
appointment, having no cash to deposit in his hands."19
The Advertiser kept its readers informed of local happenings.
In the issue of May 11 it announced that the New Westminster
& Burrard Inlet Telephone Company was erecting poles on
different streets preparatory to placing instruments in the leading establishments. The first Presbyterian Church was opened
for divine service on a Sabbath, May 16, and arrangements were
made for a tea meeting and concert on the Monday—tea to be
provided in the tent adjoining the church. The building was at
the junction of a lane running between Cordova and Hastings
streets, a half block west of Main Street. This congregation
has been called " First," although Richmond—the " North Arm"
—is regarded as the mother church of Presbyterianism in Vancouver, and the organization on the inlet was originally a mission
under Richmond's direction. Later in May a meeting was held
in the C.P.R. Hotel20 to organize a Caledonian Club, but the
" absence of certain important personages interested " caused
the meeting to be adjourned to a later date.21    On June 2 one
(18) Vancouver Advertiser, May 11, 1886. This paper (the first daily
on the mainland of British Columbia) made its initial appearance on May
8, 1886.
(19) Ibid., May 11, 1886.
(20) The " C.P.R. Hotel" was owned by Macpherson, and is not to be
confused with hotels erected by the railway company.
(21) Vancouver Advertiser, May 25, 1886. 164 • Helen R. Boutilier. April
of the landmarks of the community was enclosed with a picket
fence—the maple tree which had stood in front of Deighton
House.22 According to the press, " The seat formerly located in
the shade under the old landmark was becoming too popular with
loafers."28
There was a column in the Advertiser entitled " City News—
Our Daily Local Grist of Interesting Items in and About Town."
The editor, W. B. Macdougall, son of the Hon. William Macdougall, had a happy faculty of combining weather reports, local
doings, and subscription reminders with suggestions of where
and how to spend one's time. It was probably mere coincidence
that following several rainy days, the Saturday edition contained
these two lines, appearing consecutively:—
Weather sublime.
Go to church to-morrow.24
Our modern business managers would be inclined to regard such
a note as this as free advertising:—
An Alexander Street butcher, with a basket full of choice steaks, etc., was
thrown from his horse this morning, to the detriment of the meat and his
own discomfiture.25
Treasurers who have difficulty with absent-minded members
might try Macdougall's method. He reminded his readers in a
rather unusual manner that he wished his eight dollars subscription fee paid promptly:—
Pay up your subscriptions. We would sooner take a whipping than dun a
man, but we don't always wait to get our choice.26
Vancouver was well on its way. Plans were being made for
a Dominion Day celebration, and clearing of lots went on steadily.
Then, on Sunday, June 13, came the fire, which in a matter of
minutes spread from a slash-pile on the Canadian Pacific town-
site to Hastings Mill, and from the Inlet to False Creek. Physically, the new city was doomed, but the survivors settled down
to a job not only of rebuilding but improving what they confidently believed was destined to be a great metropolis.    Help
(22) At this time the hostelry was owned by Harry Chase.
(23) Vancouver Advertiser, June 3, 1886.
(24) Ibid., May 29,1886.
(25) Ibid., May 12,1886.
(26) Ibid., May 25,1886. 1946 Vancouver's Earliest Days. 165
came from many quarters, and homes and business buildings
soon replaced those which had been destroyed.
Just six weeks after the fire, Stuart Cumberland, who was
commissioned by a syndicate of Australasian, Indian, and
English newspapers to give a description of the country, had this
to say:—
I never saw such enterprise amidst so much desolation. . . . the air was
thick with smoke, and hot with flames. . . . Everywhere I saw signs of
enterprise. ' The old hath gone; let the new arise,' seemed to be the motto
of the people, who, instead of falling into lethargy or bemoaning their
fate, were one and all bestirring themselves with an energy and a spirit
that was little short of heroic.27
Mayor MacLean seemed tireless. He was a veritable " Pooh
Bah," but every office entailed hard work, and, apart from the
position of chief magistrate, none of them carried any remuneration. This was the period of the " tents." The picture of the
City Fathers grouped before the improvised City Hall is well
known, but the activities carried on in the tent Court-house seem
to have attracted less notice. Cumberland has this to say of the
law-abiding qualities of the community:—
Considering the disorder, want, and despair consequent upon the conflagration, there was very little to complain of on the score of lawlessness,
offences against the majesty of the law being almost entirely confined to
petty larcenies.28
The great majority of those who came to the city were adventurous young people anxious to succeed, but there were the
occasional visitors who preferred to take life easy. Readers of
Ernest Walter's column, " Before the Magistrate," in the Vancouver Province will appreciate the method of dealing with
habitual loafers. A visitor asked the authorities why such an
one would work for sixty days for the municipality when there
were plenty of jobs available at a dollar a day. The answer
was:—
" You see, whilst he is in our charge he will be well fed and housed, and
when his time is up we shall give him a suit of clothes, a flannel shirt,
and may be a few dollars, and march him out of the town—for we don't
want any such ' dead-beats ' hanging about here for ever. The fellow just
figures all this out, and, by the time he has done, he reckons the deal is
•   (27)  Stuart Cumberland, The Queen's Highway From Ocean to Ocean,
London, 1887, pp. 51-2.
(28) Ibid., p. 57. 166 ' Helen R. Boutilier. April
about square, and after a few weeks' loafing he gives another municipality
the benefit of his company."2'
It must have been a welcome change for a slow-moving individual
who found himself in all the hustle and bustle of a city which
seemed determined to grow up all at once.
George H. Ham, special correspondent of the Winnipeg Mani-
toban, visited the city early in July, and his letters, reprinted in
the Vancouver News, July 27, 1886, should surely have satisfied
the most ambitious resident of the terminal city. He suggested
that the magic of the city's rebirth rivalled the achievements of
Aladdin. His report summarized the activities of six months in
this manner:—
In February last there were only a few scattered houses on the site of
Vancouver; in April there were a hundred, at the end of May this had
increased to between five and six hundred; on the night of the 13th June,
a bare dozen marked the spot where that morning a prosperous city existed.
That is the story of the rise and fall of Vancouver. Ever onward, ever
upward, this Chicago of the coast, this Winnipeg of the west, must
eventually take her place amongst the great cities of the world.so
Vancouver would certainly have been a queer looking place or
one of the wonders of the world, if it had resembled every place
to which it was compared.
One of the old landmarks came in for critical comment during
1886. The fish-supply in the Inlet had declined, and supplies
were brought in by scow to Spratt's wharf for the manufacture
of fertilizer. Neighbours protested that the health of citizens
was endangered because the cargo was not promptly disposed of.
The editor of the News left nothing to the imagination when he
wrote:—
At present the smell reminds one of a glue factory, and we should think in
a fortnight the odor will be strong enough to stop every clock in town.31
Fire solved the problem, for the oil-refinery was burned out
on August 11."
The shortage of small change created a real problem. " Old
inhabitants"   were  satisfied   with   " bits,"32  but   newcomers,
(29) Ibid.,p. 62.
(30) Letter dated July 10, 1886, in Vancouver News, July 27, 1886.
(31) Ibid., August 4,1886.
(32) For a discussion of the subject, readers are referred to Robie L.
Reid, "Why 'Bits'?" British Columbia Historical Quarterly, IV. (1940),
pp. 21-28. 1946 Vancouver's Earliest Days. 167
particularly those from eastern Canada, were accustomed to
small coins. The newspapers were 5 cents each—if one had the
change, and judging from comments, the newsboys frequently
contrived to receive a much larger amount. It was competition
created by a saloon offering 5-cent beer that really brought the
problem to a head. A New Westminster saloon keeper sent to
Winnipeg and had $100 in 5-cent pieces shipped out at a cost of
$1.80. A Vancouver storekeeper had $10 in the nickel coin
brought from Washington Territory, and paid the captain of a
Seattle steamer $1 for the service.33
The London Times correspondent who visited the city in September estimated that the population was 1,500, and reported
that the city seemed to be composed largely of hotels and real-
estate offices. Timber stands attracted him, and provided him
with a basis of comparison. The Chief of Police, James M.
Stewart, was described as a " Highland-man of massive build,
constructed to rival the big trees of this region," and the ambition of the " Terminal City " was " as big as her trees."34
On Sunday, July 4, 1886, the first Canadian Pacific transcontinental passenger train arrived at Port Moody. To celebrate the event, excursions were run from Victoria, Nanaimo,
and New Westminster to Port Moody. Mayor MacLean, of
Vancouver, presented an address of welcome, but in spite of the
rejoicing there was one question uppermost in the minds of the
citizens whom he represented: " How soon will Port Moody
give up the struggle, and let the line be continued to its logical
terminus?" Even with the general optimism of the period, the
first regular issue of the Vancouver News to appear after the
fire, made this comment:—
.... Vancouver has shown to the world its strength and its resources;
but the magnitude of them will not be thoroughly grasped until we hear the
echo of the locomotive's shriek reverberating through the near-by mountains,
and enjoy the grand sight of the greatest railway of the world reaching
this city.36
The decision of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, July
23, 1886, that the Canadian Pacific must be allowed its right-of-
(33) See Vancouver News, August 6, 1886.
(34) A Canadian Tour:  a Reprint of Letters from the Special Correspondent of the Times, London, 1886, p. 44.
(35) Vancouver News, July 23, 1886. 168 Helen R. Boutilier. April
way from Port Moody to Vancouver, was hot considered final,
and the case was carried to a higher court. Port Moody was the
terminus of the barque W. B. Flint, which the railroad company
had chartered to bring tea and Oriental goods for shipment east
over the new railway. The cargo reached the eastern coast and
England in record time, and was the beginning of the service
which advertised that the Canadian Pacific " spans the world."
Considerable delay was caused by the persistency of investors
who had gambled on Port Moody for the terminus. The case was
carried to the Supreme Court of Canada, and the delays so
exasperated Van Horne that he finally declared he would bring
the train to Vancouver, even if he had to make a way around the
intervening property by building a trestle. It would have been
only 2% miles long! It was really just a question of time before
some provision would be made, because speed in handling the
shipments from the Orient demanded less waste of time in
Burrard Inlet.
Meanwhile the young city continued to expand. Property
was increasing in value, the civic services were becoming established, the policemen—four of them—had badges, school accommodation was being enlarged, but then, as now, never quite
seemed to meet the demands made upon it.
Before the injunction was formally lifted, the Canadian
Pacific Railway had practically completed construction of track
into the city. Work was speeded, and on May 23, 1887, the first
train, drawn by the now famous engine 374, pulled into Vancouver. It was an historic day. Train schedules had appeared
in the newspapers for several days previously, but the headline
of May 24 summarizes the popular view on the subject:—
Regular Train Service Adopted—Advent of Prosperity.36
The coming of the railway really did inaugurate a period of
development for Vancouver. In 1887 a Board of Trade was
organized with David Oppenheimer, who had succeeded M. A.
MacLean as Mayor, as president. There was a real-estate board,
and branches of various national societies and athletic clubs had
been established. By 1888 business property was selling at from
$100 to $200 per foot of frontage; there were 20 miles of graded
streets, of which 5^ miles were planked, and 1 mile gravelled;
(36) Vancouver News-Advertiser, May 24, 1887. 1946 Vancouver's Earliest Days. 169
there were 9 miles of sidewalk. Both gas and electricity were
used for illumination, and there were four banks, three newspapers, and a reading-room to minister to the needs of the
community.
Visitors to the city during the early years had many comments, both laudatory and critical, to make on the conditions
which they found. One writer—possibly rather prejudiced because of the trade which he hoped would follow his comment—
declared that the Hotel Vancouver was a magnificent structure,
elegantly furnished throughout, and rivalled the large hotels of
San Francisco.    Then he added:—
There are other fine hotels in the city—in fact, no place is better supplied
with them.3''
Unfortunately for Vancouver's reputation as a tourist centre,
not all visitors were so favourably impressed. Perhaps one's
background coloured the glasses through which one viewed the
picture, and those of some English travellers must have been
deep blue. Edward Roper, a number of whose original water-
colours are preserved in the Vancouver Public Library, described
the city's rapid recovery after the fire:—
Wharves, docks, warehouses, foundries, factories, public institutions, had
been built, and first-rate stores, many hotels. . . .88
He considered the hotels very far from " first rate," and although
his descriptions were not complimentary, they are amusing to
those who are accustomed to the habits of a pioneering community. A conversation with a hotel clerk ran something like
this:—
We said, " What do you do about blacking boots here?"
He looked at us pityingly, then he replied slowly, " Gentlemen, Mrs.
Black (the proprietress) she allows to make this yer bizness pay, she
does, and she calkerlates to have a heap of towerists stay here right along,
when the China ships is in, and when the people from the East and
Eurrop gets to taking a tower by this rout; an' she ses she's bound to do
all she can to make things pleasant. But, gentlemen, it's no use talkin',
we ain't got no man low enough down in this yer city to black n6 man's
boots;  guess it ain't to be done nohow."8»
(37) The New West, Winnipeg, 1888, p. 177.
(38) Edward Roper, By Track and Trail;  A Journey through Canada,
London, 1891, p. 292.
(39) Ibid.,  pp. 186-7. 170 " Helen R. Boutilier.
Of his party's departure from the establishment, Roper wrote:—
We could not much regret the Le Grand House, the manager of which did
not even shake hands all round at parting. Mrs. Black, the proprietess
[sic], did not speak one word to any of us during all our stay. We paid
our bills and left; no one but the Scotch bar-tender having the decency to
offer to help us get our trunks down from our rooms. He kindly gave a
hand. . .  .*»
Added to the neglect with which travellers were treated was
the great familarity with which they were prevailed upon to
part with their clothes which attracted hotel employees. The
manager of one hotel finally persuaded a guest to sell him a coat
for $25, the whole suit having been purchased for less than half
the price a considerable time previously. Service may have
left much to be desired, but Vancouver hotelmen wanted to be
in style!
Not all visitors were so critical. There was much in the
young city to admire, and Douglas Sladen has left a fitting
description of the terminal city as he found it in 1889:—
Vancouver in 1889 presented curious contrasts. Take Granville Street,
for instance, in which we were living. One end led to the docks, with 3,000-
ton steamers lying in them, and the terminus of a transcontinental railway; the other left you at the end of a bridge which led to the forest, and,
sifter miles of mud, to New Westminster. . . . The extraordinary thing
about Vancouver is that in the midst of all this wildness it is so absolutely
modern; no one would think of putting up a house without a telephone
and electric light.4i
The population at the time of Roper's visit was 6,085.42 On
January 1,1886, it had been 600, a year later 2,000, The official
census for 1891 was 13,709. This was still a far cry from the
1945 estimate of 311,799, but nonetheless Vancouver was on its
way!
Helen R. Boutilier.
Vancouver, B.C.
(40) Jotd.,p.294.
(41) Douglas Sladen, On the Cars and Off, London, 1895, pp. 369-71.
(42) Henderson's British Columbia Gazetteer & Directory   .   .   .   for
the Year 1889 [Victoria, 1889], p, 353, NOTES AND COMMENTS.
BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
Victoria Section.
Of unusual interest was the meeting of the section held on Monday,
February 25, in the Provincial Library, to honour the memory of a great
Canadian artist—Emily Carr. Over one hundred members and guests were
in attendance to view an exhibition of her paintings and to hear an address
by Mr. Ira Dilworth, Regional Director of the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation, on The Life and Works of Emily Carr.
From long personal association with Miss Carr, Mr. Dilworth in a
moving manner was able to present the greatness of Emily Carr as an artist
—alike with her pen as with her brush—and as a human being. The prime
qualities of her painting—light, colour, space, and unity of movement—all
combined to paint a pathway for the mind and eye into the deep woods that
she loved and portrayed. The audience was privileged to hear extracts
from her private journals, made public for the first time, which, rich with
colour, wisdom, humanity, and humour, high-lighted the character of the
artist. Although often misunderstood and regarded as eccentric by her contemporaries, the true genius of this woman was brought vividly into proper
focus by the address.
The appreciation of the meeting was tendered to Mr. Dilworth by the
Hon. Mark Kearley.
In all, thirty-two paintings and sketches were on view. Seven of the
larger canvasses were those recently acquired by the Provincial Government
and on display for the first time. Loans from the private collections of
Major Cuthbert Holmes, the Hon. Mark Kearley, Capt. Alan Morkill, and
Mr. J. K. Nesbitt made possible a comprehensive exhibition.
Vancouver Section.
The Section met in the Grosvenor Hotel on the evening of Tuesday,
March 5. The programme was devoted entirely to the Cariboo, and proved
so popular that a record attendance filled the room to capacity and many
members were turned away. Through the courtesy of the Government
Travel Bureau, the new film entitled " Romantic Cariboo" was shown.
This is a sound film in colour, which shows and describes the beauties of the
Fraser Canyon and the Cariboo country as they are tc-day. The second
part -of the programme consisted of an address byi Mr. Louis LeBourdais,
M.L.A., which touched upon the Cariboo of yesterday, and the old days x>f
the gold-rush. No one knows the lore of the Cariboo as intimately as Mr.
LeBourdais, and no one can recall old-time incidents and anecdotes more
-.effectively; but the Member for Cariboo does not forget that the district
has a vigorous present-day existence as well as a romantic past, and he
emphasized its appeal to the business-man as well as to the tourist.
British Columbia Historical Quarterly, Vol. X., No. II.
171 172 Notes and Comments. April
A second meeting was held in the Grosvenor Hotel on Monday, April 8,
when the speaker was Miss Helen R. Boutilier, a former chairman of the
Section. Miss Boutilier was President of the British Columbia Historical
Association in 1945, and repeated for the benefit of the members of the
Section the presidential address she had delivered at the annual meeting
in Victoria last January. This was entitled Vancouver's Earliest Days,
and traced the evolution of community life on Burrard Inlet from 1859,
when coal deposits on what has ever since been known as Coal Harbour
aroused some interest, to the arrival in Vancouver of the first transcontinental passenger train, in 1887. A number of pioneer Vancouver residents
were present, and the address was followed by a lively discussion. The
text of Miss Boutilier's paper is printed in this issue of the Quarterly.
OKANAGAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The annual meeting of the Okanagan Historical Society was held in the
Royal Anne Hotel, Kelowna, on the afternoon of Thursday, May 2. There
were eighteen present, representing Vernon, Winfield, Enderby, Kelowna,
Summerland, Westbank, Penticton, and Princeton. Captain J. B. Weeks,
Penticton, was in the chair.
The report of the committee on Constitution and By-laws was presented,
and, with some amendments, adopted. The election of officers for the
ensuing year resulted as follows:—
Patron:   His   Honour   W.   C   Woodward,   Lieutenant-Governor   of
British Columbia.
Hon. President:   Hon. Grote Stirling, P.C, M.P.
President:   Captain J. B. Weeks, Penticton.
First Vice-President:   Dr. F. W. Andrew, Summerland.
Second Vice-President:   Mrs. R. B. White, Penticton.
Treasurer:  H. R. Denison, Vernon.
Auditor:   A. E. Berry, Vernon.
Secretary:  J. C Goodfellow, Princeton.
Nine directors were elected;   three  representing  North,  Middle,  and
South Okanagan for three, two, and one year respectively.    As some of the
.directors were nominated in absentia with election subject to consent the
full slate will shortly be made public.
VERMILION CAVE, PRINCETON.
■Old-timers learned with regret that the Vermilion Cave, at the south end
of Princeton, was to be demolished to make room for the new Hope Road
entrance to town. The cave is in a rising sandstone formation between the
railway and the hospital hill. Looking across the Similkameen one sees
.exactly the same formation, and is forced to the conclusion that natural
forces through long ages have created the gap through which the river now
flows.
Long before white men came to the valley the cave was a place of refuge
for Similkameen Indians. In winter-time it was a welcome haven to
travellers going east or west, giving shelter from rain or snow.    In summer- 1946 Notes and Comments. 173
time it gave relief from the heat of the day, like the shadow of a great rock
in weary land.
After gold was discovered at Rock Creek in the late 50's, and later in
Similkameen, hundreds of travellers made the trek over the old trail from
Hope to Princeton and on to the Boundary country. The trail was in
process of construction when Governor Douglas visited Similkameen in
September, 1860, and the Royal Engineers mapped out the town of Princeton, which was named in honour of the Prince of Wales (afterwards King
Edward VII.) who had visited Eastern Canada that year. To hundreds of
prospectors headed for the diggings the cave was Princeton's first hotel.
Old-timers still speak of ringing laughter in the dim cave light as some
ancient worthy told of how fields were won in his young day. When dawn
'came the travellers would rise refreshed, and continue their journey.
The sight of Princeton was formerly known as Vermilion Forks. Hence
the name of the cave which is at the south end of Vermilion Avenue. The
name was suggested by extensive deposits of red ochre in the district. Local
Indians carried on a thriving trade, other Indians coming long distances to
barter for this red paint, or red earth. A section of Allison Flat, now
included in Princeton, was designated by the Indians as Yak-Tulameen,
or the place where the red earth was sold. It was Princeton's first marketplace.
Vermilion and Red Earth, both former Princeton names, are English
translations of Tulameen, but there is no general agreement as to the
meaning of the sister word Similkameen. The meanings given for this
latter word are many and varied, but there seems to be no sufficient
authority for any of them. One thing is certain: the original word was
Similkameuch, with a gutteral ending. This has been forced into the same
phonetic groove as Tulameen by the white people of the valley.
Local Indians used to regard the Great Spirit as the Great Transformer.
They imagined him " terrible as an army with banners," seated high in the
heavens, and looking down on this changing earth of ours. He was responsible for the changing acts in the drama of History unfolded by the passing
centuries. Perhaps when he left high heaven and visited Similkameen he
l'ved in the Vermilion Cave. Following the coming of the Indians he has
seen the fur-trader, the gold-seeker, the cattle-driver, the prospector, and
those who travel by waterways, pathways, highways, railways, and airways.
He saw Father Time scoop out the valley through which the river flows.
Now the.old cave is gone.    " O earth, what changes thou has seen! "
J. C. Goodfellow. 174 Notes and Comments.
contributors to this issue.
D. A. McGregor, one of the best-known journalists, in British Columbia,
is chief editorial writer for the Vancouver Daily Province. He came to
Vancouver in 1910, and joined the staff of the Province the same year.
While gathering material for his history of the Vancouver press Mr.
McGregor talked over old times with many newspapermen, notably Mr. Roy
W. Brown, editorial director of the Vancouver Sun, and Mr. Frank J. Burd,
of the Province.
Major Sir Gerald Burrard, Bart., D.S.O., F.R.G.S., F.R.M.S., late R.F.A.,
is the eldest son of the late Colonel Sir Sidney Burrard. He was born in
India, educated at Cheltenham and Woolwich, and entered the Royal Field
Artillery in 1909. He served in India until the outbreak of the first World
War, when he went to France with the Indian Expeditionary Force. He
was mentioned in dispatches and awarded the D.S.O. in 1915. Later he
was severely wounded and war compelled to retire from the Army in 1919.
He is an authority on firearms, and has been editor of Game and Gun for
many years. His books include Notes on Sporting Rifles, Big Game
Hunting in the Himalayas and Tibet, a comprehensive three-volume treatise
on The Modern Shotgun, and several novels. The Burrard family has for
centuries been identified with Hampshire, but Sir Gerald now makes his
home at Hungerf ord, in Berkshire.
Helen Boutilier, M.A., immediate past president of the Provincial body
of the British Columbia Historical Association, is a member of the staff of
the Vancouver High Schools and a reader at the University of British
Columbia.
Rev. J. C Goodfellow is a Past President of the British Columbia
Historical Association and an active member of the council for 1946.
Sister Mary Dorothea is Prefect of Studies, B.C. province, Sisters of Ste.
Anne.
Anne M. Smith is Reference Librarian at the Library of the University
of British Columbia. THE NORTHWEST BOOKSHELF.
The Eleventh Report of the Okanagan Historical Society of Vernon, British
Columbia. Vernon [Printed by the Kelowna Printing Company], 1945.
Pp. 114.    PI.    $1.25.
The Eleventh Report of the Okanagan Historical Society, issued in November last, was prepared by Leonard Norris, who founded the Society on
September 4, 1925. He had been responsible for all the preceding Reports,
but, unfortunately, did not live to see the eleventh one off the press. He
died on April 18, 1945. The various Reports of the Society form a fitting
memorial to his life and work. In a brief introduction the President,
Captain J. B. Weeks, tells of the loss sustained by the Society in the passing of its founder, and describes Dr. Margaret A. Ormsby's " Appreciation "
as " a word picture of his life in the valley." Facing page 15 there is a
photograph of Mr. Norris, fittingly captioned with the words: "...
he loved this Okanagan Valley, and was its fond historian."
No fewer than seven of the articles in the new Report were prepared
by Mr. Norris himself. These are not confined to local history, but touch on
Provincial, and even Dominion, affairs: passing from Okanagan Indians,
the Okanagan Arc, and phosphorescent wood, to the Provincial capital,
Lord Dufferin's visit to the Province in 1876, the Canadian flag, and
Canada's future. The views expressed on the Canadian flag, and the use
of the French language in Canada, may not find general agreement, but
they were based on wide reading and deep thought. Mr. Norris wanted
to see Canada take her rightful place among the nations. Marjorie M.
Jenkins writes in similar vein in " Canada's Manifest Destiny," maintaining that if the " Canadians of today are true to themselves, are loyal to their
own country, . . . Canada is bound to become a great, a powerful and
wealthy nation, the hope and main stay of the Commonwealth, the ' first
among equals.'    This is Canada's manifest destiny."
Dr. Margaret A. Ormsby writes on " The Quarrel between the Governor-
General and the Prime Minister, 1876"; and Major Allan Brooks has an
informative article on " Big Game Conditions in British Columbia." It
may come as a surprise to many to learn that " there is a far larger population of big game [in British Columbia] ... at the present time than ever
existed before the white man, with his killing weapons, invaded the area."
The conclusion is that we may " look forward with every confidence to a
perpetuation of our big game under our present game laws as long as we
hold their natural enemies in check." (Unfortunately the Major's Christian
name is wrongly spelled " Allen.")
The remaining articles are more local in scope and character: " The
Falling Leaves," by Alf retta M. Crozier; " Eli Lequime " and " Glacial.
Erratic on the Coldstream," by Dorothy Hewlett Gellatly; " Callendar
Station," by Elsie  Foote;   " Okanagan's  First Fire Engine," by F.  W.
British Columbia Historical Quarterly, VoL X., No. II.
175 176 The Northwest Bookshelf. April
Laing; "First White Child Born in the Okanagan," by Clinton A. S. At-
wood; "An Old Whale Bone," by A. E. Sage; and "Ross Cox on the
' Oakinagan,'" by Frank Haskins. All these articles are rich in historical
lore, and will be read with interest and profit by students and lovers of our
local and Provincial history.
There are a number of illustrations, including one of the " Camel in the
Okanagan." The volume closes with a poem, " Renaissance," by Grace
Hewlett.
J. C. Goodfellow.
Princeton, B.C.
The Letters of John McLoughlin from Fort Vancouver to the Governor and
Committee. Third Series, 1844-46. Edited by E. E. Rich, with an introduction by W. Kaye Lamb. Toronto: The Champlain Society; and
London:   The Hudson's Bay Record Society, 1944.    Pp. lxiii., 341.
As this is the third and concluding volume in the series of John McLoughlin's letters it may be assumed that for some time at least succeeding
volumes will direct their attention to the activities of the Hudson's Bay
Company east of the Rocky Mountains. While this will be a matter of
regret to local historians who have welcomed these additions to the published source material on the history of the Pacific Northwest, nevertheless
this opportunity is taken to voice appreciation to those controlling the
editorial policy for their generosity. It is gratifying that out of the seven
volumes released to date, three have dealt specifically with the Pacific
Northwest.
The scholarly introduction is, once again, the work of Dr. Lamb.
Indeed, the word "introduction" hardly suffices; for, in reality, the three
instalments together form the first authentic biography of Dr. John McLoughlin. To have given a comprehensive account of McLoughlin's administration of the transmontane affairs of the Hudson's Bay Company from
1825 to 1846 would, in itself, have been a major contribution, but, at the
same time, to have allowed the personality of the administrator to emerge,
stripped of many of its legendary accretions, is a matter of special commendation. As Dr. Lamb succinctly remarks: " Legend has tended to
exaggerate McLoughlin's stature, and to make him an incredible paragon
of all virtues. As the letters here presented show, the man himself was
less perfect but more interesting—cursed with passions and a stubbornness
that made him a difficult and eventually an impossible subordinate; but
blessed with a broad humanity, more than a little foresight, and a constructive mind."
The visit of Sir George Simpson to the Pacific Coast in 1841-42 was
of tremendous significance not only to the fur trade in general, in almost
every phase of which major decisions were reached, but also to the career
of McLoughlin himself. It will be recalled that the first volume of letters
terminated with McLoughlin's visit to London in 1838. This was, in a real
sense, a triumphal visit; for thanks to his unbounded energy and skill the
Hudson's  Bay  Company had emerged completely victorious over all its 1946 The Northwest Bookshelf. 177
competitors—the Russians from the north, the " Boston pedlars " from the
sea, the St. Louis traders from the east. The dividing line between the
second and third volumes was an arbitrary one, dictated by limitations of
space, for in both the evolution, development, and repercussions of the
almost tragic controversy between Simpson and McLoughlin predominated.
Four main topics recur again and again in these letters—trading
policies on the Northwest Coast, the murder of John McLoughlin, Jr., the
California venture, and the land claims on the Willamette River. Dr. Lamb
dealt extensively with the first two in the preceding volume of letters and
now turns his attention, with equally satisfactory results, to the remaining
two.
The California trade had for some years been a subject of interest to
the Hudson's Bay Company and early in 1839 approval was given for the
establishment of a post at San Francisco. McLoughlin's action in suddenly
implementing this permission in 1841, just four months prior to Simpson's
arrival on the Columbia, can only be considered as precipitate. The latter's
analysis did not corroborate McLoughlin's optimism regarding prospects
of the California venture and, as a result, he gave instructions to have the
post closed by 1843. An argument ensued which in its intensity is second
only to that over the Beaver. Although repeatedly instructed to close the
post, McLoughlin delayed, hoping that the success of the business might
corroborate his judgment. His hopes were frustrated and his humiliation
made all the more complete by the suicide of his son-in-law, William Glen
Rae, the Company's representative at San Francisco.
Of particular interest to Oregonians is the excellent treatment of the
complicated story of the land claims at Oregon City. There can be little
doubt that it was the original intention that this property should be held
by the Company, but the situation altered when it became apparent that
the land would probably fall to the United States in the approaching boundary settlement. McLoughlin found himself in a dilemma: if the Company
could not hold the property in its own name, should he do so in his own name
for the Company or for himself. When Simpson seized upon the opportunity and recommended the acceptance of the drafts McLoughlin had sent
for the purchase of the property not only did he open still another breach in
his relations with McLoughlin but he was making almost impossible the
latter's continuance with the Company, particularly as he was already
aware that the position of " superintendent " was being discontinued. While
the question of McLoughlin's intentions in the transaction have not been
entirely cleared up Dr. Lamb's verdict is that " the evidence seems to tip
against" him. Whether or not Simpson's intention was to use this situation to force McLoughlin's withdrawal is not adjudicated, but that was its
end result.
While these letters do add somewhat to our knowledge of the Puget
Sound Agricultural Company, nevertheless much more material still remains
to be published before a satisfactory history of this interesting subsidiary
will have been produced. The editor might well consider this subject as
one suitable for future publications.    The sharp criticism of McLoughlin's 178 The Northwest Bookshelf. April
administration probably did further undermine his position, but a final
verdict can hardly be rendered on the information presently available.
One might have expected that as the settlement of the Oregon boundary
drew closer the Company's correspondence would have dealt more fully with
the subject. In explanation of the absence of references Dr. Lamb has
advanced three causes: as the subject was familiar to the Company discussion was unnecessary; in the end the dispute could only be settled by
the Foreign Office and the Governor and Committee in London were in a
better position to deal with the proper authorities; everything was to be
gained by preventing local discussion which might only have further
antagonized American settlers. Several interesting letters connected with
the visit of the H.M.S. Modeste have, however, been included in an appendix,
and additional information regarding the position of the Hudson's Bay
Company in the provisional government in Oregon provided.
As in previous volumes an ample selection of supplementary material
has been provided in the appendices. Of particular interest is a " Copy of
the Oregon Laws, 1844," and the " Statement of Voyages " covering the
activity of the Hudson's Bay Company's ships Cowelitz, Vancouver, Co-.
lumbia, and Cadboro for the period 1842-44. A further series of biographical sketches have been included, amongst which are those on James
Douglas, William Henry McNeill, and Henry Newsham Peers..
The publication of the McLoughlin letters was an ambitious undertaking. The result has been completely satisfactory. Dr. Lamb is to be
congratulated on the uniform excellence of his introductions. Many of the
misconceptions and misinterpretations concerning the Hudson's Bay Company in Old Oregon have been clarified. While in many respects John
McLoughlin now appears in a different light, he remains, nevertheless, a
great figure.
Willard E. Ireland.
Victoria, B.C.
Royal Commissions and Commissions of Inquiry under the " Public Inquiries
Act" in British Columbia, 1872-1942; a checklist. By Marjorie C.
Holmes.   Victoria, B.C., King's Printer, 1945.    Pp. 68.    $1.
When, some years ago, Dr. Lamb persuaded Miss Holmes to compile a
checklist of all British Columbia Royal Commissions, he knew very well
that no one else in British Columbia was so well qualified for the task.
Her long experience as Legislative Reference Librarian in the Provincial-
Library and her friendly contact with the members of all Government
departments opened to her sources of information concerning early commissions which would otherwise have remained buried in obscurity.
The Canada Yearbook, for example, lists some twenty-seven Royal Commissions for British Columbia, and Mr. A. H. Cole, Librarian of the Baker
Library, Harvard University, listed twenty-one in his Finding-List of Royal
Commission Reports in the British Dominions, in contrast with Miss
Holmes's impressive total of 133. 1946 The Northwest Bookshelf. 179
She, like other Reference Librarians, feels the need for some adequate
guide to the Royal Commissions. " Indeed," as she says, " the chief purpose of this bibliography is to make it possible to ascertain easily and
quickly what matters have already been investigated and where the reports
of the various inquiries are to be found."
The checklist includes all Royal Commissions since Confederation which
are known to exist either in print or in manuscript. " For the purpose of
this checklist, the popularly-used term ' Royal Commission' is taken to
mean a Commission issued by the representative of the Crown—in the case
of British Columbia, the Lieutenant-Governor—on the advice of his
Ministers or by an Act of the Legislature to a person or persons to investigate and report on certain matters. Such a Commission is signed by the
Lieutenant-Governor under the Great Seal of the Province, and issued under the authority of the ' Public Inquiries Act.'"
Before 1927, when the " Departmental Inquiries Act" was passed, all
Commissions of Inquiry must be deemed Royal Commissions; but, since
then, investigations of a more personal nature into something which has
already happened tend to come under the 1927 Act, while fact-finding inquiries which make policy recommendations with the expectation that they
will be implemented by future legislation, are now the field of the Royal'
Commission.
The checklist, therefore, omits all inquiries which come under the 1927
Act. It is preceded by a concise but helpful introduction in which Miss
Holmes defines her terms, gives a succinct account of method of procedure,
indicates the type of person usually appointed to serve as a member, the
kind of subjects dealt with and the value of such reports.
Unlike the comparable checklists already referred to, this list is very
easy to consult for reference purposes because, by using several kinds and
sizes of type face, the various parts of the entry stand out clearly.
The individual items, which are arranged chronologically, fall into
several parts. First the exact title is given; then where, and in what form,
the report is available; followed by the names of the Commissioners, the
date of appointment, and date of the report. Finally, there is a brief note
indicating the scope of the investigation, a sentence or two descriptive of
contents and indicative of the recommendations made. The name and subject index which follows the report is adequate and adds immeasurably to
its value.
As readers will recall, the checklist was originally published in this
Quarterly in serial form, but Reference Librarians everywhere will welcome
its reappearance in a separate, cumulated and indexed edition.
Miss Holmes is to be congratulated on producing a checklist which seems
to me to be a model of its kind, both in the items selected and the manner of
presentation. It should prove invaluable to historians, librarians, research
workers in the field of the social sciences, and to those interested in
governmental problems in British Columbia.
Anne M. Smith.
Vancouver, B.C. 180 The Northwest Bookshelf. April
The Jesuits in Old Oregon (1840-1940). By William Norbert Bischoff, S.J.
Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington, U.S.A.: The Caxton
Printers, Ltd., Caldwell, Idaho, 1945.    Pp. xvii., 258.    $3.
" A Sketch of Jesuit Activities in the Pacific Northwest" is the subtitle that determines the scope of this careful compilation from the pen
of one of the younger members of the Society of Jesus. The author's
preface indicates further: " These pages make no pretense at being a
history of the Pacific Northwest; nor do they constitute a history of the
Catholic Church in the Pacific Northwest; they do little more than indicate
the rich story, yet to be fully told, of the contribution made to the religious,
social and intellectual betterment of this area by the members of the Society
of Jesus."
As archivist at Gonzaga University from 1938 to 1942, the author had
ready access to original sources in the diaries, letters, and manuscript
sketches of the earliest missionaries. These he has woven into the record
of foundation, development, and, in some cases, decay and abandonment of
thirty-five mission posts across the western States and in Alaska.
In plan, the book follows the geographic rather than the chronological
order. A series of specially drawn maps serve conveniently to locate the
mission centres treated in order.
Serving as introduction, Chapter I. reviews briefly events that brought
the missionary Fathers Modeste Demers and Francis Norbert Blanchet
from Quebec, in 1838, in response to an appeal of French Canadians settled
in the vicinity of the Hudson's Bay Fort at Vancouver on the Columbia.
Chapter II. records a similar but more surprising appeal made by the Flat-
heads of the Willamette Valley to the Church at St. Louis. These Flat-
heads had among them some twenty-four Iroquois, Catholics from the shores
of the Great Lakes, who had been with the fur-traders and had chosen to
remain among the Indians of the west. " These," writes the Bishop of St.
Louis to the General of the Jesuits in passing on the Indians' request, " had
settled in the country between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
. . . They married there and were incorporated into the Indian tribe. As
they were well instructed in the Catholic religion . . . they have continued
to practice it as much as it was in their power, and have taught it to their
wives and children . . . becoming apostles they have sown the first seeds
of Catholicity . . . These precious seeds begin to bring forth fruit, for they
have caused to spring in the hearts of the Indians the desire of having
missionaries who would teach them the divine law."
A first delegation came from the Flatheads in 1831. Three others
followed at intervals. That of 1837 was completely wiped out by the
murderous Sioux. Undaunted, a fourth was immediately commissioned by
the tribe—so writes Bishop Rosati again—" to make still more persistent
entreaties to obtain finally that of which they had such great need—a
Blackrobe to lead them to heaven." This was in 1839. The following year
the Reverend Peter John De Smet, S.J., set out to cross the Rocky Mountains and initiate the work recorded in The Jesuits in Old Oregon. 1946 The Northwest Bookshelf. 181
Father Bischoff has written a book that fascinates by its sincerity. He
has gathered up the scattered strands of archival history and has woven
them into a pattern that indicates reliable sources and will be a guide to
students and a source of inspiration to all readers. Understanding the outlook and the zeal of the men of whom he writes, and recognizing in the
achievements of the first one hundred years but the beginning of a tremendous work of ever-renewed pioneering, he writes with inspiring confidence. He brings too, to his writing, a certain familiarity and a simplicity
of portrayal that invites the reader to stand by his side, to see, as he does,
the greatness of the men and the magnitude of the work accomplished in
response to reiterated plea of a few Flathead Indians.
An added attraction to the book is a biographical appendix which outlines briefly the lives of thirty-five Jesuit workers. Sources and explanations are given in some ten pages of concise notes, numbered chapter by
chapter. The bibliography is specialized in that it lists archival material
and only such printed reference publications as may be more difficult to
locate.    Finally, an alphabetical index of places and persons adds to the
serviceability of the book. „ „        _ „ _ .
Sister Mary Dorothea, S.S.A.
Victoria, B.C.
SHORTER NOTICES.
The Story of Summerland. By F. W. Andrew. Penticton: The Penticton
Herald,    [1945.]    Pp. 55.    Map.    $1.50.
The Municipality of Summerland lies in an area that was at one time
reserved for grazing, and the history of the community as such therefore
dates from 1889, when the reserve was cancelled and the land thrown open
for pre-emption. For a time, as the first chapter of this interesting little
history records, settlement progressed relatively slowly, but development
was rapid after the turn of the century. Three chapters, entitled " Ranches
to Orchards," " Development," and " Maturing," tell the story of Summer-
land's economic and social life from that time to the present day.
The name Summerland, suggested by the climate that gives 2,000 hours
of sunshine in a year, was first bestowed on the post-office in 1902. The
next year it was assured of permanence and wider significance when the
Summerland Development Company was incorporated, with such distinguished folk as Sir Thomas Shaughnessy and H. J. Cambie on its board.
J. M. Robinson was the Company's chief local representative, and it was he
who started the real development of fruit-growing in the district. The
first school was opened in 1903; the first sawmill started operations the
same year; electric light was introduced in 1905, and telephones in 1907.
Meanwhile, late in 1906, the District Municipality of Summerland had been
incorporated. In 1908 Dr. F. W. Andrew, the author of this account,
arrived. Perhaps the two most important later dates are 1914, which saw
the first steps taken to found the Dominion Experimental Station, and 1915,
when the first trains began to run on the Kettle Valley Railway.
Dr. Andrew tells all this and much more besides with humour and in
considerable detail, right down to the organization of co-operative market- 182 The Northwest Bookshelf. April
ing, and the launching of B.C. Fruit Trees, Limited, in 1939. The volume
concludes with four brief miscellaneous chapters, one of which deals with
the Old Timers' Association, founded in 1925, and active until the coming of
World War II.
The Quarterly had occasion recently to notice that histories of Prince;
George and Salmon Arm had been written and were available in certain ■
libraries in typewritten form. It is a pleasure to welcome another distinctly worth-while local history, this time in printed form. A foreword
indicates the sources upon which the narrative is based, and the care and.
discrimination with which they have been used will be obvious, even to
the casual reader. Dr. Andrew loves a good story as well as anyone, but:
he manfully resists the temptation to palm it off as history.
The entire proceeds from the sale of the booklet go to the Summerland.
Branch of the Canadian Red Cross Society, of which Dr. Andrew is Honors
ary President.    Copies should be ordered from the Society.
Memories of Pioneer Life in British Columbia. By Florence Goodfellow.
Privately printed in Wenatchee, Washington, November, 1945. Pp. 43.
Frontispiece.
This unpretentious but at times vivid narrative gives an interesting and
valuable account of pioneer life in the Fraser Valley in the years just before
and just after British Columbia joined the Dominion. Mrs. Goodfellow
was the daughter of Louis Agassiz, who came to this country in 1858, and
was joined by his family in 1862. After living for a time first at Yale and
then at Hope, Agassiz took up land in the region that now bears his name.
The greater part of Mrs. Goodfellow's story relates to life on the farm,
and it concludes with her marriage in 1876.
A note at the end of the booklet states that the Memories were written
about 1929-33, when the author was in her late seventies. She herself
tells us that she jotted down her recollections in response to the request of
her children for an account of her early life. The note states further that
she " trusted entirely to her memory," and that the Memories have been
" printed as they were written."
No one would wish to have had the actual text tampered with, but as a
few notes have been added it seems a pity that the additions and corrections
were not made a little more extensive. For one thing, a brief biographical
note on Mrs. Goodfellow herself would have been most welcome; as it is,
the dates of her birth and death are nowhere given, nor can one learn the
Christian name of either her father or her husband. For another, a few
•rather obvious errors should have been corrected, for they give a false
impression, and tend to cast doubt upon a narrative that is both sincere
and authentic. Lord Dufferin, for instance, did not open the Esquimalt
dry-dock, as Mrs. Goodfellow states; he visited British Columbia in 1876,-.
and the dry-dock was not completed until 1887. Nor did the river steamers
burn wood because coal had not been discovered; some of them did burn
coal, most of which came from deposits at Nanaimo that had been mined
since 1852.    To cite a third and last example, Kamloops could not possibly 1946 The Northwest Bookshelf. 183
•have been named after the celebrated camels of Cariboo fame, since it had
been in existence—name and all—for half a century before the camels
arrived. But this last suggestion is so beguiling that one can not help but
be glad that Mrs. Goodfellow fell into this particular error!
Island Trails. Highways and Byways on Vancouver Island. By Edith M.
' Cuppage. Cover design and decorations by Maude Paget. Victoria:
J. Parker Buckle Printing Company, Ltd., 1945. Pp. 36. 111., map.
75 cents.
This booklet is intended for the visitor who wants more information than
he will find in the ordinary variety of travel folder, yet does not want anything that is elaborate or expensive. The seventeen photographs are
representative of the variety and beauty of the scenery the tourist will find.
The accompanying text is both interesting and informative. While the
emphasis is strongly on the present day, the booklet contrives to hark back
to many of the most colourful and significant events in Vancouver Island's
history. Pictures and text alike are neither hackneyed nor (like so many
travel booklets) confined to what the tourist will find along the Island
Highway. There is a good modern view of historic Nootka Sound, and a
fine photograph of Mount Golden Hind.
Two slips should be corrected in future printings. His Majesty the King
is the great-grandson, not the grandson, of Queen Victoria (p. 10) ; and
Captain Barkley was not an officer in the Royal Navy and in command of
H.M.S. Eagle (p. 36). He was a merchant captain in command of the
trading ship Imperial Eagle.
American Diaries. An Annotated Bibliography of American Diaries
Written Prior to the Year 1861. By William Matthews. Berkeley and
Los Angeles:  University of California Press, 1945.    Pp. xiv., 383.    $4.
This volume lists nearly 4,000 diaries by nearly 3,000 diarists. " Each
entry," as a note on the dust jacket explains, " gives brief biographical data
on the diarist, the time span of the diary, brief notes of contents and value,
and a bibliographical record." Only diaries that have been printed, and
were written in the English language, have been included. The book will
interest the student of Northwest history because many American narratives relating to the region are listed, and because the compiler decided,
in view of the way in which Canadian and American history intertwine,
that it would be " more profitable, as well as easier, to include all Canadian
diaries written in English."
So far as it goes, this bibliography is a useful guide; but unfortunately
the qualification must be underlined. In his preface, Mr. Matthews takes
great pains to define precisely what he means by a " diary," and elaborates
upon the rules under which individual items have been included or omitted.
" I understand a diary to be a day-by-day record of what interested the
diarist," he writes, " each day's record being self-contained and written
shortly after the events occurred, the style being usually free from
organized exposition."    He considers, further, that a " diary " is written 184 The Northwest Bookshelf. April
for personal reasons, in contradistinction to a " journal," which is kept
as a matter of duty, and as part of a job. " Entry to this list," he concludes sternly, " has been only through the gateway of this definition."
When material relating to the Pacific Northwest was being examined,
the watchman at this gateway must surely have been dozing, for the choice
of items is both haphazard and inconsistent. Thus an extract from Cook's
Third Voyage, reprinted in the Oregon Historical Quarterly, is included,
but the Third Voyage itself is nowhere listed. Vancouver's Voyage of Discovery is listed, although it is not " a day-by-day record " and was compiled
as a matter of duty. (One wonders, too, how kindly Vancouver would
take to the inference that his narrative, upon which he spent the last years
of his life, is " free from organized exposition.") Omissions are numerous
and glaring. John Boit's well-known journal, which has been printed in
full no less than three times, is not listed. On the other hand, the Fort
Nisqually Journal is included, in spite of the fact that it is in no sense
personal, was certainly kept as a matter of duty, and is simply the logbook of a Hudson's Bay trading-post. Alexander Mackenzie's narrative
is listed, although it is known to have been written up from Mackenzie's
notes by a competent hack, but Colnett's well-known volume, the work of
the same compiler, is omitted. The entry relating to John Jewitt is quite
misleading, for it reads as if the compiler were unaware that Jewitt's
Journal and his Narrative were completely different works. One is forced
to conclude that not even the regional historical quarterlies were checked
with care, and that the compiler knows little or nothing about the history
and actual character of many of the narratives he describes.
One additional criticism is unfortunately justified: the compiler nowhere states the date of the latest publications that he professes to have
examined. An editorial note states that the manuscript was submitted in
July, 1942, but diaries printed long before that date have passed unnoticed.
To cite only a single example, Stephen Reynolds's diary, edited by Judge
Howay and published by the Peabody Museum in 1938, is not listed—nor,
for that matter, are any of the narratives in Judge Howay's monumental
Voyages of the " Columbia," published by the Massachusetts Historical
Society in 1940.
W. K. L.
Papers read before the Historical and Scientific Spciety of Manitoba, Season
1944-45.    Edited by Clifford Wilson.    Winnipeg, 1945.    Pp. 80.   111.
[$!•]
Students of local history will welcome the resumption of publication
by the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba.    The Papers under
review is the first of a new series—the third to be undertaken by the
Society.    The seventy-two issues of the  Transactions published between
1880 and 1906, together with the new series of Transactions begun in 1926,
provided much useful historical material in the rich field of Manitoba
history, and judging by the present publication even greater results may be
anticipated. 1946 The Northwest Bookshelf. 185
The five papers give ample indication of the variety in scope and subject-
matter to be found in the early history of Manitoba. Sister Mary Murphy
in " The Grey Nuns Travel West" gives a sketch of the rigours of travel
encountered by the intrepid sisters in their early expeditions to the Red
River Settlement from 1844 until the advent of steamboat navigation on the
Red River in 1860. " Archaeology in the Rock and Pelican Lake Area of
Southern Manitoba " is designed to arouse interest in the prehistoric background of the Province. Although its author, Chris. Vickers, is self-
styled " an amateur" he is to be commended for the precise account of
mounds in the area and his " conclusions, speculations and suggestions "
should be an incentive to the trained archaeologist and anthropologist.
Canada's cultural life has been enriched by the intermingling of nationalities resulting from the flood of settlers which poured into the Canadian
prairies in the first decade of this century. The immensity of this immigration has tended to obscure earlier and possibly more significant movements
of European peoples to Canada. The establishment of New Iceland,
centring around Gimli, in 1875, is dealt with by S. J. Sommerville. This
article is considerably enhanced by the inclusion of translations by Professor
Skuli Johnson of the " Agreements in Reference to a Temporary Constitution in New Iceland " and " Government Regulations of New Iceland "
drawn up in 1877.
The resources from which the history of the Presbyterian, Methodist,
and Congregational churches in Manitoba may be written forms the subject of G. B. King's paper. But perhaps of even greater interest are the
suggestions set forth for the preservation and use of this material. The
idea of a central index of the material held by the various church bodies
throughout the Province is worthy of consideration by other Provinces.
To trace the story of Winnipeg from the time the first white man gazed
upon the site down to its incorporation in 1873 was an ambitious undertaking. Yet within the limits of twenty-nine pages William Douglas has
succeeded in " The Forks becomes a City " in providing an adequate chronological survey. The enthusiasm of the local historian* occasionally exceeds
the actual facts, as, for instance, the claim that William Coldwell " instituted the first newspaper in Western Canada." No less than five newspapers had made their appearance in British Columbia before The
Nor'Wester commenced publication on December 28, 1859.
Some excellent illustrations and maps greatly enhance the appearance
of this creditable publication.
W. E. I.
VICTORIA,  B.C.:
Printed by Charles F. Banfield, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty.
1946.
660-546-4476 We
BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Organized October 31st, 1922.
PATRON.
His Honour W. C Woodward, Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia.
OFFICERS, 1946.
Hon. G. M. Weir   -
Madge Wolfenden
Helen R. Boutilier
E. G. Baynes
Major H. C Holmes
Mrs. M. R. Cree -
W. E. Ireland
Honorary President.
President.
Past President.
1st Vice-President.
2nd Vice-President.
Honorary Treasurer.
Honorary Secretary.
MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL.
A. G. Harvey. Miss A. M. Russell. W. N. Sage.
L. LeBourdais. B. A. McKelvie.    J. C Goodfellow.
E. G. Rowebottom.
W.- Kaye Lamb
(Editor, Quarterly).
G. E. White
Willard E. Ireland
(Provincial Archivist).
H. C Holmes
(Victoria Section).
(Vancouver Section).
OBJECTS.
To encourage historical research and stimulate public interest in history;
to promote the preservation and marking of historic sites, buildings, relics,
natural features, and other objects and places of historical interest, and to
publish historical sketches, studies, and documents.
MEMBERSHIP.
Ordinary members pay a fee of $2 annually in advance. The fiscal year
commences on the first day of January. All members in good standing
receive the British Columbia Historical Quarterly without further charge.
Correspondence and fees may be addressed to the Provincial Archives,
Parliament Buildings, Victoria, B.C.