VoL. 16

No. 12°

=: | Bowser, on Tour of North
j 6©>- Takes Government to

;

Task

Hon. W. J. Bowser, leader of

Beam the Conservative party in British
See Columbia, accompanied by R. H.
seae Pooley, M.L.A., bave made what

ee Tight be easily styled a succegs-
mee ful tour of through Northern

my British Columbia, Beginning.at
me Prince Rupert, a meeting was
@ held in the Empress theater; next
me day they assisted in the opening
maf the eleventh fair at Prinee
Ree Rupert: and the next day Hon.

Sa Mr. Bowser crowned the Queen

me Of the Carnival, os

fm On Thursday of last week the
fe Visitors held an excellent meeting

min Assembly Hall in Hazelton,

@where the district. was well rep-
mresented. On Saturday last they

meg ere at Houston for the fair and
Methen went on to Burns Lake,

Francois Lake and Wistaria. They

ad their guns and dog with them

mend hoped to get some birds en
mar oute,

m This week they doubled back
mo Smithers, where a public meet-
mac was held on Wednesday hight
end'on Thursday Hon. Mr. Bow-

mer formally ovened the Smithers

air,
f The leader of the opposition
meg ated that the object of his tour
g’as to get acquainted with the
meeeople in the north. and to leatti
sem icir requirements and the possi-

Bilities of this new country,

uring his trip he met a good

any settlers and today has a
much greater knowledge of the
Soming agricultural, timber, min-

&@ and industrial part of the

uvinee,
mbet who complained about

mc Present government, and he
Mund much which could easily be

@ctified and should be rectified.
me hopes to be premier of the

wovince as soon as the electors

et an opportunity to mark their

Bellots, and in that case he ‘will

y in a position to revolutionize
MMe administration of British Co-
metbia’s affairs,

ago broughout the north he

meached the same gospel and

med the same text, and there is

@ doubt that he made an impres-

n. .

At the various meetings R. H.
moley was the first speaker. He
michéd upon the financial ques-
Bn and the administration of
we liquor act, which, he claimed,
BS not being administered.

Breferred to the Liberal ery in
m6 that the Conseryative minis.
a Were all grafters and getting
fin office As a matter of
wt every minister of the Me-
mve cabinet, including the pre-
aa’, with the exception of Mr.
maser, who made some money
pVancouver real estate, has
broke or is now working
small salary, Thig he did
bink looked like graft, ‘In

ging with the liquor question,

7

It is true he met al

he gave instances of where very
larze commissions were being
paid to friends of the government
on whiskey purchases, and these
men have never been in the whis-
key business before,

Hon, W. J. Bowser stated that
when he became leader of the
opposition he undertook tu visit
all parts of the province and to
get intimately aquainted with the
people and their néeds, He had
thus been greatly assisted in his
work and had a much broader
vision than when he was confined
to departmental work at Victoria,

The speaker strongly favored
increasing agricultural production
to supply the demands of the
local markets, These markets
are developing very fast, and last
year the.province paid out séven-
teen milliun doilars tor foodstuffs
alone. He did not believe in tax
sales; rather, he favored 4 policy
of keeping the settlers on the
land, even though they did not
Ret “all their taxes paid every
year. A family on the land was
worth infinitely more to the pro-
vince than the few dollars the
fovernment would get by selling
those settlersout. Atthe present
time the Oliver government says,
"Tf you don’t pay.your taxes by
June 1st we will add one per cent
per month unti! October 12th and
and then sell you out if you have
not paid up.’? The chief object
of the government today is col-
lecting money, either by taxes,
or by floating loans in New York,

Tn 1916 the net revenue of the
Province was less than seven mil-

lions, but this year the estimates

call for the collection of nineteen
millions of dollars from the seven
hundred thousand people of the
province. Of this amount the
fovernment had voted $380,000
for travelling expenses for civil
servants alone, or about $1000 per
day. In 1916 the overhead @X-
pense was less than a million dol.
lars per year, but today it was
nearly three millions, Every
department wag overmanned, ex-
cept, perhaps, the department of
mines, and if he was returned to
power one of the first things he
would do would be to reduce the
civil service and increase the
efficiency of the administration,

In 1916 the net debt was nine-
teen millions, but today the net
debt has jumped to sixty-six mil-
lion, or nearly seven million a
year for the seven years that the
Liberals have been-in power,

Since coming into power the
Liberal government has collected
in taxes and spent $86,828, 000
and ‘borrowed and spent another
$50,000,000, or a total of $136,-
000,000 in .seven years, How
long can that go on? he asked,

A great deal has been said
about the great. appropriations

that Hon. A, M. Manson geta for’.

a
‘

Unprecedented
Total of Entries

The Smithers Fair got away to
a good start on Wednesday in
Spite of the threats of the wea-
ther man. In every department,
with possibly the exception of
faneywork,. there is a big increase
in the number of entrias. The
hall, which the directors thought
would be large enough for years,
was overcrowded and additional

Smithers Fair}

room had to be provided. The
secretary reported 1500 entries, a
very substantial] increase over any

other year. The two vegetables
leading for competition were
white potatoes and table carrots,
with 34 entries each, while 25
entries in a section was quite a
common thing, Home-cooking
and canned goods were most
creditable and the judges had
much work todo. So far as the
hall exhibition was concerned,
probably the most attractive dis-
plav was the cut flowers, Most
of these came from Hazelton and
New Hazelton, and proved an
eve-opener for the natives. Be-
sides many entries for competi-
tion, a good many flowers were
shown for display only, -

.Harry Smith, of Smithers, was

with 53 entries, and #. A, Gad-
ond, with 40, ‘including a collec-
tion. Other exhibitors from the
western end of the district were
Mrs. Sealy, Mrs. T. G, Johnson,
Mrs. Newick, Mrs. R, S. Sargent,
Mrs. Galloway, and the Indian
School Children, Hazelton; Mrs.
Sawle, Olga Bergmali, and Fran-
ces Willan, New Hazelton.

Pete Greuick, of Smithers, took
the cake with a forty-pound cab-
bage (ali home grown). There
were six collections of canned
vegetables and six collections of
garden vegetables.

Leverett-Corliss

The Presbyterian manse at Burns
Lake was the seene of an interesting
ceremony on Tueaday, September Il,
when Miss Gladys Corlias became the
bride of William Leverett, Only those
immediately concerned were present at
the ceremony. Miss Lelia Clark was
bridesmaid and A. Anderson supported
the groom. Following the wedding, a
dance and reception te the happy couple
was held in the Omineca Hotel, where
a host of friends from all over the dis-
trict extended their best wishes to the
bride and groom..

Omineca, The speaker offered a
little comparison. In Delta, where
Hon. John Oliver has his farm,
the riding is composed of all
municipslities. Municipalities are
hot supposed to have their roads
and bridges built by the goyern-
ment. In that riding there are
thirty-nine miles of provincial
roads. In Omineea, where’ there
are no. municipalities, there are

over 800 miles of ! roads and
. “Continued on Page 8 Lgl

the heaviest individual exhibiter,

dard, of New Hazelton, was sec-

Quality Produce
at Terrace Fair
Suprised Judge

P. W. Ankatell-Jones, who
judged the fruit at the Terrace
Fair, expressed himself as very
greatly surprised at the extra-
ordinarily high quality of the
produce shown.

“It is ms first visit to the val-
lev,” he said to the editor, “and
between McBride and Prince Ru-
pert I have seen more quality in
vegetables and a far finer display
of potatoes than I have ever seen
in anv show in New Westminster,
The potatoes were absolutely free
from disease, with the exception
of seven only—a very low per-
centage. Two bushel lots of

Netted Gem and Gold Coin are
fit- to win in any exhibition in
British Columbia.

“When you turn to the fruit it
is away above my expectations
both 1 eoloring and quality but
several of the apples need to have
their names corrected, If ‘the
growers here will take the trouble
to put up the produce right they
can beat anything in the Okana-
gan or anywhere else.’*

There was keen competition in
several branches at the fair. F.
W. Bohler took away nearly all

‘did the same for stock. Mrs,
Gibert won out with cut flowers,
beating such redoubtable com-
petitors as Mrs. Munro and Mes-
dames Lanfear and French. .

The show was very fine in most
respects, and a credit to the
organizers, but it might have
been some bigger,

The Presbyterian ladies served
tea during the afternoon and
there was a movie show and

the honors for grain and W. West

Made Extensive
Examination of |
Peace Country

Last week J. D. Galloway, dis-
trict mining engineer, returned
from the Peace River country,

where he spent several weeks
examining the coal, iron and.
placer gold deposits for the De-
partment of Mines, -

He made the trip largely by
water from Prince George on,
and found a splendid farming
country, where great grain crops
have been harvested and where
farmers haul. their produce as
far as 60 miles to the railway.
The coal deposit. which Mr.
Galloway examined ia sat Rocky
Mountain Canyon’ in the. Peace
River country. The deposit is”
known to extend over an area 40
miles by 60 miles with a great
many seams, mostly small, but
with quite a number of. commer-
cial importance. The coal isa
semi-anthracite, similar to that
in the Groundhog. It has the
advantage of most other western
coals of being very low in ash.
He believed it would compete
successfully with the anthracite
coal from Pensylvania even in
the Ontario markets. One ship-
ment of 40 tons was made by
scow to Peace River Crossing,

where it was turned over to the -
C.P.R. to test out on a large
scale, and it igs reported, with
excellent results, .

In regard to the placer mining
Mr. Galloway found two com-
panies operating with dredges,
but thus far they had not met
with material suecess. A dif-
ferent sort-of a machine to those
in use must be found, A good

dance at night.

|

OVERHEARD AROUND

NEW HAZELTON

There was a large congrega-
tion present to hear Rev, T. D,
Proctor last Sunday evening at
the home of Mr. and Mrs, F. A.
Goddard. Miss Goddard sang
“T heard the Voice of Jesus Say.”’
This was the first service Mr,
Proctor had held in New Hazel-
ton and he was so encouraged
that he hoped to arrange to
preach here more often in future,

The New Hazelton Ladies’ Aid
Society has decided to hold their
Annual Sale of Work and Social
in the Church at New Hazelton
on Nov. 28 (Friday), They will
have a full line of men,§- socks,
mitts and other useful things for
ladies and children. ~ Keep the
date open. tf

Mr. and Mrs, F. A. Goddard
were visitors to Smithers ‘for the

fair this week,

_ Richard. Morrison left Thure-

day morning: for Montreal, . ..

many individuals are working by
hand and are doing fairly well,
The Peace River sands early
much fine gold and a considerable
value in platinum, It is, how-
ever, low grade ground and
eventually the dredge will ‘pre-
dominate, _

All through that country Mr.
Galloway found much. opposition
to the government reserve on the
coal and oil lands. The people
want to know the idea of the
reserve.

Takes Last Long Trail

Another of the fast-dwindling
band of original old-timers in the’ .
Hazelton ‘district passed away
early on Wednesday morning in:
the person of Thomas Forrest,: .
Deceased was about 85 years of -
age and had spent the past thirty.
years or so in the district, . As
far as can be gathered he leaves
no‘known relatives.. The funeral.
took place on Thursday Morning —
from the Anglican church, the. -
service being cunducted by Rev...
T. D. Proctor, , The pall-bearers:.
were R.. H. Cuback; A.! EBLFa
eoner, Herbert. Hankin: and Ber