THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

A number of readers have
inquired about the old-time
picture used on the front page
of the Lumber Worker’s
January edition which saluted
B.C.’s Centennial. Nothing was
known of its origin until
recently when Mr. Harry
McKenzie, believed to be the
only survivor in the photo,
contacted the Union.

Now in his 80’s Harry is still
remarkably active and
tremendously proud of the half
century he spent working in the
sawmill industry. While

discussing the picture he gave
a fascinating account of his
early life and work in sawmills
both in the Interior and on the
coast.

He had just turned sixteen
and was fresh out from
Scotland at the time the picture
was taken. Prior to coming to
Canada he had worked for two
years on a Scottish farm
having left school at the age of
twelve.

He came from a large family
by today’s standard. Besides
his father and mother, he had
an older sister, three older
brothers, three younger
brothers and one younger
sister.

A decision by Harry’s oldest
sister Jean in 1897 to work as a
cook for a family in Manitoba,
was to have a major influence
on the family. During a visit
home in 1900, she enthused so
much’ about Canada that the
older boys started laying plans
to emigrate.

Jean on her return to Canada
went to work for a doctor in
Cranbrook. During the next
three. years the older boys
followed her and two of them,
Jack and Peter, found work at
the Crow’s Nest Pass Lumber
Company.

The picture, he stated, was

taken in June 1905 at the
Crow’s Nest Pass Lumber
Company at Wardner near
Cranbrook. The mill was one of
the largest in B.C. at that time
with a daily cut of between

125,000 and 130,000 board feet.

Logs to feed the mill were
driven down river from
Skookumchuck one hundred
miles away by French
Canadian log drivers.

He remembers that the work
was hard, the hours long and
the wages poor but the food
was excellent and plentiful.
The crew worked ten hours a
day six days a week. Harry
was paid 2212 cents an hour
piling lumber and was pleased
to have the job.

CE PPR ESS: pat Ife

By this time Harry was
fifteen and determined to
follow his sister and brothers to
Canada. Aware of his feelings
his father and mother decided
to sell their possessions and
apply for a homestead in
Saskatchewan.

Money was a problem but
with the help of Jean and the

‘boys the family was able to

take passage for Canada in the
Spring of 1905. All the
necessary arrangements for
the homestead had been made
by the older boys. Early in
June the family detrained at
Regina and were transported
by wagon to Saskatoon. Harry
continued on the train to
Cranbrook.

After a brief visit with his
sister he left for Wardner to
seek work with the Crow’s Nest
Pass Company. Unfortunately,
high water had closed down
part of the mill and it was July
before he landed a job.

It was during this period that
the photograph was _ taken,
Nothing is known of the

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HARRY McKENZIE is shown in this picture taken at the Crow’s Nest Pass Lumber
Company at Wardner, in 1905, with his head circled on the far right. His brother Peter
is to the left of him with his head also circled. ‘

the picture being taken. There
are a few prints of it still in
existence one of which is in the
Provincial Archives at Vic-
toria.

All Harry can recall of the
occasion was being told by his
brother to pose with the crew
and have his picture taken. He
was still in the suit he wore
from Scotland and_ the
photographer had someone
give him a pevey so as to look
like a worker.

Harry remained with the
Crow’s Nest Company until the
freeze-up when the mill shut
down. For the next nine years
he moved back and forth
between the Interior and the
coast working in numerous
sawmills.

By the time world war one
started he was a highly ex-
perienced sawyer at Fraser
Mills. He left there to enlist
with the 16th Canadian Scottish
Regiment and served four
years in France. At the end of
the war he returned to Fraser
Mills setting.

For the next twenty-eight
years Harry sawed at Youbou,
Eburne, Pacific Pine, En-
derby, Port Alberni and a host

THIS PHOTO taken at Medicine Hat in 1956 shows Harry
with his sister and remaining brothers. Group seated: left, ;
Jack, Jean, Charlie and standing, left, Peter and Harry.

of other operations. He stated
that the biggest log he ever
sawed was at Fraser Mills in
1928. This was a giant spruce
seventy-eight feet long, seven
and one half feet through at the
butt and seven feet through at
the top.

Oe EE ee nr fF

In 1948, he became spare .
sawyer and foreman at
Eburne. From there he went to
Pacific Pine in New’ West- —
minster as sawyer and
foreman at the little mill.

He retired in 1953 when the
big mill was phased out.

CLC WELCOMES
CHANGES TO
LABOR CODE

The Canadian Labor
Congress has welcomed
proposed changes in. the

Canada Labor (Standards)
Code that have been in-

- troduced into the Commons.

But a March 10 statement by
President Donald MacDonald
says the Congress hopes that
improvements in the federal
standards will also result in
improvements in provincial
standards.

The amendments would
raise the federal minimum
wage to $1.75 from $1.65, and
require notice of lay-offs,
severance pay for discharged
workers, maternity leave and
provisions for “‘equal pay for
equal work.”

MacDonald pointed out that
the benefits of the layoff notice
‘will depend to a considerable
degree on the terms of the
more detailed regulations.”

On the equal-pay-for-equal-
work provisions, he noted that
‘tall too often in the past this
has been no more than a slogan
and it is to be hoped that care
will be taken to assure the
adoption of this principle in
fact.”

COST OF HOUSING

SOARING IN

If costs are stable but prices
keep going up, somebody’s
getting hurt.

Somebody, in this case, is the
Canadian tenant and home-
owner. The Toronto Real
Estate Board recently pointed
out that residential con-
struction costs in Metropolitan
Toronto ‘‘stopped their upward
spiral during 1970.”

Comparing January, 1971,
with the same month the year
before, the real estate people
found that ‘‘construction costs
for both apartments and
residences remain unchanged

But while the builders and
developers were _ saving
money, the cost of shelter in
the country went up 4.7 per
cent in the sdme period, ac-
cording to the Dominion
Bureau of Statistics. The over-
all cost-of-living rose 1.6 per
cent in that period, DBS says.

So the cost of housing is
rising three times faster than
the cost of everything else.
That’s a big chunk out of the

family budget since the °

average Canadian household
spends 32 per cent of its entire
income for housing.

The unit costs of high-rises,

CANADA

duplexes, townhouses and
other apartments was un-
changed from January, 1970,
after going up some 12 percent
since 1967. The unit costs of
single-storey, two-storey and
split-level houses also were
unchanged. What's driving up
rents and new home costs?
Look at land prices, interest
rates and taxes.

TREND TO :
BIGGER UNIONS

The trend toward bigger.
unions is continuing, a new
federal labor department
study shows.

The membership of unions —
with more than 30,000 mem-
bers has grown faster than ¢
unions of small numbers. —
While the membership of 3
unions increased by 98 per cent
between 1952 to 1967, :
membership of the unions with
more than 30,000 jumped from —
24.9 per cent to 43.4 per cent. )
The trend toward bigger
unions is greater among the
national unions than in the
internationals, the study
shows. BS

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