Ti a ae
a. M principle, felt that admission of British Col-
heen it until the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territories
Son's Be acquired. And it was not’ until 1869 that the eae
the terre. Pany, after demanding £2,000,000 and ha
he ay it held, completed its surrender of Rupert’s Land
ically 5 North West Territories for £300,000 and es
Contin ae land grants “within the fertil belt” that ensure
eon of its huge profits as the country was settled.
Pe delay Served the ends of Seymour and his colonial
Mounted ile the debate for and against Confederation
‘round them they acted only to retard any decision.

BS Ae November 6, 1867, the first parliament of the
Wa ree minion of Canada met-and within three months it
ig Memorials from the British Columbia colonists.

su j
ba sae teed by the fact that Confederaton was now
inD Pua lished fact, the Cariboo miners had held a meeting
Mber and had declared themselves for Confederation.

ke January 9, 1868, another public meeting held in
Canada, elected a committee of six to send a memorial to the
Trimble. Sovernment. The memorial, signed by James
Wallags . or De Cosmos, I. W, Powell, J. R. Findlay, R.
pec H. §. Seeley, made its points succinctly,
2 og pinion throughout the colony, it said, was
a small ely in favor of Confederation.” There was only
anothe. in favor of annexation to the United meee
6 Qo e small party, other than annexationists, cent
this co] “ration, to which “nearly all the office-holders o
of ay are allied.” The legislative council was made up
trates, ao of department heads, gold commissioners, magis-
federation, TBetS, “and cannot be relied upon to urge a Con-
Sve as it ought to be at this juncture,” and the a
New Wo. stitutions were the city councils of Victoria an
*stminster,

ite

sone fe that without the help and liberal support of the
feof 1 Of the Dominion that the time will be somewhat
but wich €n the colony will be admitted into the Dominion,
2 Obg the aid which we solicit, we believe that there is
Nem © to prevent our admission, by 1st of July next, the

i nal i i ; - ad-
"USSion, aS Concluding with proposals for terms of a

Hi .
tae the Sol. Tilley, then minister of customs, replied

the Brit Cahadian government had opened discussions with
“8 government and suggested a petition to the Queen.

hold 4 Cariboo miners chose Dominion Day that year to

d nd 8 Open air rally at Barkerville and demonstrate their
®r Confederation.

the 9 ae “solution adopted by the rally declared: “That, in

of Beant of this meeting, the conduct of the government

Petial = Columbia is contrary both to the policy of the im-

thig colony ment and the declared wishes of the people of

Reva this, J. s, Thompson, in a fiery speech, added the

‘ at made the Cariboo a stronghold of the move-

Cony » he People of Cariboo are the mainstay of the whole

the pe declared, “They contribute, directly and indirect:

Left Sreater Portion of the taxes. Yet how are they treated?
ely to their own resources.”

“ony, © Barkeryil] ll lude to the representative
en € rally was a prelude to Pp :
hs. HS held at Yale on September 14, 1868, organized

i

tor, 1M federation League which since its formation at

ay.
The 26
of

delegates came to the convention with the man-

{ate
‘elbeeatin® Meeting that had elected them. And out of their

‘d Teng S came their ringing demand for Confederation
x BSible_ government.

inet by th The government of British Columbia does not
her tOte © free and just consent of the governed and is
‘tions wy despotism,” they voiced in the first of their reso’
“het o : an the second they voiced their demand. “that,
oe ““mission into the Dominion of Canada shall occur
"ent sho, (or csentative institutions and’ responsible govern

ud be inaugurated forthwith in British Columbia.

th the gi’te Opponents of Confederation had not been idle.
th. ay ae that followed, the colonial party, supported by
th: Vig 2Msts, contrived to defeat De Cosmos and carry
ate Mainland oe although the pro-Confederationists swept
he by Nd. When the new legislative council met, domin-

8 thas S0vernment-appointed members, a resolution assert

PSS “htry ‘into Confederation was “undesirable, even if

practicable” was adopted over the opposition of pro-Confed-

erationists.

Now Sir. John A. Macdonald decided to gles In
4 letter directed to the British government he wrote: “Tt is
quite clear that no time should be lost by Lord Granville in
putting the screws on Vancouver Island, and the first thing
to be done will be to recall Governor Seymour, if his time
ig not out. Now that the Hudson’s Bay Company has suc’
cumbed; and it is to their interest to make things pleasant
with the Canadian goverrnment, they will, I have no. doubt,
instruct their people to change their anti-‘Confederate tone.
We shall then have ot fight only the Yankee adventurers and
the annexation party proper, which there will ae diffi-
culty in doing if we have a good man at the helm,

The “good man” proposed by Macdonald was Anthony
Musgrave, governor of Newfoundland and a pro-Confedera-
tionist, In June, 1869, Seymour died and in August Mus-
grave assumed the governorship, instrructed to promote the
colony’s entry into Confederation.

The annexationists made one last desperate bid to turn
the tide. The U.S. had already hemmed the colony in by its
purchase of Alaska in 1867 and now the annexationists made
their appeal directly to Washington.

- On November 13, 1869, the British Colonist reported
that a petition circulated in Victoria had been given to a Gen-
eral Ihrie, passenger on the USS Newbern, for delivery to

President Grant, although from the San Francisco Morning
Bulletin of November 17 it appeared that it had passed to
Vincent Collyer, special Indian commissioner for the Alaskan
tribes.

Signed by 43 merchants and tradesmen, the petition
expressed alarm at the impending union with Canada  be-
cause “it cannot open to us a market for the produce of our
lands, or forests, our mines and our waters. The commercial
and industrial interests of Canada, it asserted, were opposed
to those of British Columbia and its tariff will be the ruin
of our farmers and the commerce of our chief cities.;

On December 29 the petition was formally presented
to President Grant, who reportedly received it with great
interest, and subsequently shown. to Senator Sumner, chair-
man of the Committee for Foreign Relations, who thought
the movement was important and could have but one ending.

But Sumner. the expansionist, was wrong. The annexa-
tionist party had no great influence and the ending already
in sight was Confederation. The one question remaining
was how it should be written: as Musgrave wanted it written
and the final draft actually set it out without provision for
responsible government; as Robson proposed, with re-
sponsible government to be’ introduced at | the time of
Confederation; or as De Cosmos. demanded, with re-
sponsible government to precede Confedaration to decide the
delegation and the terms.,

Despite their differences, the leaders of the popular
movement were determined to win responsible government.
They organized a public meeting in Victoria and the next
day a deputation backed by the resolution the meeting had
endorsed, waited on the governor. Musgrave, who interpret-
ed his instructions to restrict democratic participation in de-
ciding the terms of union, just as Confederation itself had
been carried through without reference to the people, at-
tempted to exploit the differences within the popular move-
ment, and when that failed, reluctantly conceded that respon-
sible government would be included in the terms.

The popular movement was still distrustful, and with
reason. The official delegation included Helmcken, whose
sympathies had been with the annexationists, Dr. W. W.
Carrall, who had no desire for responsible government, and
J. W. Trutch, a government official. So an unofficial “people's
delegation left in May, 1870. There his arguments that Con-
federation would not be accepted without responsible gov-
ernment prevailed with the Canadian cabinet and the terms of
union were amended,

Responsible government had been won. The fight now was
to give it even limited meaning for the working people of
the new province, the miners, loggers and farmers of the new
province whose struggles had won it.

(NEXT WEEK: BLOOD ON THE COAL)
April 25, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 9

What about dividends?

J. LYNN, Vancouver, B.C.:
These days the daily newspap-
ers, and the big businessmen,
are doing a lot of yelling about
high wages.

But what about the relation
between living costs and high
profits?

Last week the newspapers
carried en item, buried in the
financial pages headed,—

“Canadian dividend  pay-
ments in Apri] of $56,686,245
are the highest on record for
this month and compare with
$56,24,24 in 1957 and $44,955,-
012 in April, 1958.”

"Nuff said.

‘Medieval squalor’

E. J. MORRIS, Edmonton:
A local paper recently carried
a news story from Athabasca
describing how Dr. Hugh
Brown, medical director of the
Athabasca Health Unit and the
unit’s sanitary inspector Ed-
ward Almond, found condi-
tions of “medieval squalor” in
some 27 logging camps they

“Among conditions found,”
said Brown, “have been: a
bunkhouse without windows
or other ventilation, absence
of toilets, filthy bedding, in-
adequate kitchen equipment,
no bathing facilities, cracked
cups and dishes, unprotected
water supplies, unprotected
water storage, drinking water
in an open pail with one dirty
cup to dip it out with; and
general filth.”

This is 1958, not 1908. Camps
such as these ought to be clos-
ed.

Abundant earth

FRIEND, Vancouver, B.C.:

Has the earth suddenly be-
come parched and unyielding?
Is it no longer able to bring
forth? Are the cattle all dy-
ing on the plains? Have our
mines become empty of ore?
Are the forests all gone? Has
man’s inventive genius sud-
denly failed? Have men’s hands
become crippled that they can
ne longer work?

If the earth can still yield
abundantly; if domestic ani-
mals still flourish; if the mines
are not bare; if the forests are
still green; if man’s genius is
still keen; and if men are as
able to work as ever, then
there can be no reason for a
depression save a stupid cling-
ing to a system of economy
that no longer serves our
needs.

Sia as