Letter on British Columbia 1892

To F. D. Tims,

Recording Secretary of the Quebec Geographical Society

New Westminster, BC, 24 January 1892

My dear friend,

It was with very much pleasure, I assure you, that I received your last interesting letter, not having heard from you, for so long a time previously …

I was much pleased with your account of the buildings recently put up in the ancient capital. Having passed half a century of my life there, I look upon it almost as my birthplace and shall always take an interest in all that goes on in the old fort … Our public and private affairs, in British Columbia, seem to be still progressing favourably. Here, in Westminster, we are now in direct communication with Seattle and the cities of the south, by the completion of the Great Northern Railway which has its terminus on the south bank of the Fraser, immediately opposite our city.¹ The mails to Oregon and Washington States are also taken by this route and the time of transit is greatly shortened. I frequently correspond with my daughter who is now at Vancouver, Washington, and the letters, which formerly took four days in transit, now take only two.

Buildings are going up all round. We have electric lights and a city tramway since last year; and there is now a tramcar connecting with Vancouver, twelve miles distant, every two hours.

It must be confessed that our population is made up of rather heterogeneous elements. Apart of the heathen Chinese, the noble red man of the forest, and a few wanderers from the Great Republic, we have: 1) the native British Columbians, chiefly miners of 1858 or their descendants; 2) the native Britishers or those who have emigrated direct from the old country; 3) those who have come from the Eastern Provinces of the Dominion of Canada and are styled, half contemptuously, “Canadians.” These latter have been looked upon hitherto, with something of dislike and disfavour by the others, being, as a rule, better informed than the native British Columbians and less angular and prejudiced than the native Britishers. But the tide seems to be now turning; so many professional and well educated men have come in from the East, that they now come to the front in everything and the native British Columbians and the native Britishers find themselves compelled, nolentes volentes, to take a back seat and moderate themselves accordingly.²

It is a little unfortunate, I think, that the substratum of the community has been made up by miners. From their old habits of recklessness and gambling, they have infused a spirit of irregularity and carelessness in all our transactions, which it will take some time to get rid of. They make bad farmers, are always thriftless and improvident, and, in many cases, mortgage their farms for the loan of a few hundred dollars, which they repay, despite any written contract, when it suits their convenience. It is from their ignorance and apathy that the fruit trees in the province have degenerated. The apples and pears, which I have tasted, do not bear comparison, in my estimation, as to delicacy and flavour, with those of the Eastern provinces. Thence, too, the awful toughness of the beef we are doomed to eat. Oh! for the tender juicy meat of those Eastern pastures! … Neither can the British immigrants be considered, as a rule, fair types of the land to which they belong. To say nothing of their ungracious morgue and insular prejudice, they are, in general, men who have failed in their own country, either from incapacity or want of stability, and come to British Columbia as a sort of desperate venture.

But in respect to climate, it must be confessed, we have advantages. Throughout the year, there is a tolerably even uniformity in the temperature; it is never oppressively hot in summer and never much below freezing in winter. Neither are we troubled with those storms of wind or cyclones, which devastate the flat country east of the Rockies. The rainfall on the Pacific coast is considerable and increases as it trends towards the north. I find the climate of New Westminster more pleasant than that of Victoria. The rainfall is greater here; but the intervals are drier; and the heavy sea-fogs of the Island, with their penetrating chills, are here replaced by the milder fogs of the Fraser river.

No doubt, the mildness of the winter is somewhat adverse to certain forms of vegetable growth. The larger trees become soft and spongy in fibre (I refer to those which are deciduous) from the frequent winter thaws. They do not seem to get enough sleep. The oaks in the vicinity of Victoria (Quercus garryiana Doug) are, in general, of a dwarfed and scrubby appearance, and the timber is worthless.³ I have heard the Honble [sic] Mr. Richards declare “there was not enough hardwood on the Island to make an axe handle.” The maple, here, is the Acer macrophyllum, or large headed kind, of small stature, and very different from the stately sugar maples of the East. The finest trees are the large conifers on the highest lands of the interior, the gigantic red cedar (Thuja gigantea), the Pinus monticola, and others of that family.

As to the fisheries, the salmon canning on the Fraser is a well-known branch of industry. The generic name of our salmon is Oncorhyncus or hook-nosed, according to Ashdown Green⁴; it is different from the Eastern kind, and, to my mind, much less palatable. It is soft and comparatively tasteless, as are all the fish out here, perhaps from the higher temperature of the Pacific waters.

The expenses of living, in this part of the world, are rather high. Medical and legal fees are double those in the East; house-rent, clothing, dry goods, beef and mutton, and servants are all more expensive here than with you. By the way, I may note, in reference to the last item, that this may be considered a sort of servants’ paradise. A white servant or housemaid, can scarcely be had under fifteen dollars a month; and these are generally young women from the country districts, coarse, awkward, incapable and indolent. The best servants are the Chinese; but a good Chinaman is not to be had under twenty dollars; and some object to them. But they certainly are perfection itself in that line: rapid in their movements noiseless, industrious, clever, and obliging. These people are under a sort of cloud hereabouts. As craftsmen and labourers, they do their work conscientiously and well, and, from their frugal style of living at lower wages than white labourers who in consequence, are unwearied in their hatred and persecution.⁵ And the worst of it is that these latter, who are often men of brutalized habits and savage instincts, have most of them, in the present low state of the franchise, votes to give, both in municipal and provincial elections, and consequently are flattered and made much of by public candidates. To me, and I should think to all disinterested persons, these quiet celestials seem to be a very useful part of the community, inoffensive, law abiding and laborious. I fear I am wearying you with these details, but I thought you would like to hear something of this remote and interesting section of the great Dominion. This young province, whatever may be said, is full of life and vigor. In course of time, no doubt, changes will be made, and defects will be swept away; but it possesses already advantages in which no change is possible or necessary: magnificent scenery, a healthy climate, an ample seaboard, and an interior country of unsurpassed natural resources.

Believe me to remain

always

Very truly yours

E. T. Fletcher