SASKATCHEWAN AND ITS PEOPLE
1924

         
A FALSE REPORT. [sic]

Since the foregoing was typed we have received some additional in-
formation.


Perhaps nothing did more harm to the colony than a report that
went through the Canadian and British press that the colonists were in
danger of starving and freezing to death. As a matter of fact the coloniza-
tion agent had, as before stated, made a complete inspection in November
and steps had been taken to prevent any unnecessary suffering.  There
is a saying that if twenty-four hours' start is given a lie, it can never
be overtaken, and in this case the lie had a start of some weeks.


January, 1884, about ten months after the colonists left England, a
representative gathering of about 30 leading settlers from all parts of
the wide-spread colony took place at the "Rectory", the residence of Chap-
lain Lloyd, who by the way was the nominee and representative of the
Colonial and Continental Church Society of London. So many letters had
been received asking for information that it was thought desirable to draw
up and issue a printed statement of the facts. This was done. A public
meeting was then called, and the statement read.  One or two minor
amendments were made, and the statement was unanimously endorsed. It.
was therefore authentic and reliable. A copy of that statement, embodied
in a folder, which contained also a good deal of general Information, is
now, by the courtesy of Dr. Amos, lying before us. It says in part, "On
the western side of this (Saskatchewan) Territory of enormous possi-
bilities is the district of Brittania. Commencing at Range 28, west of
the 3rd meridian line, and extending westward towards the border of
the Territory, the district (of Brittania) covers all the ground between
the Butte, Saskatchewan and Vermilion rivers, roughly 100 miles from
east to west and thirty miles from north to south. Until the British
colony of March, 1903, came to settle, hardly a homestead had been taken
in the whole of this fine region, and because nearly all the new comers
were Englishmen it was called Brittania in honor of the land of our
birth. Of the future of Brittania there can be no question. Tbe colony
is every day assuming a more habitable homelike appearance, small
houses, barns, haystacks, ploughed land and trails appearing in all direc-
tions. While it would be premature to say that everything is now sun-
shine, this much is already evident, that of the one thousand souls now
on the land 990 are here to stay, and three years from now will be glad
they did. We have a fine district, a splendid set of people, and the future
is very bright and full of hope to any man who will take hold".


Surely this is not the language of a lot of headstrong, foolish people
who were starving and freezing through their own folly, and their re-
fusal to take advice. And yet this was the impression prevailing through-
out Canada and England at the very time this statement was drawn up.
There is no doubt the Immigration Officials found them a somewhat diffi-
cult bunch to handle. The Englishman always is. He absolutely refuses
to do as he is told simply because he is told. We have been told that
every other nationality under the sun is only too glad to recognise that
they are strangers in a strange land. They are anxious and grateful for
guidance. The confident-overconfident-Englishman is inclined to know
it all from the start, like the hero of the potato-digger, who refused to see
that a machine which could work in soft earth which had been tilled for
centuries might be quite unsuited for a soil which had been sealed up
since the days of Noah. But this same defect in the qualities of the Eng-
lishman-this overconfidence combined with a bull dog tenacity which re-
fuses to let go has done much towards placing Great Britain where she
stands today-the leader of the world, whether in peace or war.


It was not ti~l the middle of October that the townsite of Lloydminster
was thrown open, yet at the' time of freeze-up there were "two large gen-
eral stores, a post office with a postal note service, a telegraph office, drug
store, a saddlery and harness shop, two butchers, blacksmith's shop, car-
penter's shop, three restaurants, a livery stable and about seventy-five
houses. The townsite comprised a mile square 'and was in the meridian
line, half one side and half the other. This caused considerable incon-
venience when the provinces were established for half of the town was
in Alberta and the other half in Saskatchewan.  The folder stated that
"no license had been issued for the sale of liquors, the development of
the town having been marked by the utmost orderliness, decency and
sobriety".


The pamphlet had something to say about the climate, viz:  Nothing
has more pleasantly surprised our people than the weather we have had,
especially the winter.  Those much-dreaded long winter months have
turned out anything but what we feared. Cold snaps there certainly are
when the thermometer drops below zero, and we pile on the firewood and
keep under cover as much as we can, but already our first winter is slipping
l)y, and we have had no deep snow, and the weeks of bright, clear and
invigorating sunshine in which we could work and travel with pleasure
have been a surprise.


The statement was signed on behalf of the public by:
G.E. Lloyd, M. A., Chaplain of the colony.
R.N. Blackburn, J. P., overseer and Church warden.
W.W. Amos, M.D., J. P.


Nathaniel Jones, Church warden.  For 15 years (12-1\2 as manager)
with Milner Safe Co., Ltd., Manchester.


Crawford A. J. Bowen, Captain of Brittania Rifle Association,late
Lieutenant 2nd V. B. (volunteer Battalion) Durham, L. I., Gainford, Co.
Durham, England.


William Rendell, Lieutenant of Brittania Rifle Association, formerly of
Netherton Manor, Newton, Devon, Church warden, Overseer and Guardian


And in conclusion, what is to be said of the Rev. I. M. Barr, the man
who set this big scheme in motion, and was its leading spirit for a short
time after his army of settlers had arrived on the ground. We are in-
elined to size him up as a big man in a small way.  His scheme was
sound. A large part of it was the establishment of co-operative stores,
hospital, lumber company with its own lumber limit, co-operative hospital
co-operative ploughing company and one or two more things.  Two or
three of these were organised, but fell to pieces.  Barr had one fatal
defect in commercial leadership. He wanted to manage everything him-
self. He did not know how to select good men and then trust them with
the actual management, retaining for himself only a general supervision.
From the first there was friction and soon that English spirit which would
not submit merely to do what it was told, asserted itself, and the settlers
gave him his "walking ticket".  Without imputing to him anything at
all invidious there is no doubt that he had a healthy instinct for taking
care of No.1. As the saying has it he was "not there for the good of
his health". He was succeeded in the leadership by a man of an entirely
different stamp-the present Bishop Lloyd.  Mr. Lloyd was a man of
strong and fine character.  His one object was the good of the colony,
without one iota of interest in it from the point of view of pecuniary gain
or personal ambition.  The Barr colony rests even today under a cloud
of misapprehension in the public mind. We are glad of the opportunity
of doing a little towards placing it in a truer and more favorable light.


Bibliography follows: