BRITISH COLUMBIA
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BRITISH COLUMBIA
Range, thus creating what is known as the dry belt east of those mountains, but the higher currents of air carry the moisture to the loftier peaks of the Selkirks, causing the heavy snow fall which distinguishes that range from its eastern neighbor, the Rockies. Thus a series of alternate moist and dry belts is formed. As a consequence of the purity of its air, its freedom from malaria and the almost total absence of extremes of heat and cold, British Columbia may be regarded as a vast sanitarium.
The climate of Vancouver Island and the coast generally corresponds very closely with that of England; the summers are warm with much bright sunshine, and severe frost scarcely ever occurs in winter. On the mainland similar conditions prevail till the higher levels are reached, where the winters are cooler. At Agassiz, on the Lower Fraser, the average mean temperature is in January 33 degrees and in July 64 degrees; the lowest temperature on record at this point is 13 degrees, and the highest 97 degrees. There are no summer frosts, and the annual rainfall is 67 inches, 95 per cent, of which falls during the autumn and winter.
To the eastward of the Coast Range, in Yale and West Kootenay the climate is quite different. The summers are warmer, the winters colder and the rainfalls are rather light—bright dry weather being the rule. The cold of winter is, however, scarcely ever severe, and the hottest days of summer are made pleasant by the fact that the air is dry and the nights are cool. Further north, in the undeveloped parts of the province, the winters are more severe.
Resources. With the exception of nickel (which has not yet been discovered in quantity) all that the other provinces of Canada boast of possessing in the way of raw material is here in abundance. British Columbia's coal measures are sufficient to supply the world for centuries; it possesses the greatest compact area of merchantable timber in North America; the mines have produced $430,000,000 and may be said to be only in the early stages of development; the fisheries produce an annual average of over $12,000,000, and apart from salmon fishing their importance is only beginning to be realized; there are immense deposits of magnetite and hematite iron of the finest quality which still remain undeveloped; the agricultural and fruit lands, cattle ranges and dairies produced approximately $22,000,000 in 1912; and less than one tenth of the available land is settled upon, much less cultivated; the province has millions of acres of pulpwood as yet unexploited; petroleum deposits, but recently discovered, are among the most extensive in the world; and much of the province is still unexplored and its potential value unknown.
With all this undeveloped wealth within its borders can it be wondered at that British Columbians are sanguine of the future?
Agriculture. Considerable tracts of land in the province are highly suitable for mixed farming, and in some districts fruit growing is extensively and most profitably engaged in.
Education. The educational facilities of the province are varied and excellent. The expenditure for schools amounts to over $1,100,000 a year. The government builds a schoolhouse, makes a grant for incidental expenses and pays a teacher in every district where 20 children between the ages of 6 and 16 can be brought together. For outlying farming districts and mining camps the arrangements are very satisfactory. High schools also are established in cities, where classics and mathematics are taught. Several of the cities in the province have full charge of their own public and high schools, and these receive a very liberal per capita grant in aid from the provincial government.
Trade and Transportation. In 1903' the imports amounted to $11,141,068, and the exports totalled $15,604,896. In 1913 the imports were $66,596,479 and the exports $27,087,369, or a total increase in the trade of the province of over $66,000,000 in ten years. The leading articles of export are fish, coal, gold, silver, copper, lead, timber, masts, spars, furs and skins, whale products, fish-oil, hops and fruit. A large portion of the salmon, canned and pickled, goes to Great Britain, eastern Canada, the United States, Hawaiian Islands, Australia and Japan; the United States consumes a large share of the exported coal; and immense quantities of lumber are shipped to Great Britain, South Africa, China, Japan, India, South America and Australia. A large in-terprovincial trade with Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the eastern provinces is rapidly developing, the fruit grown in British Columbia being largely shipped to the prairie provinces, where it finds a good market. With the shipping facilities offered by the Canadian Pacific Railway and its magnificent fleets of steamships running to Japan, China, New Zealand, Australia and Hawaii, backed by her natural advantages of climate and geographical position, British Columbia's already large trade is rapidly increasing. The tonnage of vessels employed in the coasting trade is 12,025,510 tons, and of sea-going vessels carrying cargoes to and from the ports of the province, 4,672,058 tons. The Canadian Pacific is the principal railway in the province. It has two main lines, the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Crowsnest Pass Railway, and several branches and steamboat connections on the inland lakes, besides its large fleet of oceangoing and coasting steamers. The railway mileage of the province is about 2,000 miles.
