VIII Prince Edward Island
This, by far the smallest of the Canadian provinces, seems to exercise a peculiar charm on all who visit or dwell within it. “Abegweit”—“Rest on the Wave”—was the poetic name bestowed upon it by its Indian inhabitants; and rugged Jacques Cartier, the Breton explorer, described the country in glowing terms as “the most beautiful it is possible to see... full of beautiful trees and meadows... of pease, white and red gooseberries, strawberries, blackberries and wild grain like rye,” and having “the best temperature it is possible to see.”
In shape Prince Edward Island bears some resemblance to a crescent with the two horns turned northwards, and the outer curve lying from nine to fifteen miles away from the corresponding curve of the mainland shores of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Its greatest length is about one hundred and forty miles, and its greatest breadth thirty-four miles, but its shores are so deeply indented with bays and inlets that the distance between water and water is in places only two miles.
Its soil is peculiarly fertile; and compared with the other provinces—all of which have large stretches of wild land, either uncultivated or uncultivable—it may well claim the title of the “Garden of the Gulf,” for 86 per cent. of its surface is occupied by farms, and very little of the remaining 14 per cent. is actually worthless for agriculture.
It has no mountains or wild, rugged hills, no great forests, and of course no great rivers; but the land is pleasantly undulating, vegetation is usually richly green, contrasting with soil of a warm reddish hue, with glints of shining water, or with lines of snowy breakers, roaring on the sands. In general the character of the scenery is mild and gentle and smiling; with a glad wealth of colour when the orchards are breaking into bloom, or when the first touch of frost is kindling a magic glow amongst the maples and sumach trees. But the wildly-beating surf on the reefs of the north shore forbids that even here nature’s majesty and strength and terror should be forgotten.
The climate is milder than that of the mainland near by, neither so sharply cold in winter nor so fiercely hot in summer, though all writers have praise for the “Island’s” clear blue skies and plenitude of sunlight.
Prince Edward Island is reached by steamers from Point du Chêne in New Brunswick to Summerside; and from Pictou in Nova Scotia to Charlottetown; or from Pictou to Georgetown, when the strait is full of ice. Strongly-built ice-breaking steamers, however, usually manage to keep open communication with the capital of the little province; and in winter there is an “ice-boat service,” by which the adventurous can cross from Cape Tormentine to Cape Traverse. The ice-boat is contrived to travel either in water or on the ice by means of “twin keels,” which in case of necessity serve as “runners.”
The people, however, have for long demanded improved means of communication with the mainland, and at last a “car-ferry” steamer (powerful enough to force its way through the worst ice) is to be constructed to connect the railway on the island with the Intercolonial line on the mainland. Both are owned by the Dominion government. “The island railway is of a narrow gauge, but it is to be changed this year to the standard gauge (4 ft. 8½ ins.) of the Canadian and American lines.” When this is done, Prince Edward Island will be very happily situated in the matter of transportation service, for into her three counties, all with easy water-communication, is packed a well-branched railway line of two hundred and sixty miles.
Prince Edward Island was first called the Island of St. John, but historians are not agreed as to who bestowed this name upon “the right little, tight little island.” Some people think it was John Cabot; some Samuel Champlain; but, at any rate, it bore the name from the time its history began until 1799, when it was re-christened in honour of Queen Victoria’s father. In 1663 it was granted by the “Company of New France” to a French naval officer, Doublet, and a few fishing stations were established. As late as 1728 it had only three hundred inhabitants; but after the deportation of the Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1755, a good many of these hapless people took refuge in the peaceful island. It was annexed by the British the year before the capture of Quebec, and was amongst the territories formally ceded to England by the Treaty of Paris in 1763.
In 1767 the soil of nearly the whole island was disposed of in one day to officers and other gentlemen, who agreed to settle the country, and, by paying small “quit-rents” for their lands, to provide for the cost of government. Small reservations were made for the support of churches and schools; but the plan, it may be said, was an utter failure, saddling the island for many years with a class of absentee landlords, who did practically nothing for the country. For more than a century the cultivators of the soil remained in the position of tenants.
In 1873, when the province agreed to enter into Confederation, the Dominion government granted $800,000 (£160,000) to aid in buying out the land-owners; but many would not sell, till an Act was passed in 1875 obliging them to sell at a fair price to the Provincial government, which in turn sold to the tenants.
Many years earlier, in 1851, the Islanders had secured responsible government. At that time the Parliament consisted of a Governor and Legislative Council, appointed by the Crown, and an elective Assembly. Later, the Council also was elected by owners of leasehold and freehold property worth $325 (£65) and over. Finally, in 1893, the unusual arrangement was made of amalgamating the two branches of the Legislature; and now fifteen councilmen, chosen by the property-owners, and fifteen assembly men, elected by the men of the Province, on a property qualification so low that scarcely any man is excluded, sit and vote together.
The legislature of Prince Edward Island, which first met in 1773, is housed in a fine old, grey stone building in Charlottetown, fronting on Queen Square, about which are other public buildings, including the Law Courts, the General Post Office, the Custom House, and the market building, which every Tuesday and Friday, when the country people come in to dispose of their produce, presents a very animated scene.
But to return to the government. The expenditure on the salaries of the Lieutenant-Governor, the cabinet ministers and the members of the assembly; the administration of justice; the support of schools and public works and some other charges amount to $420,000 (about £84,000). Three-fourths of this is met by the subsidy from the Federal government, and the remaining quarter is raised by provincial taxes, which are very low. The province is represented in the Dominion parliament by four senators, and four members of the House of Commons.
The population, despite the prosperity of the island, diminished by over nine thousand between 1901 and the next census year, 1911. It has been suggested that this was due in part to the “lure of the West,” and perhaps in part to the fact that many of the people are descended from that race of wanderers and excellent pioneers, the Scotch. During the great migration of the American loyalists northward, the Island of St. John obtained a considerable addition to its population. These were of various races; but in 1803 Lord Selkirk brought out eight hundred Highland crofters, and after a short time of hardship these colonists settled down happily. Many of their descendants still dwell in the island.
There are a few manufacturing establishments at the capital—Charlottetown—and at others of its small centres of population, but chiefly of a description depending directly on the industries of fishing and farming.
The island is naturally a favourable place for fishermen. Its fisheries of cod, mackerel, herring, lobsters and oysters are important, the latter fishery being the most valuable of its kind in Canada. The “Malpeque oyster,” from the bay so named, is widely famous, and the provincial government is taking steps “to extend and develop this industry by the replanting and cultivation of an area estimated at one hundred thousand acres.”
The tourist trade is such an important branch of the island’s industries that, in this connection, it is matter for congratulation that the summer visitors can find trout in the numerous streams and can enjoy sea-fishing from boats. As for game, moose and bears need not be looked for in the “Garden” province; but wild fowl are plentiful in the season.
After all, however, the soil is the chief source of wealth, and the island possesses “a fertilizer of singular value and potency” in the mussel or oyster mud found in vast quantities in all its bays and river mouths, and consisting of “the organic remains of countless generations of oysters, mussels, clams and other bivalves.” This is a veritable “mine of wealth to the island,” enriching the poorest soils, so that they grow excellent crops of clover, turnips and potatoes.
In times past the settlers of Prince Edward Island made the mistake—common in farming virgin soils—of continuing year after year to raise the same crop, without taking any measures to secure the continued fertility of the soil. Happily, through private enterprise and government encouragement, more scientific methods are coming into fashion, and the farmers are going extensively into dairying. In consequence, many farms have gone up 50 per cent. in value and productiveness during the past two decades; and, in the last census, little Prince Edward Island could point with pardonable pride to a much greater product from her dairy factories than could be shown by either of the far larger provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
In proportion to size this province has the largest population of any, but there is room still for many a good farmer. It is not a land of free grants, but there are farms for sale at reasonable prices which could be farmed to great advantage by men with a little capital, trained in good English methods. Of course the prices depend on situation and worth of buildings, as well as on the quality of the land, but farms of different sizes ranging from ten to two hundred and fifty acres may be bought at from about £2 the acre (in the case of good-sized farms) to £16 the acre.
In Prince Edward Island such a large proportion of the people are farmers that their importance to the community is recognized more readily than where the mercantile classes predominate and have the ear of the government. Great efforts are now being made to give an education in the public schools suited to the needs of the rural population. At the Teachers’ College and Normal School in Charlottetown courses of lectures are given in agriculture. At several places school gardens have been introduced with good results, and in others one “consolidated school,” with different teachers for different classes, has taken the place of six ordinary schools, the children being taken to and from the centre in vans. Steps have also been taken to arrange for better salaries for teachers.
The farmers and their families work hard, but usually find some time for reading, music, or other recreations, and social gatherings, especially in the “slack” winter season, and as a rule they live well. They are rarely addicted to indulgence in any liquor stronger than tea. In fact, the sale of intoxicants, unless prescribed by a doctor, is prohibited in Prince Edward Island, and, though the law may be sometimes evaded, the consumption of strong drink is much less than it was a generation ago.
There are many churches in Prince Edward Island. Considerably over one-third of the people belong to the church of Rome, and of the Protestant denominations the Presbyterians are much the strongest. The people support their own churches, largely by congregational subscriptions, supplemented in poor districts by grants from the “Mission Funds” of the particular religious body. Of course the churches are a very important factor in the social as well as the religious life of the people. In this connection, societies and organizations, such as the “Sons of Temperance” and the “Foresters,” are also of importance.
There is a demand in Prince Edward Island for farm workers, and though the wages are not quite so high as in some parts of Canada, it has the advantage for British immigrants of being nearer to England, and of conditions more closely resembling those of the “Old Country.” Wages for an experienced man, with board and lodging, range from $12 (£2 8s.) a month in the winter to $16 (£3 4s.) a month through the busy season, of about eight months; a married man can often obtain a cottage rent free.
In any notice of Prince Edward Island one industry must by no means be forgotten. This is the breeding of black foxes, of which the fur is immensely valuable. It began in 1896, when a man living in Tignish bought three black foxes caught near Bedeque for $300 (£60); but the price of a good pair has now gone up to $20,000 (£4,000). Black foxes have been imported from Labrador, and now “fox ranches” in the island can be counted by hundreds. In 1911 the value of this curious branch of stock-raising was estimated at $2,000,000. In the early part of 1913 the capital invested, by some six thousand shareholders, reached $6,000,000. In that year, on the opening of the Provincial Legislature, the industry was mentioned in the “speech from the throne,” and during the session forty new companies were incorporated.