History Helps Volume Two, Number 9, August 2002
========================================

• B. C. Day
• Smuggling in British Columbia
• The Drunkard’s Protection Act
• The Globe and Mail On-line
• Promotion of Settlement on Vancouver Island
• North Vancouver Cemetery
• B. C. Penitentiary
• Babies’ Name
• History of the Canadian Dollar
• Something to Think About
• Privacy, Subscription Policy
  

HAPPY B. C. DAY!

Subscribers living outside Canada may not realize that the first Monday in August is a statutory holiday here. In fact, when B. C. Day was proclaimed in 1974, this Province was the only one in Canada without a civic holiday in August. The purpose, according to the British Columbia Day Act of June 5, 1974, is “to recognize in each year the pioneers who built the Colony of British Columbia into the great Province that it is today.” By the way, this information was far from easy to locate, but the Social Sciences Department at the Vancouver Public Library came through with flying colours.

Smuggling? In British Columbia?

We knew this was happening in the 1920s, but in the 19th century ...?

“Whisky Smuggling to Be Stopped

The whisky traders whose sloops continually infest the deeply indented west coast of Vancouver Island, and who occasion more trouble to the Indian department than all the Indians of the Province, are hereafter to be suppressed. The business, which has been carried on for months past, has now grown to assume threatening proportions, there being probably half a dozen boats engaged in the illicit traffic. Both the Sir James Douglas and the Quadra have the collector’s warrant to seize on sight any suspicious looking vessel and all American sloops found along the shores of Vancouver Island in future, without stress of weather or other justification to plead in excuse, will be detained, and the detention will continue until a satisfactory explanation of their movements is secured.”

Source: Vancouver Daily World, Thursday, 25 August 1892, page four.

A Related Item (By a Stretch)

“PUBLIC NOTICE

At his own request, made to me in writing, I have this day placed W___ R_____ (more commonly known as D_____ R_____) under the Drunkards’ Protection Act, and all persons are hereby prohibited from supplying said W_____ R_____ with any intoxicating liquor whatever, whether by sale, gift, treating, barter or exchange or in any other manner, or to aid, assist or connive at his procuring intoxicating liquor of any kind.

Given under my hand and seal this thirteenth day of April, A. D. 1907, at Ladner, in the Province of British Columbia.
WM. R. CURTIS, S. M.”

Source: The Delta Times, Tuesday, 16 April 1907, page four.

Obviously the names were spelled out in the original, but I’ve chosen discretion to protect living descendants. The curious part about this notice is not that it would have been mortifying (or not, since in a small community, everyone knew everyone else’s business), but rather that by so doing, the subject was able to pass responsibility for his shortcomings onto the community at large. Or was this an earlier, and more credible, version of “it takes a village to raise a child”?

The Globe and Mail On-line

Some of you may have seen in The Globe and Mail (Toronto) dated Thursday, July 4, 2002, an item that began as follows:

“Globe to offer pages from past on-line

The Globe and Mail’s archives from the past 158 years will be turned into an on-line searchable digital archive, the newspaper announced yesterday... The archive will be available on a subscription basis ... It is being marketed primarily for educational organizations and public libraries.”

A tiny item in the next day’s newspaper labelled “Clarification” added that this archive “will be created using a process called Archive Publisher from Cold North Wind Inc. of Ottawa.” Nowhere was mention made of the subscription price.

Promotion of Settlement on Vancouver Island

Anyone at all familiar with Cape Scott, the northwestern tip of Vancouver Island, and its settlement, will find the following of interest:

“THOUSANDS OF ACRES

Of Excellent Land Discovered on Vancouver Island Near Cape Scott
Mr. E. B. Hermon, of the surveying firm of Garden, Hermon & Burwell, who had been surveying for the Government on the northern end of Vancouver Island for some months back, returned to the city by the ss. Boscowitz on Sunday. He states that another valuable tract of land was lately discovered by his surveying party, near Cape Scott, containing at least 200,000 acres of the very best land for grazing and stock raising purposes, as well as other branches of pastural and agricultural industry. The land is a perfect park country, and in Mr. Hermon’s opinion is superior to any other section in the Province for stock raising as there is abundance of water, whilst the grass, in consequence of the humidity of the climate, is always green and in prime condition to feed upon. It is situated some three miles inland from the coast, and about 25 miles north of Fort Rupert, 200 miles from Vancouver, and 280 miles from Victoria. Other sections have been surveyed in which there is found to exist considerable areas of excellent land suitable for all classes of farming. No one had any idea that such tracts existed as have recently been discovered at the head of the Island. The policy of the Government in prosecuting these surveys is a commendable, as well as a profitable, one for the Province, as not until surveyors penetrate the interior are people aware of the richness of the inheritance they possess.”

Source: Vancouver Daily World, 24 August 1892, page one.

North Vancouver Cemetery

The city of North Vancouver now has a searchable database for its cemetery. The web address for North Vancouver’s home page, from which you need to carefully follow some links, is http://www.cnv.org/

An Institution That Is No Longer (Not to Mention Victorian Attitudes)

"THE PENITENTIARY

Some Notes About the Dominion House of Restraint at New Westminster

To the properly constituted human being restraint of any kind is irksome. Every lad from the time of entering upon his apprenticeship looks forward to the time when he shall be his own boss. Children look forward to the time when they shall be of age and have control of their own affairs. To them there is always a bright, prospective future. To the prisoner pent within prison walls the restraint is the more irksome, albeit that he may feel somewhere down in his inner consciousness that he deserves it, because he is lacking of that comforting prospective, though this must not be taken as a suggestion that they are all without hope because many of them have left the penitentiary much better men than when they entered it. Many of them, too, fare much better in the penitentiary then they did before they entered it. This may, perhaps not be a good thing, as it may induce them to do something in order to get back again. They are certainly assured there of warm and, comparatively, comfortable quarters, wholesome food, comfortable if not gaudy raiment and no more work than is necessary to keep a man’s body healthy. To the worst class the enforced cleanliness is perhaps the most irksome part of their sojourn.

A World reporter the other day paid a visit to the British Columbia penitentiary and was very courteously shown around the premises by Warden John C. Whyte and Deputy Warden D. D. Bourke. A visit was first paid to the stables, the piggery, the bakery, the tailor shop, the carpenter shop and the paint shop. These were all fully described in The World a comparatively short time ago. Not a great many changes have been made since then, though the new warden has made some improvements. A new boiler house has been built from brick manufactured on the penitentiary premises. There is a good bed of suitable clay and the bricks made look first class. By this new arrangement a large saving in fuel is anticipated. The two chapel libraries have also been turned into a general library.
One thing that no visitor can help noticing is the absolute cleanliness that prevails everywhere. In the shops and in the prison itself, in the cooking department, in the store-rooms, everywhere it is the same. You could eat off the floors without hesitation. The stables and the piggery are also models. The prisoners on the whole seem to be as contented and happy as it could be expected that they would be. Life men are allowed to fix up their cells a bit and some of them are very handsomely decorated, with leaves and pictures. Many of the prisoners, too, it is noticed make use of the library. The rule is that they are allowed to read until 9 o’clock each evening. Some of them are studying and are supplied with slates and school books.

The accommodation of the institution is now taxed almost to its limit. In fact if it were not that the hospital is not required and the hospital cells are available for ordinary prisoners the number in now could not be given cells. This state of affairs will be worse after the fall assizes are over, as there are no prisoners whose time will expire in the near future. Pat Cane, who was well known in Vancouver and who is serving a life sentence for murdering the Chinaman Fi Mau, has gone crazy and is very hard to handle. He may in time be sent to Kingston, where there is proper accommodation for such characters."

Source: Vancouver Daily World, Wednesday, 17 November 1897, page two.

A Website to Satisfy Several Objectives

Lest I get bogged down in historical research and incur a serious case of stuffiness (entirely possible after the last item above), I’m passing along this Website where you can check out the most popular names given to babies in the U. S. over the last 120 years.

Look for it at http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/index.html
To satisfy your historical frame of mind you can explore for what length of time the names John and Mary have been the most popular (up until 1925, as a matter of fact). For amusement, the most recent statistics reveal names that appear to have leaped off the television screen.

You can locate the same information on a smaller but more relevant scale at this web page of the British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency:
http://www.vs.gov.bc.ca/babynames/index.html

Speaking of Money

... or, even if we weren’t, we could have been... Here’s a Website from our friends (using that word loosely) at the Bank of Canada, that summarizes the history of the Canadian dollar.
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/dollar_book/index.htm

Something to Think About

From the Vancouver Daily World, 26 June 1894:

“Marriage is like a long voyage by sea: it reveals character.”

Reminder

These newsletters are all dated. Consequently, some of the websites recorded therein may no longer be operating at the stated web address.

Subscription, Privacy Policy

To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE, send e-mail with either SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line and mailto:gwens@dccnet.com.

Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gwen Szychter, M.A.

P.S. Here's a favour you can do for me: If you liked this newsletter and found it helpful or just interesting, please pass it on to a friend or colleague. Thank you.

Newspaper Obituary Database coming to

History of Delta, British Columbia On-line

Delta History On-Line

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~