February 2004 - Vol Four, No.3

History Helps, Volume Four, Number 3, February 2004
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HAPPY HERITAGE WEEK!

Heritage Week in British Columbia runs from February 16th through 22nd. This year the focus of heritage celebration is "Defending Canada: Heritage of Military Places". In the community of Delta, Boundary Bay Airport was built in 1941 for the training of pilots for World War Two. Of the buildings constructed, only one hangar remains, and this building will be receiving the 2004 Heritage Preservation Award.

Post World War Two Immigration

"10,000 Farmers to Come Here From Holland

Their aim the ultimate ownership of farms in this country, 10,000 Dutch agriculturists will emigrate [sic] to Canada next year, it was announced jointly today by the Honourable J. Allison Glen, Minister of Mines and Resources, and Dr. A. S. Tuinman, Agricultural Attache of the Netherlands Embassy at Ottawa.

To facilitate the passage of the Dutch families, who will pay their way to Canada, the Netherlands Government has chartered two vessels, the S.S. ‘Tabinta’ and the S.S. ‘Kotabaroe’, which will make a total of thirteen trips, carrying approximately 770 passengers each time. The first two arrivals will be at Halifax early in March, with the remainder scheduled for St. Lawrence River ports.

Owing to present exchange restrictions, these Dutch families will be unable at first to establish themselves on farms in Canada. They have agreed, however, to accept agricultural employment in all parts of the Dominion with farmers whose applications for their services have been approved and who will provide living accommodation. Through these arrangements they will acquire an excellent knowledge of Canada and of agricultural conditions and methods in this country.

The close co-operation between the Netherlands and Canadian Governments which had resulted in an independent move by a group of this size is unique in the history of immigration, and speaks well for the excellent relations existing between the two countries.
The plan will eventually afford Dutch parents an opportunity to obtain for their children farm land which is unavailable at home, and will be instrumental in a greater development of Canada’s agricultural resources."

Source: The Ladner Optimist, 11 December 1947, page eight.

A Television Series to Watch for B. C. History

In February (this month) the History Channel will be airing a nine-part series of programs on the "pursuits of famous bad guys'. Peter Grauer, the Kamloops expert on the time the infamous Bill Miner spent in Canada, will be appearing in the series. This is the web address for the History Television Channel, http://www.history.ca/, where you might want to check the schedule for February.

Obtaining a Passport in 1901

"ARE YOU GOING ABROAD?

Do Not Forget the Passport -- How To Obtain It

If you are going abroad, and especially if you propose to visit that part of the world which some returned travellers call the ‘Continong,’ [sic] you ought to have a passport, and you can get one by applying to the Secretary of State, but unless you are personally known to the minister, you must be introduced by some chartered bank or have a certificate of identity signed either by a mayor, magistrate, justice of the peace, minister of religion, physician, surgeon, solicitor or notary. If you send your application and identification papers, with $4, which must not be in postage stamps, to the Secretary of State, you will get your passport, although, if he wants to, the minister may make you produce your certificate of birth. If you are going into the Dominions of the Czar, the Sultan or the King of Roumania, you must get your passport vised [sic] at the consulate of those nations in London, and if you are going into Germany by way of France, you ought to call at the German embassy in either London or Paris for the same purpose. -- Victoria Colonist."

Source: [Vancouver] Daily World, 04 March 1901, page five.

Fads of the Past

I thought this was kind of cute, a reminder that "everything old is new again."

""Tinted ears are the latest ‘beauty fad.’ The queer thing is that if people were born with tinted ears they'd probably powder them so as to hide the tint."

Source: The Weekly Optimist, 29 May 1929, page four.

Useful Web Page

Useful for someone, not necessarily me: The Birth Date Calculator is designed to determine a birth date when the age at death and the date of death are known. http://longislandgenealogy.com/birth.html

Database Project

"The computer rewrites Canadian history

Chad Gaffield heads a research team tapping digitized information for new insights

‘ There was a time,’ says Chad Gaffield, when historians could simply ‘find a shelf in the archives’ and begin churning out scholarly papers. It was all part of a conception of history, he says, in which isolated scholars quietly mined their marked territory and steadfastly imagined that ‘a few people had a bunch of power and did important things and therefore society changed.’

The 52-year-old University of Ottawa professor is at the cusp of what he calls ‘a new paradigm’ combining the historian’s skill for weaving narratives about the past and the social scientist’s ability to gather and interpret population-wide data from the ‘anonymous’ millions who really shape social change.

It’s a new paradigm being constructed -- census card by census card, database by database -- by a Gaffield-led team of researchers stretching from Newfoundland to British Columbia, who’ve embarked on one of the largest social-science and humanities projects in Canadian history.

The Canadian Century Research Infrastructure, a $13.4-million mission inspired and powered by the information-harnessing miracles of modern technology, threatens to shake the dust off professorial bookshelves from coast to coast. And it’s the country’s most significant example of what Gaffield heralds as ‘the new collaboration between machines and minds.’

In its simplest terms, the project is about digitizing mountains of information contained in census records and other historical documents that have not really been tapped by academics..."

Source: The Vancouver Sun, 31 December 2003, page A2.

The Beaver

Some subscribers may remember that I have in the past included in "History Helps" newspaper articles describing the demise of the Hudson Bay Company’s steamer, the Beaver.

To bring the tale up to modern times, a section in The Vancouver Sun, Saturday, 24 January 2004, pages C1 to C3, entitled "Underwater Vancouver," described the undersea explorations going on in the location of this wreck, to be found off the shore of the Stanley Park seawall.

Something to Think About

I had stopped including these some time ago, but this treasure, found in a review of a book on helicopter flying, was too good not to share:

"Experience is something you get right after you just needed it."

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Gwen Szychter, M.A.

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