The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-01-21
|SEMI-CENTENARY OF
 BIRTHDAY OF BRITISH |COLUMBIA,S GOVERNMENT.


 This is an important date in the history of British Columbia, for it was just half a century ago today that representative government had It's birth in the infant colony. It was on the twenty-first of January. 1884. that the first legislative council was con- vened in New Westminster, then the capitol, by Sir James Douglas, who was the governor Of British Columbia and Vancouver's Island. Seven years later, to a day, the legislature of Bri- tish columbia, which then included Vancouver's Island, passed a resoIu- ton in favor of joining the Dominion of Canada This action followed the failure of a strong movement which had for its object the annexation of the colony to the United States
 The British Columbia of today is a rich province whose mines yield coal and precious metals. whose fisheries are among the most important in the world, whose mountain peaks are covered with valuable forests. whose orchards produce vast quantities of fine fruits, and whose fields yield abund- ant1y. It is covered with network Of railways. connecting itswith eastern Canada and the States and it's pop ulous cities on the Pacific are gate ways to the Orient. All of these are the growths of half century. for in 1864 British Columbia was Inhabited principa11y by adventurers whose sin gle thought was of gold. The vast wealth of virgin forests and fertile fields and teeming streams held no attractions for the pioneers. The pre- cious yellow metal was the magnet that drew them to British Columbia. Yet they builded better than they knew, for they laid the foundation of a future prosperity in which gold IS but an incident
 It was in 1856 that Governor Doug las informed the British Government that there was reason to believe that gold had been found in New Cale- donia, one of the Hudson's Bay Co.'S districts in whatds now British Coiun- ibia At first little note was taken of the statement. A few men tried the gold d-hunting experiment, with more or less success When the news reached Caledonia, however. there was vast excitement. Ca1ifornia had become tame and domesticated, and many of the adventurous s4eers were longing for fresh fields and pastures new By 1858 the rush was on. On an April day in that year 450 miners set out by steamship from San Fran cisco for the Fraser river, the new Fl Dorado. within a month thous ands more were on the way, by sea or land. Many took the land route from Shasta and Yreka,. through Ore gon, which was found to be no more than eighteen days Journey. Before the close of the year some 50,oo0 gold .digsers. nearly half of them Ca1ifor- nians. were in the country.
 Sir James Douglas, the governor of vancouver's Island. took prompt measures to protect the British gov ernment by imposing a license tax and to protect the Hudson's Bay Com pany monopoly by forbidding the. im- portatfon of goods other than through the company's agencies. Several par- cels Of goods brought in by American miners were seized. and this led to a protest by the Washington govern ment. The London authorities upheld the governor, but instructed him to gal Iiberally with the citizens of the United Statess' British Co1umbia was constituted a colony in 1858, and six years later the agitation for reform resulted in the convening of Iegfs- lative council. A few years later the American settlers began the agitation for annexation to the United States Tn 1871 British co1urnbia consented to enter the Dominion as a Province, on the condition that a transcontin ental railway be built to give it direct communication with the eastern prov inces.s