The Henson Journals

[30]

Tuesday, September 3rd, 1912. Little Metis.

A wet day, & a warmer temperature. Thunder at breakfast–time. The morning was again devoted to the Lectures. We lunched with Colonel & Mrs Burland in a charming house perched on the bank of the St Lawrence. From the garden, which was evidently a hobby of Col. B., the loveliest views were gained. He told me that the buoys were removed on the approach of winter because, if they were left in position, the ice would carry them away, & so confuse all bearings. After lunch I walked for more than 2 hours with Professor Cappon. He is a man with a shrewd Scottish judgment, & 26 years experience of Canada. He says that there are some 1600 students at his University in Kingston. This town of 20,000 inhabitants owes all its importance to the University & the Military College. We discussed the situation in Canada. He said that there had certainly been a steady growth of imperial sentiment during recent years, that the defeat of the Laurier government at the last election was the work of the young Canadians, & indicated the definite defeat of the notion, once not uncommon among the colonists, that absorption in the United States would ultimately take place. I asked whether the new colonists, who are pouring into the western provinces from across the frontier, would become loyal to the Imperial connection. He replied [31] that many influences were bearing on the newcomers which tended in that direction. Among these he gave a high place to the work of the University students who spent the summer months of vacation in teaching in the schools of the Western Provinces, which only then are open. As many as 350 students from Kingston alone employed themselves in this way to the great advantage of the Empire.

We discussed the competence of men trained at Oxford & Cambridge for teaching in Canadian Universities. He said that they were apt to fail for lack of knowledge how to use their voices so as to be audible, & how to arrange their matter so as to be intelligible. He thought that before coming to Canada, they ought to have some distinctly professional training. We talked of the methods by which fortunes were made in the Dominion. He was extremely well–informed on this topic, & quoted a number of instances. It distressed me to observe how slight was the place which honest work seemed to have in the process of becoming wealthy. In most cases some lucky hit in speculation was the decisive factor. Thus we talked, 'deceiving the road', until we reached his house, where we had tea. Mr Fleet went off to Montreal by the night train, generously taking on with him a portion of our baggage.

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