Government and Departmental Administration; Death of Sir

V. PROVINCIAL AFFAIRS-ONTARIO

This Province in 1914 lost its Prime Minister by death, passed through the turmoil of a general election and took its part, with other provinces and peoples of the Empire, in the European war. Sir James James Whitney Pliny Whitney who, since Feb. 8th, 1905, had lead the Government of Ontario was prostrated in December, 1913, by a severe illness; early in January it took a serious turn and for two weeks he fought a grim fight with death at the Manhattan Hotel, New York, until, on the 18th, it was found possible to remove him to Toronto where he was taken to the new General Hospital. The explanation issued by his physicians was as follows: "As the outlook for any material improvement in the immediate future is most uncertain, and as he has been most anxious to be at home among his own people, his physicians decided to-day that it was advisable to remove him to-night to Toronto." Dr. Pyne, Minister of Education, and Dr. Alexander McPhedran of Toronto had been in close attendance on Sir James at New York together with Dr. Herman Biggs, an American specialist. At Toronto the illness continued to be critical, for a few days, until the 25th when it was announced that he would probably recover.

In the Hospital, a little later, there also lay Sir George W. Ross, the old-time opponent of Sir James Whitney, his defeated predecessor in the Premiership, now Liberal leader in the Dominion Senate and a martyr during many years to severe rheumatism. On Mar. 7th he passed away amid varied tributes to his intellectual keenness, his oratorical powers, his love of British connexion, his great Party services, his tremendous industry as Departmental administrator, as a student of history, as an author and publicist. The Globe of Mar. 9th said: "Sir George Ross is gone. His was a full and strenuous life. His death removes from the arena of public affairs a man of more varied gifts, activities, and experiences than any other present day Parliamentarian. Teacher, journalist, school inspector, author, orator; resourceful in debate and resolute in action." In the Legislature on the above date Mr. Foy, Acting-Premier, declared that "no man gave more of his life and talents to the public work that he had in hand. He was a man of remarkable ability, a strong debater, and in command of great eloquence. The country has lost a big man, a man free from pettiness and narrowness." In the Senate the Conservative leader, Hon. J. A. Lougheed, paid equally high tribute to his late opponent: "We feel proud that his contributions to the discussion of public questions grace the pages of our Hansard as models of Parliamentary eloquence and discussion. Not only had he eloquent speech, but he wielded the pen of a ready writer, and few libraries in Canada but contain valuable works written by our late colleague." Senator N. A. Belcourt declared that to his love of justice, respect for the Constitution, and love of fair play, "the

Catholic minority in Ontario owes the preservation of the right of having taught to their own children in their own schools the tenets of their own ancestral faith."

Meanwhile, Sir James Whitney had been steadily improving, and had been removed to his own home where on Mar. 11th, he was able to receive the members of the Legislative Press Gallery and inform them that, though on the way to hoped-for health, he would not meet the Legislature in its present Session and would take a rest of eight or ten months. He had, already, in a letter to the Speaker which was read on Feb. 20th expressed to the House his grateful appreciation of the sympathy extended by its Members and the people of the Province as a whole during his critical illness. On Apr. 23rd a Deputation representing the Conservative members of the Legislature waited upon the Premier and presented him with a purse of $2000 as a token of public sympathy and personal regard. He previously had declined to allow the House to vote a stated grant in connexion with his illness-though both parties were ready to support it. With the prorogation of the Legislature on May 1st came a last visit by him to the House where for 26 years he had fought the Conservative battles with honesty and vim and final success. He was at his office in the Parliament Buildings on and after May 6th; he shared in the preparations and oversight of the Government's interests in the ensuing general election; he made one important and really eloquent speech and was eventually returned to power with a large majority. In his last public utterance-a strong address to a great audience in Massey Hall, Toronto-he had with deep feeling used these words: "Coming back, my friends, as I have, by God's mercy, from the shadow of the dark valley, I am constrained, nay, compelled, to express the thanks I owe to the people of Ontario. They have given me an opportunity, I think I may say, of being of some service, and they have given me their confidence in full measure -in full measure, heaped up, pressed down, shaken together, and running over-and as long as my renewed health and strength are vouchsafed to me I shall be at their disposal, and endeavour to give them the same faithful service I have in the past.' On Sept. 25th he died.

The personal, political, public tributes were many and varied. J. P. Whitney bad been an outstanding figure in Canadian life for sterling integrity of personal view, policy and practice; he stood in public opinion for things which were not altogether common in public life though perhaps more so than the dense mists of partisanship would allow to become visible. N. W. Rowell, K.C., the Opposition leader in the Legislature described his "strong, dominating personality" at Montreal on Sept. 26th and proceeded: "Sir James Whitney's ability, his untiring energy, his strong convictions and the vigour and tenacity with which he maintained them, as well as his unselfish devotion to what he believed to be his public duty, were, I venture to think, among the most conspicuous features of his character. In addition to an abiding interest in all that pertained to the Province of Ontario, he was deeply concerned in the future of Canada and the Empire. His devotion to Britain, to British ideals

and to the maintenance of the strength and stability of the Empire could not but command respect and admiration." From all parts of Canada came expressions of eulogy and respect for the career and character of the late leader and not the least of these was the tribute of Sir Robert Borden: "The fine capacity, great force of character, unquestioned integrity and the whole-hearted devotion to duty which placed him many years ago in the leadership of his Party have enabled him to give his Province a wise, just, and progressive administration of public affairs." Let the Toronto Globe touch a last chord in this connexion: "Sir James Whitney made a large and effective use of his life. He fought a good fight. He kept the faith as he saw it. He passes on the laurel undisgraced." A Provincial day of mourning, a lying-in-state in the Legislative Chambers, Toronto, a public funeral and large concourse of representative men at St. James Cathedral, a burial in his home town of Morrisburg, followed ere the public curtain fell upon a notable and valuable life.

Meantime the Government of which Sir James had been the head was having its own troubles, but had come victoriously through its Elections and was awaiting changes which the public press persisted in discussing as a natural result of the Premier's illness and of the known ill-health of Mr. Foy who had so often been Acting Premier and who was so during the early part of this year and at the last Session of the Legislature. A deputation from the Associated Boards of Trade of Ontario asked Mr. Foy and other Ministers on Mar. 25th for many things including an extension of the New Ontario Travelling exhibits in the cars taken through the Province; the construction of the Government T. & N. O. Railway to James Bay and the encouragement of mining in Northern Ontario; the promotion of forestry and re-afforestation and the conservation of natural water-powers in that country; better control over the exportation of fish in order to prevent large quantities of fresh-water fish going to the United States and thus increasing the cost of living in Ontario. Mr. Foy pointed out in this latter connexion that the Federal Government assumed the power to regulate Provincial fisheries. Other points urged were an adequate publicity campaign for the Province; Boards of Trade representation upon the governing boards of agricultural, commercial, technical and manual training schools; the establishment of a game preserve and Provincial Park in the Timagami Forest Reserve; construction of the Hydro-Electric radial railways and extension of the Hydro-electric service to unorganized districts; uniformity of accounting for all public utilities and a Commission to investigate municipal government in the Province; extension of the Town Planning Act to all Ontario cities and towns and the appointment of a Provincial Fire Marshal.

Mr. Foy on May 24th laid the corner-stone of St. Paul's (Catholic) Parish Church in Toronto; early in July he was reported as suffering from a rather severe nervous illness; a little later a branch of his Department came in for some press criticism over the obvious slackness of the Provincial Police in respect to the disappearance and murder of a girl at Tamworth named Blanche Yorke. Meanwhile a large number of Reports were issued dealing with varied