the most desirable of living conditions, it can 

 hardly be excelled. That the city is also develop- 

 ing rapidly is revealed in its population figures. 

 Founded in 1846 its population in 1901 was 20,- 

 000; in 1919, 60,000; and by 1920, 65,000. 



The McGill Centennial 



A notable event, not only creating educa- 

 tional history but having a marked national sig- 

 nificance, occurred in October when McGill 

 University at Montreal celebrated the completion 

 of its first hundred years' work and its entrance 

 upon the second century of its glorious history. 

 To fittingly celebrate the centennial a week was 

 given over to a reunion of students, a week replete 

 with event and resplendent with ceremony, at 

 which nearly three thousand graduates, drawn 

 back to their Alma Mater from all parts of the 

 world, in which many of them are filling the high- 

 est of public offices, took active part. To further 

 signalize the occasion many notables of Canadian, 

 American, and European public and educational 

 life were especially honored by the University. 



McGill University was founded in 1821 by 

 John McGill, a prominent merchant of Montreal, 

 and received its charter in the same year. Its 

 history since that date has been an honored and 

 illustrious one. More than eight thousand 

 students have been sent out from its different 

 facultiesand departments to be scattered through- 

 out the length and breadth of Canada and 

 into every corner of the globe. There are grad- 

 uates of McGill in practically every country of 

 the universe, and they have attained fame in 

 every field of human endeavor. They are to be 

 found in the high places of the public and 

 national life of many nations; they have 

 occupied university chairs in the Motherland; 

 they have grappled with the administrative and 

 engineering problems of the outposts of Empire; 

 the while they are permeating the life of the 

 Dominion. It is the finest tribute to the old 

 university that in many parts of the world 

 McGill and Canada are synonymous terms, 

 the one suggesting the other. 



Representatives from Foreign Universities 



Representatives of many foreign universities 

 and centres of learning attended the McGill 

 centennial to do the institution honor on behalf 

 of their own colleges, and the high regard in which 

 McGill University is held the world over was 

 attested by the shower of messages of congratu- 

 lation which poured in from many countries. 

 These included Leeds, Nancy, Louvain, Brussels, 

 Ohio, Trinity, Dublin, Syracuse, Brynmawr, 

 Wales, Johns Hopkins, St. Andrews, California, 

 New Brunswick, Harvard, Yale, Pennsylvania, 

 Toronto, Cornell, Wisconsin, Chicago, New York, 

 Ohio and Sorbonne universities. 



The functions of the centennial were pre- 

 sided over by General Sir Arthur Currie, the new 

 principal of the University, and former comman- 



der of the Canadian corps in France, Belgium 

 and Germany. Lord Byng of Vimy, Governor- 

 General, another former Canadian Corps com- 

 mander, was present. E. W. Beatty, president 

 of the Canadian Pacific Railway, newly elected 

 to the chancellorship of the University, was 

 ushered into his office, whilst Sir Auckland Geddes, 

 ex-Principal of McGill, now British Ambas- 

 sador at Washington, who left a professorship at 

 McGill in 1914 to go to England and eventually 

 enter the British cabinet, was one of the notables 

 to be honored by the University with degrees. 



Not the least touching or inspiring of the 

 ceremonies of the centennial celebration was the 

 unveiling by the Governor-General of a war 

 memorial to the sons of McGill who fell in the 

 Great War. McGill'swar record was a praise- 

 worthy one and constitutes one of the finest 

 chapters of the University history. Before 1914 

 it maintained an officers' training corps which at 

 the outbreak of hostilities was joined by practi- 

 cally every student in attendance and many 

 graduates. It enlisted and reinforced univer- 

 sity battalions and supported a complete hospi- 

 tal unit overseas. A total of 2,500 students and 

 graduates enlisted, of whom 341 found graves in 

 Flanders. Three hundred and eighty -two Mc- 

 Gill men received war decorations. 



The day of the centennial was marked by the 

 conferring of degrees on fifty-four men and 

 women prominent .in the literary, educational, 

 political, engineering and commercial life of 

 Canada and the United States. Among those to 

 be so honored were Sir Auckland Geddes, the Chief 

 Justice of^Canada, the Premier of Quebec, the 

 president of the universities of Yale, Harvard 

 and Princeton and Montreal, Bliss Carman, 

 Canadian poet ; W. D . Lighthall , Canadian author ; 

 Sir Andrew McPhail, McGill professor and 

 Canadian author; Lady Drummond, superin- 

 tendent of the Canadian Red Cross in England, 

 and Helen Reid, Convener of the Canadian 

 Patriotic Fund. 



The tone, no less than the form, of the speeches 

 delivered at the convocation by representa- 

 tives of foreign seats of learning, testified to the 

 high esteem in which the Canadian university 

 is held all over the world, and the honored place 

 it holds by reason of its scholarship and attain- 

 ments. The sons of McGill permeating the 

 length and breadth of the Canadian Dominion, 

 and disseminated over the globe, have carried 

 the fame of Canada broadcast through the best 

 traditions of the University. Canada will not 

 lose in renown that she is known in the corners 

 of the world through her first university rather 

 than in her wealth of natural possessions. 



Income Tax Revelations 



Estimating Canada's population liberally at 

 nine millions, on the basis of the latest returns, 



212 



