EXHIBITION OF COLONIAL-GKOWN FRUIT AND VEGETABLES, ccix 



come here and to give us encouragement ; and I do not believe that the 

 presence of anyone would secure that more effectually than the presence 

 of our guest, Lord Strathcona, who is to open the Show to-day. 



Lokd Strathcona said : Lord Balfour, Ladies and Gentlemen, 

 I assure you I regard it as a privilege and an honour to be asked to be 

 present with you now, to assist in opening this exhibition. I have had 

 the advantage of looking round it ; and I am sure that ail of you, when 

 you look at the products from the different parts of the Empire, will say 

 that we have within ourselves, in outlying parts of the Empire and in 

 the United Kingdom, without going to foreign countries, everything that 

 is required by way of either comfort or luxury. 



One of the names of the countries sending produce here takes my 

 mind back for many years — eighty years ago, when I well recollect that 

 I gained a considerable knowledge about the West Indies. At that time 

 Africa was the dark continent. There were then only two outlets for the 

 young men of the United Kingdom — India and the West Indies. And 

 among others who went to the West Indies there was, fortunately for 

 us, who were children at the time, one of my mother's relatives, who 

 used to send us home those nice fruits such as tamarinds, which at that 

 time were to be had only from the West Indies ; so that my acquaintance 

 with the West Indies goes very far back indeed. There was then no possi- 

 bility as now of sending such delicious fresh fruits from those distant 

 islands. Now, with cold storage, you may have anything and everything 

 you like, in good condition, from every part of the Empire ; and as proof 

 of that we have an object-lesson here to-day in apples and pears from 

 British Columbia, the farthest part of the Dominion, and fruit from the 

 West Indies, and to a smaller extent also from Australia and New Zealand. 

 It was only the other day, only some thirty years ago, that, in England, 

 British Columbia was spoken of as a sea of mountains, the notion being 

 that it was fit for nothing but to look at, as you would look at the Alps 

 or the Apennines. And that opinion was held not only by those who 

 were ignorant of the ordinary affairs of life but even by statesmen of 

 the day. We see here from British Columbia various kinds of apples, 

 including some not bright and ruddy-cheeked, but golden apples (Grime's 

 Golden), which I am told are perhaps the most delicious of all. However, 

 I would make an exception to that. There is no exhibit here from the 

 province of Quebec ; there is from Ontario ; and there is also a very 

 excellent exhibit from the Annapolis Valley and from Nova Scotia 

 generally. But the province of Quebec might also have sent to you the 

 old ' Fameuse ' apple of Canada, than which, without saying a word 

 against the delicious apples here, I think there can be nothing more 

 exquisite. 



That this Society has done a great work you have heard already from 

 Lord Balfour of Burleigh. He has told you so fully of its initiation and 

 of the excellent service it has done to the mother country and to the 

 Empire generally, that it is really unnecessary for me to say a word 

 further than this. We Colonials ought to feel that we are under a 

 very great obligation to the Royal Horticultural Society for all they 

 are doing, not for the purpose of gain to themselves, but in the spirit of 

 true patriotism and in the sole interest of the Empire. To show the 



