Calgary Herald from Calgary, Alberta, Canada • 21

5 J-ji ijj CALGARY, ALBERTA, SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1931 4 PAGES An Explorer at 12 Schoolboy Prepares for Journey to Arctic Wastes Armed With Camera and Diary. Col. James Walker Saw Many Phases of Early Days in West Much Information Is To Be Compiled With Count of Population ir DIRECTS CENSUS 1 I Enumerators Start on Nation -Wide Task June 1 Present Census Is Seventh Taken Since the Confederation; Citizens to Be Asked any Questions, and Replies, Which Are Confidential, Will Provide Government With Much Valuable Data. CANADIANS will know a great deal more about their country than they do now when all the information to be gathered in the forthcoming census is tabulated and published. Beginning June 1, every person in the Dominion will be given an opportunity of contributing his quota, no matter how small, to the vast volume of facts and figures which will be compiled following the work of the enumerators taking Canada's 1931 decennial census.

ters, he remembers, but this suggestion was vetoed in favor of a more central location. Thus, Col. Walker points ou. present day Calgary might very easily have been named Cochrane. While in the capacity of ranch manager, Major Walker located an extensive timber limit and established possibly the first sawmill in the west, between Kananaskis and Canmore, and on his resignation as manager in the fall of '82 he took over this property for part of his equity in the ranch.

For several years after that, he followed the contracting business, and in addition to the $35,000 buildings for police headquarters, he built many of the first frame, and later a number of the earliest stone buildings erected in Cal-grary. Major Walker was chairman and the late George Murdoch was secretary of the first civic commission named in Calgary, in 1883. This body was responsible for enactment of the first bylaws of the settlement; it arranged for the first mail service through the United States to the east; in co-operation with the Northwest Mounted Police it safeguarded the rights of citizen, and on of its first tasks was to have fireguards plowed around the village. Incorporation of the town of Calgary was brought about by this commission. Colonel Walker recalls that his own house was the first hospital in Calgary and that several accident cases received treatment there by Dr.

Henderson, the first medical man in Calgary. Later he was a member of the first elected hospital board and a small frame house on seventh avenue west became the city's first hospital, with Mrs. Hoad in charge. The then pretentious hospital in Twelfth avenue east was built some years later, and Col. Walker was instrumental tl'.

NT 1 I legal raison d'etre of the eensu is to determine the representaton in the federal parliament. As is Jyy-iwr-llif ni if vmf If Hartlty de Gerald with th captain of the S.S. Madison, during on of hi voyage. tors are appointed and instructed by the commissioners, who must also check and vouch for all the enumertors' returns before the latter are forwarded to Ottawa. All field officers are paid for the most fart on a "piece" basis, i.e., accord-ng to the population, farms, enumerated.

All are required to pass a practical test in the work before appointment. For a census that covers half a continent, embracing the most varied conditions of nature and settlement, uniformity of plan is clearly impossible. For the remote and seldom penetrated regions of Ungava, Northern Ontario and the Northwest, the organization of the fur trading companies and of the various church missions have been engaged. In other similar regions the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will take the census, whilst the agents of the Indian department will perform a like service for the Indian population on reserves and elsewhere. Representatives of the department will visit the remote northern and sub-Arctic regions.

Even in districts that are closer, there remain a large number of cases where pack trains must be organized, steamers chartered and similar special means employed to ensure that no section of the country escapes enumeration. Airplanes will be used in some districts Results Tabulated By Machines For the compilation of the census an extra staff of more than 750 clerks will be engaged at Ottawa. Census compilation and tabulation is an elaborate and detailed process which would take much space to describe. An interesting feature is the use of machinery in compiling and analyzing the returns. The method is very briefly as follows: The several facts obtained for each individual are punched on a specially designed card, the perforations showing by their location the exact information obtained at the census.

The cards are then sorted and otherwise manipulated by machines which count and record various combinations of data as required, according to the perforations on the cards. For example, should it be desired to know the number of, say, civil engineers, of Canadian citizenship between the ages of 21 and 50, in the province of Ontario, the machines will pick out and count the cards in a few operations. The Invention of these machines, of which the bureau of statistics has a large battery, some being of its own invention and construction, has greatly increased the scope and accuracy of the Information derivable from the census, at the same time that it has halved the cost. A record exists of more than a million and a half classifications by one machine in a single day, -It is expected that from two to five weeks from June 1 will suffice in normal localities for the completion of the field work. After the third or fourth month it should be possible to give out the first results for many cities, towns, counties, etc.

As to when the final count by provinces for the entire Dominion will be available, so many unforeseeable contingencies are possible that prophecy is dangerous, but it is expected that five or six months should enable a close approximation to be made. In the recent U.S. census the population count was announced in four months and seven days. Census Costs Millions Altogether, as already noted, the census will cost some millions of dollars. The amount set aside this year is about $2,500,000, but there was a vote of $135,000 last year for equipment and preparatory work, and at leist another $500,000 will probably be required in 1932 and 1933 to finish.

The foregoing will have given an outline of what the census is and of how it is carried out. It remains only to say that the whole has been planned with the utmost cere, over a period of years, with the experience of other countries and of six previous censuses in Canada in view, and with special reference to the requirements of the present hour and also to the necessity of not burdening the community with any inquiry that is not fully justified. Perfection of organization is not claimed, for census-taking, in Canada as in other countries, is still in process of development. Nevertheless the census merits the support of each and every citizen as a patriotic duty, notwithstanding features that may bs irksome. The census is taken for the benefit of the community as a whole and therefore directly or indirectly of every member of the community.

Nevef before has there been the like need for census information. Since tha last census the after-math of the war, setting up new strains and stresses and generally creating conditions of the utmost consequence to our national future, has left scarcely a branch of the national life untouched. Especially Is an appraisement of the national status necessary at the present moment of acute economic depression. An appeal to the people Is therefore made to assist in this great national undertaking by furnishing the information fully and accurately and thus helping to render the census worthy of the Dominion and of the serious purposes which it has in view. Well Known Pioneer Has Had Active Career for 65 Years In a new country, such as Canada, official documents sixty-five years old may be regarded as somewhat rare, but when one of these is to be found in the hands of the man to whom it was originally issued at the age of twenty, it is rather more than a curiosity; it is a very definite link with what are now considered the far-off days before Confederation.

Inspection of this document shows it to be a formally worded certificate of military instruction issued at Toronto, "Canada West," December 21, 1866, and Calgarians will need no further introduction to the recipient when they read that "James Walker, of the regimental division of, Wentworth, has attended the said school and has proved himself able to command a company at battalion drill, to drill a company at company drill, and has acquired a competent acquaintance with the internal economy of a company and the duties of a company's officer." Still earlier than that. Colonel Walker, possibly Calgary's oldest and best known pioneer, recalls, he was an ensign in the Canadian Militia, having enrolled in 1864 and drilled for the defence of the country in the year prior to the passing of the new Militia Act which preceded Confederation. He served as an ensign with the Thirty-Seventh Haldimand Rifles in the Fenian Raid of 1870 and in the following year was promoted to the rank of captain in charge of the company and attended summer camp at Niagara. In 1872 the senior officers of the four Wentworth County independent companies raised two additional unita and Captain Walker was made major and adjutant of the newly formed Seventy-Seventh Battalion. During the following summer he attended military camp at Dundas with his unit, and in 1874 by joining the police force established "in and for the.

Northwest Territories" with the rank of superintendent and sub-Inspector took the first step in the career through which he is best known to westerners. The commission certifying this appointment is signed by the Earl of Dufferin, Governor-General, and R. W. Scott, secretary of state for Canada. Became Inspector of Police Promotion in the force followed rapidly for the young officer and in 1876 at the age of 30 he was raised to the rank of Inspector.

In charge of a separate command, he was sent to Battleford that same year with instructions to report directly to Ottawa. He was appointed Indian agent, which office he held for three years, until his charges were turned over to the supervision of the Indian department. During that time he was escort for the treaty commissioners, and each year paid out approximately $35,000 in treaty money to the natives under his charge. The summer of 1880, following the appointment of Governor Dewd-ney as Indian agent. Inspector Walker was given $100,000 to be distributed to the various Indian agents throughout the territories, this duty involving several thousand miles of traveling and requiring the months from July to October.

In the course of his official duties in this connection he passed what later became Calgary to reach the reserve at Morley and was so impressed with the beauty and natural adavantagee of the location that he returned here the following year. This time, he arrived in a different capacity, having resigned his commission in the police to become manager of the Cochrane ranch, owned by Senator Cochrane of Montreal. The inducement. Col. Walker recalls, was a salary of $2,400 a year as compared with the $1,400 he was being paid in the force.

Selected Cochrane Ranch Site His first task was the selection of a location for the lease for the ranch, and recalling hi3 trip of the previous year, he recommended the district between the Morley reserve and the fork of the Bow and the Elbow. Fred White, comptroller of the police at the time, urged him to purchase the Elbow flat as ranch headquar- By Falling Tree The census has been called "thi! largest single act of administration of the government" in reference-partly to Us physical extent the census organization covering every section of the country for a complex and many-sided task and- also to the great Importance of census results. The success of the census depends largely upon the co-operation of the people. Without general appreciation of the ends In view, and without wholehearted assistance of individual citizens towards those ends, a true and complete census will be impossible. A brief description of the scope, methods and purpose of the census an of is place in statistical and general administration will therefore be interesting and useful before the enumerators start on their rounds.

Historical Background Census-taking dates from the dawn of civilization. Mose3 numbered the Children of Israel In the fifteenth century B.C. But statistical investigations were known many centuries earlier, in Babylonia (4000 B.C.). in China (3000 B.C.), in Egypt (2500 B.C.). A census taken by Kind David in 1017 B.C., achieved evil notoriety in history from the Divine wrath which it provoked and which was cited for many generations against the spirit of inquiry.

The census was one the institutions founded by the great lawgiver Solon at Athens in the sixth century, B.C. The Romans were assiduous census-takers, both under the Republic and the Empire; Julius Caesar reformed the census among other things. The Breviary of Charle-mange (A.D. 808) and the Domesday Book of William the Conqueror (A.D. 1086) are celebrated mediaeval censuses.

Later, the census disappeared from Europe. It may not be generally known that the credit of taking the first census of modern times belongs to Canada, The year was 1666; the census was one of the colony of New France. There had been earlier records of settlement oa Port Royal (1605) and Quebec, (1608), but the census of 1666 was a systematic 'nominal" enumeration of the people, (i.e., a record of each individual bv name), taken for a fixed date, showing the age, sex, place of residence, occupation and conjugal condition of each person. The results are to be seen in a document of 154 pages in the Archives of Paris, of which a transcript Is in Ottawa. Altogether this census recorded 3,215 souls.

When it is recalled that in Europe the first modern census dated only from the eighteenth century (those of France and England dating from the first year of the nineteenth), whilst in the United States no census was taken before 1790) the achievement of the primitive St. Lawrence colony in instituting what is today one of the principal instruments of Government in every civilized community may call for more than passing appreciation. This initial Canadian census was repeated several times during the French resume, after which a series of less elaborate investigations by successive Colonial Governors took its place. The first legislation on the subject was an Act of the United Provinces, dated 1847. Under it a census of Upper and Lowe Canada was taken in 1851 and again in 1861.

Censuses of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were taken in the same years. Is Function of Dominion At Confederation the British America Act specifically mentioned "the census and statistics" as falling within Dominion as distinguished from Provincial jurisdiction. The first Dominion Census Act was passed in 1870, and the first census was taken thereunder in 187L Similar comprehensive censuses have followed every tenth year, namely, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911 and 1921. In 1886, a special census of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories was taken midway between the other censuses. This so-called "Quinquennial" census was repeated for Manitoba in 1896, while in 1906, 1916 and 1926, it also embraced Saskatchewan and Alberta, created into provinces In 1905, the reason being he rapidly changing conditions in these newer sections of the Dominion.

The census of June 1, 1931. Is therefore the seventh comprehensive decennial census to be taken since Confederation. The administration of the census was originally vested In the minister of agriculture; in 1912. however, in a reorganization and centralization of the statistical work of the government It was transferred to the minister of trade and commerce who will accordingly promulgate the schedules and regulations of the present census. Objects and Uses of Census With the census of ancient times we would today have little sympathy.

Originally the census was no more than a means of mustering men for foreign wars and of enabling kings and oligarchies to tax their eibjects. So far are we removed from this conception that it is now expressely forbidden to use census data for any such poses. In Canada the fundamental well known, the British North America Act gave the Province of Quebec a fixed number of seats (sixty-five) in the- Dominion House of Commons. The number assigned to the other provinces was pro rata, with an arrangement that the first re-adjustment should take place on the completion of the Census of 1871, and that a similar re-adjustment should follow every subsequent decennial census. The census is thus taken primarily to enable a redistribution bill to be passed by parliament.

But the census has far wider uses than to fix electoral representation. It constitutes, in fact, under the modern system, nothing less than a great periodical stocktaking of the Canadian people, designed to show from the widest angle the point that has been reached in the general progress of the nation. Fundamentally, the importance of the census hinges upon its analysis of the human element or man power of the country. The people themselves after all are the basic asset of every state. Their numbers, sex, sjge, occupation, racial origin, language, education, are facts in themselves of the greatest moment.

They constitute, moreover, the background against which almost all other facts must be projected if the latter are to have real significance. As the practice of nations in regard to census-taking tends more and more to uniformity, the census affords the inestimable benefits of comparison with other countries and enables our national problems to be studied in their general setting. Especially is this true of the countries which constitute the British Empire. The censuses of the various dominions, India and the Crown Colonies are now taken in the same year and within a few weeks of each other; so that when the results are completed we shall have a large and harmonious body of data at command for the study not only of the dominions inter sa but also of the place of the Empire as a whole among the nations of the world. As a result of the work of the International Institute of Agriculture, which has been investigating the requirements of a census of agriculture and the means by which it may be made uniform insofar as possible for all countries, we will now have for agriculture a body of data which can be compared with those of other countries.

Scope of the Canadian Census The primary tasp of the census is the enumeration and description of every man, woman and child in Canada. Good business dictates that when so large an organization as this requires has once been created, it should be put to every available purpose. The census therefore should deal not only with the people themselves, but directly with the people's Institutions and affairs, insofar as the latter can be properly brought within its scope. Six Sensu Schedules The schedules used in the census are six in number, dealing respectively with (1) population, (2) agriculture, (3) livestock, fruit growing, in towns, (4) merchandising and service establishments, (5) blindness and deaf-mutism, and (6) Institutions (penal! mental and neurological, child-caring, homes for adults, hospitals sanatoria, dispensaries, clinics, day nurseries). The population schedule carries some forty columns, recording for each person the name, family, kind of dwelling, age, sex, conjugal condition, birthplace, citizenship or nationality, racial origin, language, religion, education, occupation, unemployment, etc.

in al necessary detail. To meet the pressing demand for facts regarding the number of unemployed and the reasons therefor, a number of questions have been insertd, aftr consultation with Dominion and provincial govrnment authorities and leading labor organizations. This information will be of first importance in assisting the government in its policy regarding unemployment and labor problems generally. The schedule relating to agriculture was also drawn up in consultation with Dominion and provincial agricultural departments and other agricultural authorities, and in the light of suggestions made for a world census of agriculture by the International Institute of Agriculture. It will elicit a wealth of information on such features as farm acreages, land values, buildings, implements, crops, fertilizers, farm labor, orchards, small fruits, farm gardens, livestock, poultry, animal products, forest products, land tenure, irrigation, drainage, co-operative marketing, farm mortgages, etc.

The schedule an animals, etc. in towns is supplementary to the agricultural schedule; there are of course a considerable number of horses, cattle, poultry, bees, etc. HON. H. H.

STEVENS Minister of trade and commerce, by whose department tha Dominion census it organized and administered. within urban limits and their products, and those of market gardens and town orchards are in the aggregate important. The schedule on Industrial and business concerns collects only the name, address and class of each; this is for the use of a subsequent detailed inquiry which will be conducted through correspondence by the bureau, and which will afford a considerable body of new data covering the whole field of distribution. The record of the blind and of deaf-mutes is to facilitate the work of educational and other institutions for these classes. The population in institutions will be enumerated in the regular way by means of the population schedule proper, but it is intended that a special inquiry shall be handled direct from the bureau with the heads of institutions in order that not merely the numbers of men, women and children committed to such institutions may be obtained, but also facts regarding the characteristics of the inmates, causes of commitment and other information which will furnish the basis for a complete analysis of problems incidental to social life, and act as a guide to provincial governments and organizations engaged in social and welfare work.

All Information Important In connection with these somewhat elaborate and searching series of inquiries the following points should be clearly understood: (1) That no question hat inserted merely for the gratification of curiosity or because the information would bs interesting, but only because it has a bearing on basic, social or economic conditions; and (2) that the answers given by the individual are absolutely confidential, every employee of the census being under oath and penalty against revealing any individual item, and the bureau of statistics itself being forbidden to Issue any statement that would lay bare any personal matter. Though the name of each person is taken down this is not for the purpose of associating the individual with any of the facts that are recorded, but merely as a check en the acuraey of the enumeration. The census is first and last for statistical purposes and cannot be mad the basis of any direct administrative action. Let It also be noted that census enumerators arc required to use courtesy and tact in collecting the information, though refusal to answer a census question is penalized by statute. Methods of Collection The organization by which this far-flung investigation is carried out and its results reduced to comprehensible and usable form is a large one.

Its nucleus exists in a small permanent staff constituting one of the branches of the bureau of statistics. This branh cmaln-tains connection between census and census, so that experience is continuous and cumulative. When a census impends, all plans are originated by it, and the necessary expansion of personnel arranged for. The latter falls under two main headings, the field work or collection of the facts, and the compilation and tabulation of the latter into census reports. Every detail of importance down to the final stages of the work must be foreseen and provided for from its inception.

In planning the field work the country is first divided into "census districts," each of which is jlaced in hcarge of a "census commissioner." The districts are then divided into "sub-districts," varying in population from 600 to 800 in rural localities, and from 1.000 to 1.800 in urban. The sub-district is the territory allotted to a "census enumerator." who conducts the house to house and farm to farm canvass, and who is the only official with whom the public comes directly In contact. One object of the census being to deter-mne parliamentary representation, the act directs that census districts shall correspond as nearly as possible to the federal constituencies for the time being, while the sub-districts are to be roughly the same as the polling subdivisions. Some of the constituencies, however, are too large for one commissioner and are accordingly divided; departure is also necessary in a good many cases from the polling units. Many Are Employed Altogether, the census of 1931 will employ 253 commissioners and probably 15,000 enumerators.

The commissioners are appointed by the minister, and instructed by an officer of the bureau; the enumera portage of 16 miles, because of rapids, and arrive at Fort Smith. There he will transfer to another supply vessel, bound for Great Slave lake. He will land at Fort Resolution. cross the lake, and begin a trip along the Mackenzie river. northbound.

He will visit trading poets at Fort Providence, Fort Simpson, Jort Wrigley aind ott Norman. Near Fort Good Hope Hartley will meet Eskimos for the ilrst time, and cross the Arctic circle. Other stopB will be made at Fort McPherson, Arctic Red river and at Aklavik, at the mouth of the Mackenzie. He will stay there several days, and head southward about July 29. Explorer Hartley hopes to return home toward the end of August.

He offers a good reason. He wants to be back in time for the opening of school in September Freaks in The News BEER BARRELS "SHORT" City Sealer Joe Grein, of Chicago, guardian of honest weights and measures, is confronted by a delicate problem. He has paused In his task of protecting the city's housewives against short weights to consider what Is to be done about forcing "Al" Capotie to deliver full beer barrels to helpless saloon proprietors: It seems that Capone's beer barrels have a way of arriving four or five gallons short, while payment is exacted in full. A MAGIC POTATO This is another case of Tm not superstitious, but." Secretary of Labor William in. JLioaK, in commenting upon his re-election as editor of the Brotherhood of Rail way Trainmen Magazine, said that he owes everything to a magic potato.

A magic he said, "brings all kinds of good luck," especially if It happens to be an Irish potato, grown flat and shiny from constant wear in the pocket. CIRCUMSTANCES ALTER FACES When Mrs. D. D. Ringer, of Seattle, returned home from a bridge party she found a strange man in her bedroom.

She ran from the house and called the police. "What's the big idea?" the man shouted as police burst in and chased him through several rooms before cornering him. It was then that Mrs. RInger dis covered it was her husband minus his moustache. "THE WOMAN PAYS' When Judge Frederick Fischer of Shenandoah, Iowa, looked down st the next traffic violator standing humbly before his desk, he beheld Mrs.

Fischer. He fined her the customary amount, $8.89, and then paid it himself. TRY THIS ONE! A London restaurant, under the direction of M. Dertu, former chef to General Gourand, has achieved a new novelty for blase diners. It is featuring a dish called "stewed octopus," and the dish is exactly what its name Implies.

WELCOME HOME! A few hours after he returned to Italy with a fortune made in the united states, Rocco Tosto wss fleeced of his $16,000 bankroll bv confidence men at the Rome rail road station. THE SLOW PARADE Fishermen at a pond near New ark, N.Y.. were recently treated to an unusual procession. Two hundred turtles, little as well as big. plodded, in methodical order to a swamp a mile away.

The paradfl lasted three hours. GOOD BUSINESS MAN John Liskev is a most unappre- ciatlve prisoner and entirely too good a business man. Liskey was sentenced in Swift county, on April 2, for a liquor law violation. Then he was transferred to Chippewa country-, where Swift county is paying his board. Now what has Liskey done, according to reports, but gone and got, himself a contract with Chippewa county to paint tha jail and courthouse while serving his sen tence.

1 'It isn't legal, declared KennetH Klvley of Appleton, Swift county attorney Attorney-General Benson has taken the matter under advtse menL. CHICAGO, 111.. May 23 Adventure is again beckoning Hartley E. Gerald, 12-year-old explorer. On July 11 the young school boy will depart for a journey Into the Arctic -wastes.

He will be armed with a camt ra and a diary with which he will record his Impressions. His trip will cover about miles, and last about two months. Hartley is1 the son of John and Mrs. de Gerald, of this city, and a etudent in the Robert Fulton school. His father is vice-president of the People's National Bank and Trust Company.

"Robinson Crusoe, Jr." Exploration is nothing new to young Hartley. But more to the point, he adventures alone. No parents, no mentors or guardians protect hi movements. His route is mapped beforehand, and the rest the individual injatlve Is Hartley's. His schoolmates call him "Robinson Crusoe, Jr." Last summer Hartley traveled alone to the West Indies and South America, and authored a naive record of his experiences and impressions.

It was a clear. Interesting document, enhanced by its straightforward simplicity. Last year's solo adventures are relegated to the background of accomplishments, however, by the approaching journey. This trip was inspired when Hartley's mother received descriptive book: "Glimpses of the Barren Lands," from Captain Thierry Mallett, president of Revlllon Freres. a Canadian trading company.

The boy read the book. Wants to Go North "I'm going into the northwest," he announced on completion. His father and mother made no attempt to dissuade him once they realized his youthful determination. Officials of the Hudson's Bay Company were advlaed of the juvenile explorer's ambitions. They promised to assist.

Hartley will leave on July 11, arriving in Edmonton July 13. He will depart from there the following day and reach Waterway July 15. There he will board a Hudson Bay supply boat on the Athabasca river, and he will cross Athabasca lake, and enter Slave river. His Itinerary will take him to Fitzgerald, where he will make Later he served for 15 consecutive years on the school board, five years as chairman. During his long career in the west he never lost touch with military affairs, and performed some important commission for the Dominion government.

In 1889 he was named chairman of a commission to settle claim of half-breeds In the Athabasca and Peace River districts, and the following year supervised similar claim settlements In Alberta and Saskatchewan. In the fail of 1905 he raised the Fifteenth Light Horse regiment. He was colonel of this unit for five years, for the last of which he was brigadier of the camp. Served A Lumberman With the outbreak of war he promptly volunteered for overseas service, at the age of 88. In spite of his advanced age, his experience as a lumberman was requisitioned two years later, and he was commissioned with the rank of captain to recruit a company of men In Alberta and eastern British Columbia for the 238th Forestry Battalion.

Proceeding to the Old Country, he inspected timber reserves in England and Scotland for the home grown timber committer of the British government and established a number of saw mills to provide timber and lumber for war purposes. In charge of one of these mills, he recalls, he marked up several new records In lumber production. He was demobilised after the armistice in 1919. He had previously been gazetted honorary lieutenant colonel in the Canadian Militia in 1911. and in 1923 was commissioned honorary colonel, being then in command of the Second Regiment, Alberta Mounted Rifles.

He was president in 1913 of the Canadian Cavalry Association, suc ceeding K. E. W. Turner. V.C., D.S.O..

and William Hamilton Merrltt in that position. Still remarkably hale and hearty in spite of his eighty-five active years, the colonel is a familiar figure to even newer residents of the city. His memory is particularly keen and accurate and he delights in reminiscing over the interesting and occasionally thrilling experience of his long career in the. west. HAS INTERESTING STORY COL.

JAMES WALKER A number of whose experiences in the early days of Calgary and Western Canada are recalled for the Herald in the story appearing on this page. in securing from the government the grant of ten acres as a site for the present General hospital. He served on the hospital board until this activity was taken over by the city. Long Active In Civic Affair Col. Walker has long been associated with affairs of the Calgary Exhibition Board.

He was its first president and Is still an honorary director. Through his efforts grant was secured from the government for the 99 acres comprising the present exhibition grounds. In early years he championed the west with an exhibit of agricultural products shown at Toronto, London, Hamilton and Ottawa. Another document in the prized collection of the pioneer is his commission as a Justice of the Peace for the North West Territories, dated July 18, 1881. at.

Battleford and signed by David Laird, lieutenant-governor. In this capacity, as the first civilian justice in the west, he officiated along with the stipendiary magistrate in a number of important criminal trials. Two men, he recalls, were sentenced to death and one to life imprisonment during his term on the bench. Another document in the prized collection of the pioneer is his commission as a Justice of the Peace for the North West Territories, dated July 18, 1881, at Battleford, and signed by David Laird, lieutenant governor. In this capacity as the first civilian justice In the west, he offi ciated along with the stipendary magistrate in a number of important criminal trials.

Two men. he recalls, were sentenced to death and one to life imprisonment during his term on the bench. Major Walker organized the school cadets In the city about 1900, and on the occasion of the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Tork, arranged for the boys' guard of honor to welcome the Royal visitors. The young lad, he recalls, equlpptd with rifirs, caps and belts borrowed for the occasion from the Mounted Police, were complimented by the Duke on their smart appearance. King George, meeting Colonel Walker during the war, recalled his guard.

He was elected first provincial resident of the Boy Scouts In 1910 ind was actively associated with this movement for many years. He Is still a member of the Dominion Council of the organization. First School Board Among his early civic activities was membership on Calgary's first school board. He called a meeting In 1883 as a result of which the first school in the village was start ed, with nine pupils in attendance. x--l fk 'ft 5 "I 1 K' 1 i House Wrecked Little Bobby Griffin, aged two, was playing with his dog on the veranda of this house at Shaunigan Lake, Vancouver Island, and hit mother was Indoors when a big tree fell across the house in the course of a recent windstorm on the island.

Although the house was demolished, no on was hurt, and Mrs. Griffin credits the dog with having knocked the baby off the porch out of harm's way at the tree started to fa li.