ADVENTURES IN COOKING 109

building overnight of a sturdy mission house at Quadra Island, savage
Indians being a grave cause for alarm.

It would seem fitting to pause here to express our respect for three
inspiring types of citizens—mentioned innumerable times by Institutes from
all parts of our province. We honor the missionaries of every faith who
with devotion and courage sought to further the work of their Master by
carrying on their religious ministrations and unselfish community service.
Education and cultural uplift invariably came with them. A special debt
of pride and gratitude comes from Women’s Institutes to those women who
with tender heart and nursing skill travelled many miles in every kind of
weather to help the sick. Each district seemed to have owned a beloved
Mother, Aunt or Granny, to whom they could turn in time of necessity.
In later years, we hear of the wonderful work and selfless devotion of the
grand old country doctor. We know, that to all three at the end of their
noble lives, came the final Call, “Come, thou good and faithful servant,
enter now into the joy of thy Lord.”

Transportation became ever more essential to the opening of the
province. In 1883, the first transcontinental train to arrive in Portland,
travelled only by day on account of Indian raids. Many came by this route,
but in short order, British Columbia rejoiced in her own railway when the
long-awaited Canadian Pacific Railway arrived in Port Moody in 1886.
It was extended the following year to Granville (now Vancouver). This
brought a great influx of settlers. British Columbia’s beauty and opportuni-
ties were being much publicized in Great Britain and a number of wealthy
and titled families considered there was a good opportunity for establishing
“estates.” Accordingly we hear from Summerland of large tracts of land
bought up by a member of the banking Barclays, and sub-divided into ten
or twenty acre holdings for “hand-picked” settlers. ‘The famous Coldstream
Ranch was divided among wealthy Britishers. Beautiful homes were built
and costly possessions brought out from “Home” to grace them. Westsyde
tells of four English houses being shipped across the Atlantic and the
continent to be reassembled there—in the fashion of pre-fabricated homes
to-day.

Scattered settlers in the Arrow Lakes and North Thompson region,
paused in their mining ventures to look with surprise on new settlers from
the United States who came equipped with pistols and holsters. Barriere
and Little Fort, Vavenby, Birch, Arrow Park and Burton City slowly
developed settlement.

In the Okanagan, it had become increasingly apparent that the mineral-
charged soil and warm climate could produce fruit of unsurpassed quality
—if supplied with sufficient water. Promoters of land development built
their plans on the slogan, ““The Sunny Okanagan, where Irrigation is Kind”.
Large farms and estates were broken up to more workable sections of fruit
farms. Cattle-raising faded out promptly to be replaced by orchards in
bloom and fruit that delighted a nation. From every Women’s Institute
in the Okanagan comes word of this new, exciting idea of farming taking
deep hold.