ion of Labrador as being inaccessibly
remote is entirely wrong. It is accessible all round a coast line of
3000 miles at the proper season and with proper care; and its vast
peninsula lies straight between the British Islands and our own North
West. So there is nothing absurd in expecting people to come to Labrador
to-morrow when they are going to Spitzbergen, far north of the Arctic
Circle to-day. Of course, Spitzbergen enjoys an invincible advantage at
present, as its wild life is being carefully preserved. But once
Labrador is put under conservation the odds will be reversed. And I what
is true of Labrador in general is much truer still of the Canadian
Labrador. Here is a country which is actually south of London, which is
only 2000 miles from England, 1000 from New York, and 500 from Quebec;
which stands beside one of the most frequented of ocean highways; and
which has a labyrinth of islands, a maze of rivers, and an untamed
hinterland, all formed by Nature for wild "zoos", preserves and open
hunting grounds. And here, too, all over the civilized world, are
city-bound men, turning more and more to Nature for health and
recreation, and willing to spend increasingly large sums for what they
seek and find. Surely, it is only the common sense of statesmanship to
bring this country and those men together, in the near future, under
conditions which are best for both, by making the Canadian Labrador an
attractive land of life and not a hopelessly repellant land of death.
One good, long look ahead to-day, and immediate action following, will
bring the No-Man's-Land of the Canadian Labrador into its rightful place
within the fellowship of the Province and Dominion. You will never find
cause for vain regret. There is a sound basis of material value in the
products of the coast already; and material value is always increased by
conservation. But there is more than material value involved. We still
have far too much wanton destruction of wild life in Canada, not only
among those who have ignorantly grown up to it, but among the well-to-do
and presumably well-educated sham sportsmen who go into any unprotected
wilds simply to indulge their lust of slaughter to the full. Both these
classes will be stopped in their abominations and shown a better way;
for whenever man is taught a lesson in conservation he rises to a higher
plane in his attitude towards all his humbler fellow-beings, and
eventually becomes a sportsman-naturalist a
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