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OU can scarcely say that a man has a stake in the country until he owns some land. Of the permanent population of British Columbia there are very few people who do not own at least a building lot. The trouble is that they bought their lots when there was a boom in real estate and paid more than will ever be paid for land again in this country. Of course, most of the people were rightly served, for they purchased these lots for no legitimate purpose for which land can be used, but for the purposes of speculation. They took the chance taken by all gamb lers and the wheel was loaded against them by des tiny. If you contemplate the feverish past, you will wonder why any reasonable man could pay such prices as were paid for land in this city a short time ago. The only explanation is that the buyers expected to sell the lots again in a short time at higher prices. They were sure that land values would keep on as cending, or they would not have paid such prices. Why did they expect still greater prosperity? One reason, in Vancouver, was that they had been told that when the Panama Canal was completed that there would be an enormous increase in the shipping busi nness of the port. ‘The real estate speculators had oth er golden dreams, but the Panama Canal dream de serves to be placed in a class of dreams by itself. The opening of the San Francisco World's Fair re minds us that the canal is in full operation. Of course the war has made some difference, though the regular shipping companies that send their vessels to Van couver to trade have been operating, but with fewer ships perhaps than usual, with the exception of the Hamburg-American company. And most of the deep sea traders that come from European ports use the canal. But most of the ships that have come to port since the opening of the canal have not come through it. The greater part of the trade has come from Aus tralia and New Zealand and the Orient, as it always did. Any shipping man will tell you that even if the war had not taken place, and shipping had not been disturbed by it, it would have taken years for the Panama Canal to have made very much difference in ocean trade. it will, of course, in time, but the real estate speculators would have had to wait, even if there had been no war, an eternity for the full realiz ation of their Panama Canal dream.
Newspaper Details
Vancouver Chinook
Vancouver, British Columbia, CA
Sat, Mar 13, 1915
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Paula H.
CA 26 Jul 2026
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