THE BARR COLONY. (con't)
S.W. Bolton and Immigration Agent W. R. Riddington, the last named
of whom is now the respected Sheriff of Battleford.
There could have been no lack of conversation at that pioneer board.
Earl Minto, when wearing the courtesy title of Lord Melgund, went
through the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 with General Middleton and
came out with an excellent record. No doubt his experience on that
campaign reacted favorably upon him as Governor General; and when
he became Viceroy of India his Canadian experiences doubtless reacted
again to the good of the 800,000,000 Asiatics whom he so successfully
ruled. Rev. G. E. Lloyd was also an old Rebellion man, having been
chaplain to a Toronto Regiment. Mr. Blackburn was a son of Lord Black-
burn, an English Lord Justice. The Rev. I. M. Barr soon faded out of
the picture. Hard things have been said of him, and it is certain that
his commissions did not leave him any the poorer. On his enforced de-
parture Mr. Lloyd became the real head of the Colony. He was a man
of high character and strong will, and his influence was wholly for good.
When a militant parson is good he is apt to be very good indeed and
whether subsequently as Principal of Emmanuel College at Saskatoon,
or at this present; as Bishop of Saskatchewan, he has been, and we hope
will long continue to be an invaluable influence in the religious and
public life of Saskatchewan. The Colony that gave Saskatchewan the
present Bishop Lloyd cannot be held as a failure.
But was it a failure? Those who look at it from a superficial stand-
point are justified in so describing it. From the point of view of its
original scheme, it most fortunately, is a failure. The idea of an "All
British" Colony, living aloof from its greater environment, was ill con-
ceived, for Canada, although it has many races represented among its
citizens is "All British;" and any idea which tends to the breaking up
of citizens into isolated groups out of sympathy with their surroundings
is not good policy, for the ultimate goal is a united nation. German,
Hungarian, Scandinavian and Slav colonies were almost a necessity In
the eighties, for an individual foreigner who could not make himself
understood would be in evil case in starting to farm in a new country.
But with English speaking people it was a false idea. Many of the orig-
inal settlers, mostly single men, drifted away and their lands were oc-
cupied by outsiders. But those who remained were of the right stuff.
Had the original idea proved successful in its application there is no
doubt the Barr colonists would have been followed by thousands of their
countrymen, but many of those who came had been led by what they
were told in England, to expect too much, and unfavorable reports were
sent back by the settlers who left the colony. Taking it as a whole we
think the number of failures in the Barr colony scheme were not much
out of proportion to the number of failures among individual settlers
without experience.
Wesley Speers, the well known government colonization agent and
immigration expert, had reason to be grateful to the colony. He is a great
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