Volume 1 Number 8
August 4, 1995
Twin Cities: Alberni -- Port Alberni.
Jan Peterson.
Lantzville, BC: Oolichan Books, 1994. 389pp.
Paper $12.95 ISBN 088982-139-9.
Cloth $34.95. ISBN 088982-140-2.
Grades 9 - 13 / Ages 14 - Adult.
Review by Joan Payzant.
excerpt:
The pilchard run, which began in 1917, created changes in the management
and operation of the canneries. Why pilchards began crowding the waters
of the west coast and Barkley Sound is still unknown. . . . Before long
there was a big demand for canned pilchard. The cannery began selling
them as fast as it processed them. . . . Local Indians told of catching
pilchards many years before when the fish appeared periodically on the
west coast, but they usually stayed for only four years. . . .(In 1933) a
flotilla of seine boats and tenders from reduction plants returned empty
after an extensive search of the Pacific Coast territory for pilchards.
There was no sign of the mysterious fish.
Jan Peterson, author of this second volume of the history of the Alberni
twin cities, has done a masterful job of chronicling the many facets of
life in the two towns between 1922 and 1967, when they were amalgamated
into the new City of Port Alberni. Mrs. Peterson is well-qualified for
the task she has undertaken, having been a journalist, a volunteer on
the Alberni Valley Museum Advisory Board, a Director of the Alberni
District Historical Society, and a life member of the Community Arts
Council. She has done enormous research, making use of books,
periodicals, diaries, and theses, melding all the material she gleaned
into a highly readable account of life in these Vancouver Island communities.
Included in this book are two sections of black and white photographs, a
comprehensive index, extensive notes for each of the nine chapters,
appendices, and a bibliography.
Peterson's style moves through events rapidly, in chronological
sequence. She covers all aspects of life in the two communities, from
fishing and lumbering to industrial growth, from the native Indians to
the first white settlers, and the influx of Japanese and the European
immigrants at the end of World War II. Politics -- local, provincial,
and federal -- play important parts in the story. Sports are given good
coverage, and so is cultural history. Tragedies -- fires, murders,
drownings, and air crashes -- are mentioned. The most spectacular account is of the Alaskan earthquake of 1946 and the
resulting tidal wave which devastated both cities.
Amazingly, despite the tremendous damage, there were no fatalities.
Citizens with historic roles are presented to the reader in an
interesting way throughout, including the colourful first woman mayor of
Alberni, Mabel S. Anderson; and M.P. A.W. Neill, who was one
of those responsible for instituting old age pensions,
establishing emergency telegraph services, installing wireless phones at
lighthouses and lifeboat stations, and instigating hydrographic surveys.
Neill also established the November 11 Remembrance Day. Two other
notable people from the Albernis were Wing Hay, noted boxer and athlete,
and the first Canadian-born Chinese to volunteer in the Canadian Army, and
native Indian artist George Clutesi. Clutesi eventually received the Order
of Canada, and after his 1944 exhibit in Victoria's provincial museum, he
met Emily Carr, who willed him her canvasses, brushes, and paints.
Many others made the pages of this book, and readers
will find a wealth of material about prominent industrialists,
educators, and politicians. Despite the rivalry between Port Alberni and
Alberni, talks about amalgamation surfaced over and over again during
the forty-five-year period covered, but it did not come to pass until the
1967 national centennial.
As a native of eastern Canada, I visited Vancouver Island for the first
time in the spring of 1995, and Twin Cities has heightened my
desire to see much more of the Island. While reading the
book I was struck not only by the differences, but by the similarities
between the histories of Canada's west and east coasts. Fish and lumber
are important to both regions, and of course they shared notable occasions
such as
royal visits, the two world wars, and Canada's Centennial in 1967. There
are even individuals shared between the coasts: easterners William Duff, MP
for Lunenburg, and
Angus L. MacDonald, MP and former Premier of Nova Scotia were both
involved with fishing and naval concerns on the west
coast. And with ships of the young Canadian navy moving
freely between west and east coasts it wasn't surprising to find names
familiar to me from Royal
Canadian Navy circles in Halifax during World War II appear in this
book.
Now that amalgamation of east-coast communities of Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford
and Sackville is imminent, it will be interesting to see if this union
can be accomplished as successfully that of the two Albernis on Vancouver Island.
Recommended.
Joan Payzant is a retired teacher/librarian from
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Copyright © 1995 the Manitoba Library Association.
Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is
maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.
Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364
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