REGINA, Canada, city and capit, of the province of Saskatchewan and for ni„.ty years previous to 1905 the capital of the West Territories, the commercial, educational, social, political and industrial centre of that prairie country lying between Winnipeg and the Rocky Mountains and the largest city between nipeg (356 miles east) and Calgary (840 miles west). The main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway cuts the city from east to west. The Colonsay line of the same railway enters from the north and has its terminus there. The Bul yea line of the Canadian Pacific Railway also connects Regina with the northern portion of the province east of Last Mountain Lake, aricl with the Kirkella branch serving the eastern portion of the province north of the Qu'Appelle Valley. The Arcola line of the Canadian Pacific Railway has its western terminus in Regina and serves the southeastern portion of the province. The Weyburn cut-off of the Canadian Pacific Railway connects Regina to the south and by connecting up with the new Lethbridge line opens tip the whole of the southwestern portion of the province. It also brings Regina Into direct connection with the Soo. Line and thereby with.Saint Paul, M, Is and other American cities. The Canadian National Railr ways. have a line running east from Regina which connects with their main Transcontinen tal.at Winnipeg. They also own the old Qu' Appelle, Long Lake and Saskatchewan Railway from Regina to Prince Albert and continuing on to the Hudson's Bay. Their line to Moose Jaw from Regina is a recent addition serving a rich stretch of country. The Grand Trunk Pacific has a line from Regina to Melville con necting with their main Transcontinental, one to Moose jaw and another south to the inter national boundary line connecting with the Great Northern. The chief industry of the Canadian west is agriculture and stock-raising, and Regina is the centre of both for Saskatche wan. The land is a rich clay loam, producing excellent. crops -of small grains and roots. Seed grain from the district is sold throughout the continent at excellent prices. Nearly all the great implement houses have headquarters for Western Canada in Regina and a few years ago the city held the record for implement sales for all the world. Regina may be said, there fore, to be the heart of the implement trade of the West. All the leading wholesale houses have branches in Regina and an immense volume of trade is done. The city has laid out
a tract of property a mile long and half a mile deep for a wholesale and manufacturing dis trict. This is served by all lines of railways operating in the district and is already over half full of permanent and substantial business structures. Among recent additions to this dis trict are branches of the T. Eaton Company.and the Robert Simpson Company, both of Toronto and the two largest enterprises of their kind in Canada. The Imperial Oil Company (Stand ard Oil) have a refining plant at Regina de voted to refining crude oil shipped in tank cars from Wyoming. The Canadian Continental Oil Company recently removed its headquarters to Regina.
A large Canadian pork-packing firm re cently established a plant in Regina. Most of the great Canadian and many of the American financial houses have branches located in Regina. There are 15 branches of chartered banks and numerous trust companies. The bank clearings for 1910 were $50,739,159, and for 1918 they were $184,624,632. The city is governed by an elected mayor and and 10 alder men. Municipal ownership is at its best in Regina, the municipality owning and operating its own water plant, light plant and street rail way. The city is well supplied with parks and beauty spots and it is prettily situated on the banks of Wascana Lake. Within easy motor distance are several noted summer resorts on the Qu'Appelle and Last Mountain lakes. Its .educational facilities comprise a fine collegiate institute and two colleges (Methodist and Anglican) while Presbyterian and Roman Catholic colleges are projected. All religious denominations are well represented with large congregations and commodious churches. There are also numerous public buildings of magnifi cent proportion and architectural beauty.
The city was. founded in 1883 and was -origi nally called Pile of tones, due to the great piles of buffalo bones in the vicinity. It grew slowly until 1905 when it rose by successive strides of healthy growth from 2,249 in 1891 to about 40,000 souls to-day. Headquarters for Canada of the Royal North West Mounted Police are located in Regina, as is also the mili tary headquarters for the province. During the war of 1914-18 the city responded nobly, having sent four battalions into the field as fighting units and raised many men for rein forcements.