Public Buildings.— While Vancouver does not boast many splendid public buildings, some of these are in keeping with the growth and am bitions of the city. The Canadian Pacific Rail way station, rebuilt in 1917-18, is a large and at tractive building. The Government Railway depot, opened for traffic in November 1919, is a fine structure costing over a million dollars, and near it is the station of the Great Northern which cost $500,000. These two buildings and the railway yards are situated on land several hundred acres in extent reclaimed from the tide flats of False Creek, part of which area is reserved for commercial and industrial estab lishments and part for gardens and open ground.
The Hotel Vancouver, which was greatly en larged and remodeled in 1917-18, is said to he the largest hotel in Canada. The General Pub lic Hospital is the largest in the dominion and accommodates the greatest number of patients. All the larger Canadian hanks are represented in Vancouver and three or four of them have erected spacious office buildings. The court house, built about 1910 at the cost of $1,000,000, is perhaps the finest public building in the city. There are several large churches, but none that are conspicuous for their architectural beauty.
Education.— The University of British Co lumbia, now occupying temporary quarters within the city limits, is to have its permanent home some six miles out at Point Grey, on a headland overlooking the sea in two directions and commanding a remarkable view of the city and of the coast and mountains. On this site of over 500 acres some of the buildings are partly erected. University classes were opened in 1915 with 379 students. The attendance of undergraduates in 1919 was 890 with several hundred returned soldiers and others taking partial or vocational courses. The staff of in struction numbers 70, with faculties in arts, ap plied science and agriculture and a department of nursing, established in 1919. It is the policy of the province not to give degree-conferring powers to any other institution nor to encourage the foundation of competing schools. The Uni versity is supported by annual votes of money and is administered by a board of governors ap pointed by the provincial government and by a senate largely elected by a convocation of uni versity graduates. Vancouver has a good equip ment of public schools and high schools and in 1919 was taking special interest in the establish ment of technical Institutions. The public school population in 1919 was 17,000.
Government.— The city is administered by a mayor and council of eight aldermen elected by wards. For several years after 1910 its
revenues were nearly all provided by taxes on real estate with improvements exempt. Van couver has been cited by single-tax advocates as an example to be imitated. But after the phenomenal advance in real estate values came to an end and more stable conditions arrived, the policy was modified, and at the time of writ ing improvements are taxed on half their value. Vancouver is represented in the Canadian House of Commons by two members, elected by separate districts, and in the provincial legis lature by six, who are elected by the citizens at Parks, Recreation Centres, The pride and boast of Vancouver is Stanley Park, a forest of 900 acres with a few small clearings, one of which is an athletic field and another is occupied by a garden and zoo. The park is kept as nearly as possible ein a state of nature except that walks and drives have been pro vided. This wood is on a point extending into the bay and a seven-mile drive around follows the curves of the shore. There are trunks of trees 30 to 40 feet in circumference in this park, and one of the paths leads by a close cluster of 10 or a dozen trees from 7 to 10 feet in diam eter. Vancouver is noted among other things for its bathing beaches, of which there are three or four within the city limits under the admin istration of a park commission. Every after noon in summer these are thronged with thou sands of children and adult bathers.
The city is the seat of an Anglican bishop and a Roman Catholic archbishop.
The population in 1891 was 13,709; in 1901, 27,010; in 1911, 100,401. It is now considerably larger, though the growth may not have been in the present decade so rapid as in the last. These figures relate to the incorporated city alone. Meanwhile there has been a considerable overflow into new municipalities included in "Greater Vancouver.° The most fashionable residential district, called Shaughnessy Heights, though nearer the heart of the city than some of the wards, is part of the Corporation of Point Grey. There is only a street between the city and South Vancouver, which had in 1911 a population of 16,126. Across Burrard Inlet is North Vancouver with a population in 1911 of 8,196. It is expected that some, or all of the municipalities will before long be incorporated with Vancouver into one city. About 70 per cent of the population is of British origin. In 1911 there were 3,480 Chi nese, 373 Hindus and 1,992 Japanese, but since then the Oriental population has increased.