This is the big land - British Columbia. Big in size, its 366,255 square miles equal Italy, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland combined. Big in business, its gross provincial product for last year was $5,540,000,000. Big in variety, its geography and population are a panorama of majestic scenery and a pageant of peoples. Biggest of all, it is big in future potentialities. Canada's pacific-coast province does more trade with the rest of the world than the rest of the nation, has the busiest port (Vancouver) on the eastern rim of the whole Pacific Ocean, a population reaching towards 2,000,000, and a forestry industry alone worth an annual billion dollars. This prospering land has 32 cities, 104 other municipalities, a per capita retail sales average of $1,300, a total actual real property value of over $12 billion, combined agricultural-fisheries-mining industries worth over $500 million and ranks third among Canadian provinces in producing manufactured goods to the tune of nearly $3 billion. The physical aspects of British Columbia encompass a sweep of terrestrial beauty unmatched by any other modern industrial estate. The mighty Rockies, piercing the skyline to heights of more than 15,000 feet, are a snow-capped, enduring backdrop to the large central plateau, numerous fertile valleys and the rushing waters of rivers and streams. Mirrored by large crystal-clear lakes, these massive mountains force skyward the moist Pacific winds, causing the large orographic rainfall of the coastal regions and making possible the immense growth of ponderous trees over vast tracts of forestlands. The waters off the majestic coastline are themselves rich and productive. Great runs of salmon provide a bounty of commercial food and a sport fit for kings for all. In the wilderness fastnesses, hulking bear and moose, graceful deer, mountain goat and sheep roam in splendor and 23,000 square miles of parks are set in choice locations of natural grandeur. Today, with awe-inspiring power schemes soon to provide added giant muscles of electrical energy, new industries and mineral developments appearing in profusion, established resources increasing in productivity and value and a vigorous population with the nation's highest rate of growth, the Pacific province is heading for an even more exciting era of regional expansion. Canada's western gateway has become a golden portal to a new world of prosperity.