CHAPTER XIII.

IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT.

THESE subjects are among the most vital which have to be considered in the policy of a new country, and it is generally felt that their importance as regards the Dominion extends to the empire of which it forms a part. This is so ably stated by Sir Alexander Galt, the High Commissioner for the Dominion, in his late address before the Colonial Institute, London, that we shall quote some of his remarks:

What, it may be asked, is the true interest of Great Britain in the future of her greatest colony? Is it not true that, while portions of the same empire, all that belongs to Canada belongs equally to England-the vast forests, the boundless fertile prairies, the mineral wealth of Canada? Are they not the common heritage of every British subject-differently administered, but yet the same ? Has England no interest in the prolific fisheries on the coasts of her American possessions, and should she not feel how largely her naval strength may be augmented from the thousands of hardy fishermen who earn a precarious livelihood on the stormy shores of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia ? Should she not desire to share in establishing a new route to India, Australia, and China through her own possessions, free from all risk of interruption by foreign hostilities? I might answer one and all of these questions affirmatively, by saying that her

interest is truly an imperial one; that by the possession and speedy development of Canada, England most surely maintains her power, and widens and strengthens her influence. But in these days Imperialism is at a discount; strangely enough, I find in many quarters that the material interests of the mother country are supposed to be more connected with foreign nations than with her own colonies; and I must try to find within the admitted necessities of Great Britain and Ireland some reason which shall supply an adequate motive for her aiding Canada in the great work that has been devolved upon her by British statesmen. The reason is to be found in the over-population of the United Kingdom, and in the absolute necessity of providing against the evils-ever increasing and daily becoming more threatening-which are traceable to this cause. Emigration, continuous, progressive, and systematic, is the only certain remedy, and forms, at the same time, the only boon Canada asks from the mother country. Rarely, indeed, can any remedial measure be applied which does not involve some painful sacrifices on one side, or perhaps on both; but here the blessing will rest both with the giver and the receiver.

"The returns show the singular circumstance that until 1841 the actual emigration to British North America was absolutely larger year by year than to the United States. After 1841 two causes operated to turn the flow of emigration more largely to the United States: the first was the condition of Ireland up to and succeeding the famine, the other was the contemporaneous opening up of the vast prairie States of the Union, which began to attract general notice after 1840. The latter cause was, I think, much the more important, and to it, I believe, the United States are indebted for the rapid strides they have made in population and wealth, and the great attraction they have offered to the emigrating class of the

United Kingdom, of Germany, and of Scandinavia. If I am correct in this view, the Dominion of Canada may well look forward with great confidence to the effect to be produced by the speedy opening up of the North-West Territory a district probably quite as extensive as the prairie region of the Union, and certainly as well fitted for the maintenance of a large population. My conviction therefore is, that the tide of emigration which turned so strongly after 1840 to the United States will soon resume its former direction to British North America, as, other material advantages being equal, I cannot think a British subject would prefer a Republican form of government to that happy blending of freedom and law which he can enjoy under his own flag.

"Were the question only that of relieving the congestion of population in the United Kingdom, it would certainly be immaterial where the emigrant went, provided he went at all. But beyond this point arises the most important inquiry of-How can the exodus be made serviceable to the mother country in other respects? to which the reply is manifest: As consumers of the products of British labour at home. I might instance the Australian colonies, which offer an infinitely stronger illustration; but as I may be told that their distance forbids their being chosen by the mass of poorer emigrants, I will take Canada and the United States, whose conditions are in many respects equal as fields for emigration, and it will be seen by the Board of Trade returns that on an average of the last three years, every person, and therefore every emigrant, in the United States has consumed only 8s. 4d. worth of British manufactures, while in Canada he has consumed 32s.; it is therefore in the interest of British labour at home, in the proportion of 32 to 8, that emigration should go to Canada rather than to the United States."

Emigration may be reasonably regarded as the easiest and cheapest means of relief from communism and pauperism, which are making headway in consequence of the overcrowding and necessities of the people, and possibly a large number of persons who are dependent on parish aid might in a new country, where circumstances favour their advancement, become producers instead of paupers.

At present the evils of pauperism are continued from generation to generation by the "poor-rates," whereas the children certainly, and many who have become demoralised from want of hope, would in a new field develop their energies.

The effort is being made by a few philanthropists to rescue the children of the poor, as shown in the following statement of the number of immigrants, chiefly children, brought to Canada under the auspices of charitable societies and individuals during the last five years:

These children all do well, but it is for some statesman who realises the importance of this great social and political question to lay it before the Parliament of Britain, and to crown with utility and philanthropy the colonial policy of the Empire by a judicious and systematic aid to colonial settlement.

At one of the debates of the Royal Colonial Institute, Mr. Labilliere essayed to put a financial value on the loss which the British Empire had sustained during the last fifty years by emigration to the United States. Taking the statement of Sir Alexander Galt, that in the time mentioned not less than 4,000,000 of people had

transferred their homes and allegiance from the United Kingdom to the American Republic, as the basis of his computation, and valuing the average healthy industrious emigrant (on the authority of an American publication) at £166134, he reckoned that England had virtually made a gift of £666,666,666 13: 4 to the United States. The reflection which he made on this result was, that if the population referred to had been diverted to the British colonies, the latter would be to-day in a very different position. There is no doubt that British statesmen are beginning to look at the question of emigration from the same standpoint.

The total number of acres sold and taken up from the acquisition of the North-West Territories, etc., to the 31st October 1880 is as follows: