PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
23 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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Dr. Grey's ill-health, the lack of experience in the management, and the damage done by summer frosts; no more pupils were being sent there.
"FREE GRANTS" of 160 acres are rightly held out as a great attraction to settlers in the prairie regions; but the difficulties of establishing oneself on them are by no means small. The easiest way for a would-be settler is to get a friend who knows the country to select the free grant for him. Otherwise the settler must first ascertain at the Land Office in what districts free grant lands are to be obtained. Such lands are often 30 to 50 miles from a railway station, and the selector has to spend considerable time and money before he finds one which he thinks suitable in respect of soil, water, &c. He must then go back to record it at the local Land Office. Sometimes he will find that it has just been selected by someone else, or has been reserved from selection, in which case he must begin his search again. I was in a Land Office when an applicant tried to record two or three different free grants which he fancied; but they were all reserved or withdrawn, and he went away as landless as he came. If, however, he secures the land he must then take his goods and chattels there, and if he is a man with a family, this means expense in provisions, hire of waggon, &c. A capital of at least £100 would be necessary; and he should supplement this by working at wages for others until he obtains a crop. He must meanwhile build his shack, dig his well, and prepare the ground. A neighbour will often help the new settler, but in many cases assistance must be paid for. All this is com- paratively easy for a man who has been brought up on the prairies, but strange and difficult for a new arrival. It would therefore be much wiser for the British immigrant to The work on a farm in Canada for a year or two before taking up land of his own. experience thus gained will more than compensate for loss of time. The competent occupier of a free grant will in a few years' time be in a condition of comparative affluence, and be the owner of 160 acres of land, which he could never hope to be in his own country. But he will have to work very hard, and his wife must be willing, at all events at first, to live a life of isolation, discomfort, and self-sacrifice.
The soil is for the most part splendid, and in fine seasons results are very profitable; but good harvests are not more certain than in other countries, and summer frosts, hail- storms, drought, or excessive rains, or prairie fires may do great damage, but I heard nothing of the ravages of locusts, which used to be serious thirty years ago. The winter also is very long and many women cannot stand it; the consequence is that wives and servants are scarce on the prairies and bachelors abound. But there are women who enjoy it, and one told me that she thought nothing of getting up in the early morning to break the ice in her well with a crowbar. I mention these things because I, like so many others, at one time used to imagine that it was so easy to transplant the farm labourer from Sussex to Saskatchewan, and that as soon as he was there his life would be altogether happy and successful. The fact is that there are great failures as well as great succesBES, and character is more important than capital. Besides the possible profits of farming, the settler has many chances in a new country which do not exist in the old. The advent of a new railway, for instance, or the establishment of a township may increase the value of his land a hundredfold ; and in any case the increase of settlement will gradually raise it. Thus one man told me that he started on a free grant without a dollar, and This success was much less than that of after thirty years' work sold it for $15,000.
many others. My informant was, however, more fortunate than another who gave away his land—which is now worth many thousands of dollars-in payment of a beer bill. North West Mounted Police.
I called at the office of the North West Mounted Police. The Commissioner had just Canadians do not think the pay good enough an gone to England to get recruita. compared with that in other professions. But suitable British immigrants would find the life pleasant and profitable for a year or two while getting experience of the country.
To sum up, I was chiefly impressed by the following points:
(1) The great development which has taken place in Canada during the last
thirty-three years, and the growth of some evils also.
(2) The great improvement in the accommodation on ships and in immigration
sheds, which is now quite good.
(3) The great assistance that immigrants may derive from the numerous Govern-
ment Immigration Agencies distributed over Canada.
(4) The enormous prices of town and suburban land, and town sites.
(5) The quantity of land held up for speculative purposes.
(6) The high price of fruit ranches in British Columbia.
(7) The very high rents payable, the high cost of clothes, and of some articles of food; and generally the high standard of expenditure which wage earners
affect.
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(8) The comparative cheapness of board and lodging for single persons; and the rapidity with which many of the rougher workers spend their wages on drink or holiday making.
(9) The high rates of wages for manual workers, male or female.
(10) The good positions which steady mechanics enjoyed. This general state- ment is not negatived by the fact that during my visit many were out of work in the West. These ups and downs in industrial life are common to all countries.
(11) The great success that has attended the immigration of children. (12) The great demand for female servants, and the small openings for
women except school teachers,
any other
(13) The immense care which Women's Immigration Societies, Women's Hostels and Welcome Homes, and other bodies give to the protection and reception of female immigrants.
(14) The moral dangers to which factory girls, stenographers, typists or other
female wage-earners living by themselves are liable.
(15) The great demand for farm labourers, and the general improvement in the
accommodation for them on farms.
(16) The great value and attraction of free grants in the settlement of the prairie regions, and the various difficulties which attend successful establishment
upon them.
(17) The delightful farms and farm houses in Ontario; and the opportunities offered to British farmers who possess a moderate capital to make them- selves the owners of comfortable homes both there and on the prairies. (18) The number of foreign immigrants.
(19) The good work of the Home Re-union Associations.
And lastly I may add
(20) The general readiness of those I met to give me information and help me in
my enquiries.
August, 1913. Emigrants Information Office.
WALTER B. PATON
(Editor of Publications).