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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TPDC.O. 885

20 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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in the winter of 1907, and to a less degree in the winter of 1908. I secured Mr. Charles A. Murton, the Secretary of the Greater Hamilton Associa- At his suggestion tion, as a local correspondent of the Emigrants' Information Office. Secretary of the Hamilton branch of the St. George's Benevolent Society. He is also Mr. Murton spoke more strongly than anyone else I met in Hamilton of the undesir- ability of encouraging a flow of mechanics, artisans, or other workers of that kind to Hamilton in present conditions.

He

I had a talk with Mr. John Maclaren, the Mayor, who confirmed the opinions expressed to me by others. I also saw the Relieving Officer of the city, who had attended personally to the relief of the unemployed in the past two winters. spoke, and evidently felt, very strongly on the subject. He said that large numbers of those relieved had been sent out by British emigration societies. He appeared to blame Mr. Marquette for sending such quantities of these people into the district. In any case, thanks to the restrictive regulations, an improvement was now manifest. The Relieving Officer said that, in spite of the regulations, immi- grants often reached Hamilton without any trace of the $25 which they are supposed to have on landing.

I called at the Ontario Government Free Employment Bureau, 26, James Street. The Bureau tries to find employment for anyone out of work, whether immigrants or residents, whether workers on the land or in trades. It does not appear to he conducted on an extensive scale, but to be run as a side show by the proprietor of a boot shop.

TORONTO.

About midday I returned to Toronto. Owing to the disconcerting habit which Government Offices appear to have in Canada of closing for the day at noon on Saturday, I again failed to catch the Minister of Agriculture. I also failed, owing to the Saturday half-holiday, to catch the Secretary of the Board of Trade, and the Secretaries of the St. George's Benevolent Society and the Methodist Church Missionary Society, the last two being local correspondents of the Emigrants' Information Office.

In the afternoon I visited the Newcomers' Inn, 31, Peter Street. This is an institution of the Ontario Government, run on their behalf by Adjutant Thompson, of the Salvation Army. They meet all the trains bringing immigrants, give them lodging for 20 cents a night, and meals at 15 cents each. They give no board or lodging free. They act also as an employment bureau, and the men and women who come in pass rapidly to work, rarely remaining more than a night or two in the Inn.

I next visited Dr. Barnardo's Home at 52, Peter Street. There I had a very long talk with Mr. Alfred B. Owen, the Superintendent for Canada of the work of the Barnardo Homes. He showed me very carefully and in great detail their whole system of correspondence, inspection, and record, which struck me as being as thorough and complete as any such system could very well be. the authorities of the Home exercise a minute supervision over the material and It is clear that moral welfare of the children sent out from the Home, in many cases long after they have reached the age at which the Home is legally responsible for them. I read inspection reports on men and women of nearly 30 years of age. The Home is almost quixotically generous in the care it takes of boys and girls who do not succeed through no fault of their own. a few years later. The Home are still maintaining her, though she is now 39, in One girl, emigrated at 14, developed fits an asylum for epileptics. I spoke to Mr. Owen of the glowing accounts given to me in Ottawa of the success of child emigration, and referred specifically to the statement that 98 per cent. of the Barnardo children brought into Canada were successes. He replied modestly that it depended on what was meant by "success." If it meant affinence, or a prominent position, the statement was not true. But it could truthfully be said that 98 per cent. of the children did eventually make a living for themselves in some honest and manly way, though some of them might occupy a humble station in life, and might not be ideal workers. easy to quote numbers of instances in which Barnardo children had done remark- It was, of course, ably well.

We discussed the subject of juvenile emigration on a large scale. Mr. Owen thought great things might be expected from it; and laid great stress on getting children out young in order to get them into their new environment at the most plastic age. I happened to mention the idea of the Public Schools Asso- ciation mooted at the Headmasters' Conference. Mr. Owen thought that, when

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a boy left a public school, he was too old to adapt himself readily to the rough and tumble of Canadian conditions, and that in this respect he would be at a serious disadvantage as compared with a Barnardo boy, who is at any stage accustomed to roughing it, and is not likely to be put off by the lack of small domestic comforts and conveniences which so often disgust and disappoint a youth more delicately reared. He would prefer to see public school boys destined for a colonial life educated in Canada after the age of 12 or 14, under adequate educational super- vision, of course, but in conditions approximating as closely as possible to those which obtain in farm life in Canada. His idea, as he outlined it, seemed to me to bear a strong likeness to Mrs. Close's notions of the proper method of training children for life in Canada. sympathetic man, with a great knowledge of emigration questions generally. He Mr. Owen struck me as a very capable and had actual experience of farm life in Manitoba before Dr. Barnardo induced him to take up his present work.

In the evening I called at the headquarters of the British Welcome League at 87, Front Street. The objects of the League are stated to be "to extend to all deserving immigrants from the British Isles, irrespective of nationality or religion, a hearty welcome, and, if need be, temporary accommodation, and to render such other help and advice as will enable them to become worthy citizens of Canada." The League has only been established about 2 years. In that time it claims to have handled 8,500 immigrants, and to have placed 6,000 in situations. It gives free lodging for two nights after arrival, and a single good meal. claimed. After that the emigrant has to leave the Home, and is not thereafter admitted again unless in exceptional circumstances, and with the express sanction No payment is of the Committee. The League can accommodate about 160 immigrants at a pinch. They are put up in two enormous dormitories, one for men and one for women. The place looked clean and well kept.

I was particularly anxious to visit the place because, for some reason or other, the League is not in very good odour in certain quarters in Canada. It was started by certain British residents in Toronto at the time when a violent prejudice existed against the English immigrant, and the alleged motive for founding it was that the English immigrant did not get a fair chance. Its originator was a Mr. Alfred Chamberlain, and he appears to have secured the support of one or two members or ex-members of the Ontario Legislature. The League is entirely supported by voluntary subscriptions. I was told by officials in Ottawa that the whole thing was a political move, and that the operations of the League were reprehensible, in that they induced immigrants to remain in Toronto instead of getting out into the country, and that by giving them a bed and a meal free they sapped the immi- grant's sense of independence and taught him to expect maintenance without effort. In the latter respect there does not appear to be much difference between the League and the many receiving homes that give twenty-four hours' food and lodg ing free. Of the former complaint it is difficult to judge without research. But, if the League do actually find situations for so large a proportion as 6,000 out of 8,500 of the immigrants they handle, and do actually discourage loafing by refusing an immigrant admission after the two free nights, the charge requires a good deal of substantiation. Another charge I heard was that the officers of the League, who meet all the trains, try to prevent immigrants from going to such recognised institutions as the Newcomers' Inn and the Women's Welcome Hostel, and try to persuade them not to go to the Government Immigration Agent. I could not get any reliable confirmation or denial of this statement. It is only fair to the League to say that I was only able to see the caretaker of the Home. But in this case, as in several others in Canada, I was struck by the high level of intelligence and capacity of the caretaker, and by his ability to explain the aims of the institution and its methods.

WINNIPEG.

On the night of the 14th I left Toronto for Winnipeg, which I reached at noon on Monday, the 16th of August.

In the afternoon I called on Mr. Bell, the Secretary of the Winnipeg Board of Trade. He has known Winnipeg since it was a small hamlet of 200 or 300 inhabitants. He is much interested in emigration questions, though he is very careful to explain that the Board is concerned with the larger questions of indus- trial and commercial policy and does not regard the supply of labour, whether for agricultural or industrial purposes, as falling within its province. It leaves this