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1892 
 
 (131 
 
 
 IMPR/:SSIONS OF 
 THE CANADIAN NORTH-WEST 
 
 TiKHdii the 'Great Lor.o Tiand ' is no longer a terra incofjnita to the 
 reading public at home, tliere is not enough known about ^Manitoba, 
 Assiniboia, Saskatchewan. Alberta, and British Cohimbia by the 
 people of the United Kingdom. This is a pity ; as I am persuaded, 
 after a pretty extensive tour through those regions during last 
 autumn, that if anything like full and true information of the real 
 extent, fruitfulness of soil, and imequalled advant;'ges of this immense 
 and interesting portion of the P'mpire were in possession of the public 
 of Great Britain and Ireland, the Xorth-West would not long remain 
 so thinly populated. 
 
 Want of fuller information is not the only obstacle to the creation 
 of a deeper interest in the subject of these countries. There is a 
 good deal which miist be unlearned about Manitoba and its adjacent 
 provinces before a true estimate of their worth and attractiveness 
 can be formed. The means and methods employed to colonise them 
 ha^■e not been the happiest in plans or most fruitful in results. A 
 generally wrong impression is conveyed in the pictorial representa- 
 tions of Canada, in which she is invariably represented to Europeans 
 as a female, attractive-looking of course, biit always clad in furs and 
 living in a land of snow shoes and ice palaces. The climate of Xorth- 
 Western Canada Is little, if any, colder than that of north ]\Iinnesota, 
 north Dacota, and other portions of the I'nited States ; but we never 
 find the practical Americans giving a figurative representation of 
 their country suggestive of [teqietual winter in any part of their 
 great Eepublic. 
 
 Manitoba, which has been given a very bad climatic reputation, 
 lias not an average of more than a few degrees more cold than 
 western Nebraska, Frosts are earlier, it is true, and the injury with 
 which they menace the wheat harvest is the on(^ real drawback and 
 danger to the farming industry of an otherwise exceptionally favoured 
 land. But this is a danger which is certain to decrease, in proportion 
 to the growth of population and the singular but sure influence 
 which the tillage of the soil, the erection of dwellings, and the other 
 
G32 
 
 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 April 
 
 necessary labours of an inhabited country exercise upon its climate. 
 If, as the farmers of Ontario say, the clapping of the rooster's svings 
 prevents freezing within the barn, the smoke of villages, the making 
 of roads, erection of fences, and the application of the plough to the 
 prairie sod will necessarily modify the climate, as has been the case 
 in northern Minnesota, and produce other variations of temperature 
 which will make the ^Nlanitoban and Assiniboian autumn frosts less 
 injurious to the cultivation of wheat and other cereal products, and 
 the winters less preventive of active open-air work. 
 
 I sought for the opinions of the Crofters at Glenboro and Pelican 
 I^ake on this subject of the Manitoban winter, and in no instance was 
 it complained that the cold was injurious to health, or, except in brief 
 intervals, prohibitive of such outdoor work as has to be done round a 
 farmhouse in that season. I also canvassed the views of some of my 
 own countrymen at Calgary and other places upon this point, and 
 received a similar accoimt. Thirty degrees below zero all but freezes 
 one's imagination where, as in Ireland and Great Britain, the glass 
 at thirty above it sends those who can afford it off to sunnier climes, 
 and makes those who cannot sigh for the return of summer. The 
 cold in northern regions like Manitoba is, however, dry and ex- 
 hilarating in its effects, and produces none of the chills and kindred 
 consequences to health associated with a winter in a damp climate 
 like that of the United Kingdom. People affected with asthma, or 
 suffering from other chest diseases, fare well in the North-West. 
 That it is intensely cold in mid-winter in ]\Ianitoba goes without 
 saying. But, I am convinced, the climate of that province is no more 
 severe upon the human body than that of Nebraska, Wyoming, north 
 Minnesota, or north Dacota in the United States ; the only differ- 
 ence being that arising from the more populous and more developed 
 condition of these localities, as compared with ]Manitoba, Assiniboia 
 and Alberta. The climate of British Columbia, notwithstanding its 
 latitude, is as mild in winter as that of the United Kingdom, but far 
 more enjoyable in summer than ours. 
 
 Mr. John Morley's historic expression, ' Manacles and Manitoba,' 
 has not tended to popularise colonisation in the North-West. It has 
 helped rather to create the impression that the country is a British 
 Siberia, to which no one should go by choice, and to which Lord 
 Salisbury hoped to send the Irish peasantry— there to perish from 
 the rigours of an Arctic clime. I knew something about ' manajles ' 
 of old, and I learned a good deal, last fall, about Manitoba ; and bad 
 as the first part of the Salisburian remedy is, the second or geo- 
 graphical part, seriously considered, is not deserving of being coupled 
 even in metaphor with the major proposition of Tory policy of Ireland. 
 
 But what has done most harm to Manitoba and the adjacent 
 Territories, in my belief, is the class of settler whom the agents for 
 the Dominion Government in Europe have sought after most. The 
 
til 
 
 1892 IMPMESSIOXS OF NORTH-WEST CANADA G33 
 
 ' Small Copitalist ' is a very useful member of society anywhere, where 
 he is not too much of a capitalist, or of a gentleman, to work with 
 hands or brains, particularly with the former. In a new country the 
 • capital ' is an invaluable asset when it is translated into ploughs, 
 horses, cattle, >.^c. But when it is not in itself large enough to 
 enable the owner to live on the labour of others, and the possessor 
 has neither inclination to work nor experience how to have his 
 industrial incapacity neutralised by aid of his money, he is not of 
 much account as a settler. In my in(iuiries about the relative 
 success of various classes of colonists, I found that in almost every in- 
 stance where a man brought a pair of willing hands and some knowledge 
 of land labour with him he succeeded, even without a penny capital 
 to start with. Where a small amount of laoney alone was the 
 equipment, and there was neither industrial training nor labour in- 
 clination, the settler either went to the wall, left the country, or 
 joined the mounted police. All those who thus failed placed the 
 blame, of course, u})on the country and climate. As a countryman 
 of mine said to me in Calgary upon this subject : ' We have had a 
 large number of young Englishmen out here with some money, but 
 little brains and less love for labour. They dressed themselves on 
 arrival in picturesque cowboy costume, rode about on Indian ponies 
 during the day, tried to teach us the Cockney way of pronouncing 
 Manitoba, played cards and gambled until the small hours in the 
 morning, lost their money, and went to bed cursing the country, 
 ^lore remittances from home would be demanded by these gentle- 
 men, and in the end such ' Colonists ' either returned to England, 
 with harrowing accounts of Manitoban winters and mosquito sum- 
 mers, and a conclusion that the North- West was only suitable for 
 Indians and Half breeds, or they remained dead broke and volunteered 
 to watch the cattle thieves and fron<^iers, as mounted police, for fifty 
 cents a day." 
 
 Almost every European nationality is represented in the colonisa- 
 tion of jNIanitoba and Assiniboia — Icelanders and Italians, Russians 
 and Jews, French and Germans, Bulgarians, &c. The best and most 
 successful farmers are from Ontario. Among the foreign settlers, 
 the Icelanders, who are coming over in large numbers, are spoken of 
 very highly for their industry, sobriety, and strict honesty. They 
 contract no debts, and pay cash for all purchases. A Mannanite 
 settlement in Southern Manitoba is remarkable for its exclusiveness. 
 They are dissenting Russians, and do not inter-marry or hold social 
 intercourse with other settlers. They occupy some of the best lands 
 in Manitoba, and, being very industrious and thrifty, are reputed 
 wealthy. 
 
 At Regina, the seat of Government for the Territories of 
 Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, I had an interesting interview 
 with a settler who was one of a community of seventy families who 
 
 ■ S 
 
C34 
 
 THE mNETEENTlI CEXruUY 
 
 hwlleft Southern Eussia .^v„ """'' ^^'"^ 
 
 • ™ account of the ^C ^fT "''°"- "°''' -" -^ "'fonn,,,, 
 -joy greater Iibert/„„ "':;'"'',;" ™" I—, but i„ oX 'o' 
 ^™" " «"' fo «outLer„ Ku "^ '"'^ ."'«'' These i„ter*t 1 
 
 «re an the towns, and affect tof "'"'^'^''^'''^ °» ^^^e Jan Tl 
 
 wit°l H '.™'"'«''™ce of the e'ils „,?,' "' »»■ «ran(Te bogie« to 
 ».th the .„t,.och,ctio„ of this ■no.t™ t,"7. ^'■^'°™'"«>' ---a,'; 
 
 over tlie border ' ff nv ''" ""^^^^ '^s to that of T / ^' 
 
 m*.; , „. «„„„ t; rir tt"^ 'T*' "^- '!^« t,;^™ 
 
 Th"e KeT Tr '^™ "-'«'"- .^Cu-™'/"t-"'^ -'i« 
 panada Las, ^ovvever, adopted ihlT P^'^^'^n^es of Lo.vez' 
 
 ^ -00 or more votes are 
 
 <> 
 
If a 
 
 \s 
 
 II] 
 h 
 
 1892 IMPRESSIONS OF NORTH-WEST CANADA 035 
 
 recorded for such candidate. The Manitoban Parliament is elected 
 every four years. 
 
 In the Hocial and industrial organisation of these embryo com- 
 munities, it is also satisfactory to find that vested interests are not 
 allowed to dominate the natural and domestic rights of tlie citizen, 
 .as in the landlord- and lawyer-ridden United Kingdom. A homestead 
 law, even more favourable to industry and home life than that of the 
 United States, obtains in the North-Wcstern Territories. 
 
 The following real and personal property are declared exempt 
 from seizure by virtue of all writs of execution issued by any court 
 in the Territories (Revised Ordinances N.W.T. cap. 4o): — 
 
 1. Clothiiip of cli'fendaiit find family. 
 
 a. Fiu'iilturo and liouseliold fiiruisliiiigs of defendant and family, to valuu 
 of ;^500. 
 
 3. Xecessaiy foful for deffiidant's family for six months, -wliicli may 
 include grain and Hour :)r vegetables and meat, either prepared for use or ou 
 foot. 
 
 4. Two cows, two oxen, and one lion's", or three horses or mules; six sheep 
 and two pigs, besides the animals kept for food purposes, and fo(jd for same during 
 the six months beginning in NoA-ember. 
 
 5. Ilariu'ss for three animals, one waggon or two carts, oiu^ mower or scythe, 
 one breaking plough, one cross-plough, one set harrows, one horse-rake, one sewing 
 machine, one reaper and binder. 
 
 G. ]5ooks of a professional man. 
 
 7. Tools and necessaries used by defendant in trade or profession. 
 
 8. Seed grain suilicieiit to seed all land under cultivation not exceeding- eighty 
 acres (two bushels to acre, and fourteen bushels of potatoes). 
 
 9. Homestead up to eighty acres. 
 
 10. House and buildings, and lot or lots upon which same are situated, up to 
 tlio sum of ;^1,500 in value. 
 
 Xo article (except of food, clothing, or bedding) is exempt from seizure where 
 the judgment and execution are for the price of such article. 
 
 ) 
 
 The treatment of the native Indians is far more humane and 
 enlightened in the Canadian North-West than the system of exter- 
 mination by commissioners and rum adopted by the Government of 
 the United States. This is due mainly to the long and arduous 
 labours of the French Catholic missionary priests. The Canadian 
 Government has done its part, however, in the work of inducing the 
 former occupants and masters of this immense section of the North 
 American continent to put off the customs of savage for the habits 
 of civilised life. No drink can be sold in the North-West to an 
 Indian under a severe penalty — including, I believe, the forfeiture 
 of a license to sell intoxicating liquor in future. One of the prettiest 
 pictures in the unrivalled scenic panorama of Vancouver city, in 
 British Columbia, is that presented by an Indian village of white 
 houses, with a white church in the centre, peeping out from a forest 
 of pines on the banks of Burrard Inlet. The inhabitants all live by 
 fishing or lumber industry. At New Westminster, on the Fraser 
 
(i3C, 
 
 I'^MU CEKTVUY 
 
 fr"'" Jianff, T^'^\ '"•'■'"■e t,,e g„ Jf'^ ' f-. river,, v„l,e,, „" ." 
 ^venders ovpv * ^ f'nouo-h nf ai • ^'"^^'e ha]r n ^ 
 
 ^-^a£} =^Jr-5ir - -S 
 
 «I to,,,, ,,„t (;„,,':_"»' of a rail, tl„„uT"*f «''''»'.• of n,,,„ 
 «"'r intended hf . ' """""ains a„d ' ^"^ " ''■S'on wiere nre 
 ''»2'«S'e en Orient, y , p„ '''"«» '"I'leme 7! "'"'''' "Plwr- 
 
 I'andoflsndlorri f *"•" ProfoundJv rl;. ' ^I»rt from ti? 
 
 i',' 
 
^pri/ 
 
 1892 IMPRKSSIOXS OF XORTJf-WhST CANADA 
 
 G37 
 
 ' 'S'omo 
 
 Weeks' 
 
 lirned 
 
 firmer. 
 
 fhan 
 n for 
 hoot 
 of 
 find, 
 
 >nce 
 
 iv I 
 
 hn 
 nil 
 if- 
 hl 
 
 n 
 r 
 
 (lovernment to the half-breeds, in tlie immediate iieighhourhood of 
 Winnipeg, are among the richest in the province. Two hundred 
 and forty acres were given to eacli mendier of a fannly, hut were sold 
 by them to sfjeculators for little or nothing. These jjurchasers are 
 mostly absentees, and the lands thus acquired are held for speculative 
 values by ]»eople residing in Lower Canada and England, while the 
 city of \Vinni))eg has to sutfer from thousands of acres of soil lying 
 idle in its immediate vicinity, which if occupied and cultivated would 
 add enormously to the prosperity of the handsome and progressive 
 capital of M mitolia. The same state of tilings exists, more or less, 
 in connection with every city and town throughout the entire North- 
 West , and it is most sincerely to be hoi)ed tliat the men who have 
 helped so far by residence, pluck, and enterprise to organise these 
 centres of industry and reclaim tlie country around from prairie 
 savagery will soon demand from the Dominion Ii(>gislature the 
 power to tax tlie alisentee owners of all lands — and residential 
 owners, to a less extent — so as to compel them eitlun- to put the ^oil 
 of the country to its legitimate use, or to pay in taxation to local 
 authorities for the privilege of holding it in idleness. 
 
 No matter what one's views upon emigration may be — and mine 
 are very radical and have been frequently stated — it is impossilile to 
 visit this vast and naturally ricli region of the North-West, witli its 
 all but limitless extent of rich loamy-subsoiled land, without a 
 yearning for the transplantation of some of the den:;e population of 
 parts of Great Britain to these fruitful prairies. When one has to call 
 to mind the slum-life of London, the squalid (juarters of the working 
 ])Oor in Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester, and other large centres of 
 crowded social life, and the conditions under which tens of thousands 
 of such peojile live — while, on the other hand, he views, day after 
 d.ay, millions of acres of arable soil hungering for tlie application of 
 food-i)roducing labour, it is impossible not to have one's opinions 
 influenced more or less in favour of a movement which might ease 
 and tend to eradicate these demoralising conditions of labour-life in 
 Great Britain, while removing their victims to the advantages of 
 those all but unpeopled regions of bracing air, and healthful life, and 
 latent opportunities of a better and brighter social existence. It 
 would, however, be a huge mistake to bring some of the class of 
 l)eople who overcrowd our cities at home out to the North-West. 
 They are not the kind of colonists whom the country would suit, or 
 who could help in its development. Men or women who work in 
 factories or employ themselves in the smaller handicrafts and miscel- 
 laneous occupations of centres of complex industrial organisation, 
 would be like fishes out of water where the main, if not only, form of 
 labour is in connection with land. Those who have been brought up 
 to agriculture, or who have strength and willingness to work the 
 land, are the class of colonists who are wanted, and to whom 
 Vol. XXXI— No. 182 XX 
 
638 
 
 TllK NIXETKKNTH CENT CRY 
 
 April 
 
 Manitoba or liritish Columbia would ottbr a field of industry in wliicli 
 a now social life of comparative comfort could be won in a few years' 
 time. 
 
 The emigration of such settlers would likewise excite less o|ij)0- 
 sition from Trade I'nions at home and in (.'anada. Kightly, and 
 reasonably enough, the cn-ganised workmen of the Canadian cities 
 object most strongly to the importation of artisans, mechanics, and 
 labourers (non-agricultural), who would irowd the labour market of the 
 Donunion. lower wages by competition, and become a disturbing 
 element in the economic relations between labour and capital. These 
 objections, however, could not be urged against land-workers, who 
 might be brought out, or induced to come under plans tliat would 
 insure their being located where good land, and plenty of it, would 
 provide immediate employment to such intending settlers. The 
 advent of such a class would be hailed as directly atlvantageons to 
 the interests of skilled industry in Canada. The more farmers the 
 country possesses, the more work there necessarily is for the general 
 mechanic. The emigration of a large number of agricultural 
 labourers from Great ]5ritain should also be viewed with less hos- 
 tility by leaders of the labour movement and radical social r(>- 
 formers at home. The country worker is tho chief disturber of the 
 labour market of our cities and towns. The causes of his voluntary 
 or involuntary migration are too well known to need dwelling upon 
 here. The prolilein now is how to keep those on the land who ha\e 
 not yet inigrated, and how best to put those back who liave. In the 
 solution of such a problem lies a hope of a better and higher future 
 for both land and town labour, l^egislation is at last moving in the 
 direction which will facilitate such a reform, though we are not 
 likely to witness anything like a boom in land labour until public 
 ownership of the soil replaces that of the landlords. When that day 
 arrives — and we are moving rapidly towards it — capital in its struggle 
 with labour will have less of the ' blackleg ' class of competing worl<- 
 men to fall back upon in such conflicts as may arise, while organised 
 workmen in cities and towns will have a better chance of winning a 
 fairer share of the wealth produced by the country than that whii-h 
 they obtain under existing economic conditions. In the m(>antime, 
 however, and pending the radical changes which are in the contem- 
 plation of those ' who dream dreams' which have acquired the habit 
 of becoming embodied in legislative programmes evolved from com- 
 peting Liberal^and Tory parties, the colonisation of the countric^s of 
 the North-West by such past and present victims of landlord mono- 
 poly as would be willing to go from wage-slavery to practical social 
 independence, would work on parallel lines to the ' back to the land ' 
 movement in Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 I visited two of the crofter settlements during my tour — one at 
 Glenboro, and the other at Pelican Lake, both in Manitoba. The 
 
April 
 
 1892 JMriiESiSIOAlS OF NORTH-WEST L'ANAIU 
 
 (13!) 
 
 'n vvliicli 
 '"■ years' 
 
 ■''•s oj»po- 
 'Iv. Jind 
 111 c'ih'ps 
 't'S and 
 't of til,, 
 ^inhinop 
 i'liese 
 
 remaining colony, that of Saltcoatcs, nortli-wes<t of Winnipeg. I did 
 not go to, as 1 became 'satisfied, after interviewing about a dozen 
 heads of families in the two first-named i)laces, that visitors from the 
 •oldcomitry ' do moreharmthan goodto these particular settlers. If 
 creates an imjiression on their nunds thai puMic opinion at home is 
 actively agit ited on their account, and that ".-umething more' 
 remains yet to be done fin- them, in a very few instances this 
 feeling of expectancy has produced discontent, and led to idleness. 
 JUit all to whom I s[Mjke adnntted they were fiU" better off tlian 
 they ever would have been had they remained in Harris, Ij(>wis, 
 or the other ])arts of the Crofter Highlands whence they hailed. 
 
 John ^McliCod, frouj near Stornoway, I found farming a whole 
 section of (i tO acres. Jle hail 120 acres under whciit, and was l)reak- 
 ing seventy more for this year's sowing. Himself and three sons 
 worked tlu" land, with three yokes of oxen and a team of horses. 
 The old man told me iie had live luad of cattle, and thai he was well 
 satisfied with the country, and expected to do very well on his farm. 
 He contrasted its extent and his future prospects with the three-acre 
 croft on which he had lived for over forty yea > in the Island of 
 TiCwis, and his only regret was that ho couUl not bring his two 
 daugliters and a brother, who were still in Stornoway, out to his 
 new home. He assured me that all his crofter neighliours at 
 Pelican Lak(^ weiv doing well, though they, like himself, were still 
 in debt to the giocers in Killarney (the market town for J'l-lican 
 Lake), owing to the two bad years which followed their aii'ival from 
 Scotland. 
 
 Donald ]\lcI)onaUl, of Lewis, said he was well contente 1, bv.t 
 would like to pay Lewis a visit. He owns liiO acres, fifty being 
 under wheat, and possesses a yoke of oxen and three cows. 
 
 John IMcKenzie, senior, from liOwis, would like to return home. 
 He had been more of a fisherman than a crofter, and he ' longed for 
 the sea bre(>ze.' He had fifty acres under wheat, and was a})parently 
 doing well. 
 
 Kenneth IMacaulay, also from Ticwi-^, was delighted with his log 
 house, sixty-live acres of wheat (on a quarter-.-eclion of KiO acres), 
 three acres of oats, two cows, and yoke of oxen; but his son de- 
 nounced the whole of ^lanitoba, and all those who had helped to 
 bring him there. His father, however, blameil -the disturber from 
 Saltcoates,' who had visited Pelican Lake, for the discontent which 
 young Kenneth expressed, and assured me tLat it had no real 
 meaning. 
 
 Donald ^McDonald, Angus ^McDonald, John ^lorrison, and Allan 
 McLeod farm a section ((140 acres) in conjunction. I saw IMIO aci'es 
 of this under wheat, whik^ each had some five acres of oats in addi- 
 tion. They also possessed a yoke of oxen each, and from two to four 
 cows. 
 
 X X 2 
 
U ' ' 
 
 640 
 
 I r 
 
 ^HE K^ETEEN,^ CENTURY 
 
 i drove bv thp j«„ ,. ^Pnl 
 
 ^, Befce Lvi/; „ f;":;j '7 fe. gears' J ' '^"^ "™ -^ain 
 
 scheme, and tl.at thtT ''"' '' "^ "'-Sd "o ™™"~" ^^l™"- 
 
 -"'-nee to tUelL t- ^ ot«a?/'™f "H-^ " pi' tlf T'" "^ 
 sea from ^•ictoria, B ,■ o^ /"f" * JW.and aL,t , ■^' "' "^^ 
 "t tl,e entrance •, ,d ,' ^^ ^'"^'""- '^ "bont a mn f "'''"* f-y 
 
 ""•y at oprJCl^;" J"™ ""d Gor,lon emT„ "^ ^""'""^ "f 
 -;»o„ an'd' t;:':,";-™*-- HotI, are «:;,! ^r r^ 't; 'f ° "'« 
 cabin.s wJiosp ^, , ^'^" J^ian ' cons;«f. r ' ^"^^ of silver 
 
 <•«" n,ilo. from tlr;,", ™'^ ''^'''y timl.et " " ^'"■''"ff «-as- 
 
 accnmnlation of 'V rf '\" «°«'«1 ''Hi' 2 "'"'■^ """- 
 consist, of abou w^ l^t """^ '^ " «ov<™Vr^' ™™"' '^ ••". 
 »»po«e,I of mou, ,t ^^T" """«' and by ftr t , ™"°"' ■•""' 
 
 Indian viliaRe Tl ° " ®' l""-P<'«es-iat le. 7 , ' "'''" '-*'^'' 
 deer, elk, and blaclh ''^ ''°"''l ^e a Pand ' ; "'™ "'''™ 'be 
 
 ofduek/andgeet: tuc?""""""""-'' "'"^ t ef ''"?-"• »■' 
 North-M'est ^, -',"'"''1' appear to inhabit ,1, T "" abundance 
 
 crofters are not the rllf ^^"^^^^ ^^^^cl bo lumh; , "''"^- ^^ 
 
 ^re other parts of «^v f'' "^P^°P^^ for worVof^ff "^^'''^^" '-^"^ 
 Adapted for'uet:eW^^^«^«-bia whiohfou/d' " '^■"^^- ^^-- 
 ^as informed C ! '""'''^'^^^''^^^^y^U^.fJ^ '"""''^^ ^^^^^^ 
 
 Alberni and 'nefr ^P^ ^^ '"^^ ^^'^ --^^^^^^^^^^ ^ 
 
 Government hmU ^'"^P'on, on Vaneonv/ r / ^^^ '^^ound 
 
 ----efo„nd;:K::--::-t^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 ^>orth American 
 
April 
 
 h ^'n this 
 plat time 
 J been in- 
 l^e ])erio(] 
 f- I am 
 ps, from 
 pfJ fi-om 
 ■ certain 
 
 ^'ortZi- 
 roposed 
 
 Mind, 
 such a 
 0,000^, 
 
 ^^hv, I 
 
 It file 
 
 ^es hy 
 
 "ifif 
 ns of 
 t/ie 
 •liver 
 irhan 
 "'fas. 
 omo 
 
 aij' 
 ^iid 
 ^ is 
 ten 
 he 
 as 
 :'e 
 
 1892 IMPRESSIONS OF NORTH-WEST CANADA 641 
 
 continent. It reminds one very much of the fat soil of Lombardy 
 along the river Po. The charming little city of New Westmitj-iter is 
 situated near the very centre of this favoured corner of the province, 
 and no one visiting British Columbia should think of leaving before 
 paying a visit to this city. The famous salmon-canneries of the 
 Fraser are to be found here, while numerous other forms of industrial 
 prosperity are contributing to make this ' royal city,' as it is called, a 
 rich and thriving community. To no part of the North- West would 
 English or Irish agricultural labourers, or Scotch crofters, be more 
 welcome than to this section of the province ; but there is, unfortu- 
 nately, this drawback — that the Government has given away all its 
 liest lands, which are held for speculative values by absentee and 
 other owners, and colonists would therefore have to pay stiff prices 
 (though ridiculously small in European eyes), as compared with the 
 cost of land in 3Ianitoba or Assiniboia, for holdings in the favoured 
 region of New Westminster. 
 
 It is this state of things, more than any other cause, which still 
 leaves these naturally favoured countries of the North-West com- 
 paratively unpopulated. All the best land has been given away 
 to railway companies, ' free, gratis, and for nothing,' or sold for 
 little or nothing to syndicates, companies, corporations, and indi- 
 vidual speculators. These owners are mostly absentees, and are 
 doing absolutely nothing (railway companies excepted) towards the 
 development of a country over millions of acres of whose soil they 
 hold a monopoly. They are simply waiting for the advent of that 
 population which will give value to their possessions ; while the 
 (jrovernment, which desires to attract colonists, has parted with 
 tJaose very lands which would offer the strongest inducement to 
 settlers to come. This is especially true of British Columbia, and 
 more is the pity, because, taken all round, in mildness of climate, 
 loveliness of scenery, richness of soil, and in the variety and abundance 
 of its mineral wealth, it is the most favoured of all the North- Western 
 countries, and is destined in my l)elief to become, in the near future, 
 an irresistible attraction to Americans, as well as to Europeans, 
 desiring a change of home location. 
 
 To propose the colonisation of the Canadian North-West by means 
 of one or two hundred thousand agricultural labourers from Great 
 Brit ain will seem a ' large order.' The o])ponents of emigration will 
 be i,p in arms at once in opposition to any such suggestion. Para- 
 doxical as it may appear, I am not, and never have been, an advocate 
 of emigration. My present proposal is made homocopathically. It 
 would, if carried out, promote many interests which have not beer 
 benefited by the process of emigration that has called forth the ob- 
 jections of radical land reformers, and other labour advocates, who 
 demand the full utilisation of the soil of Great Britain for labour 
 purposes before British workers are sent away to colonial or other 
 
1 
 
 : M 
 
 G42 
 
 THE XIXETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 April 
 
 \f. I 
 
 countries in searcli of work which is practically denied them at home 
 through the operation of the rent-earning system of land tenure. To 
 withdraw 100,000 land-workers from the agricultural industry of 
 these countries would enhance the price of the labour that would 
 remain. Wages would necessarily go up, while tlie influx of 
 labourers from the country into towns would be diminished, to the 
 advantage of town toilers. Farmers would grumble at a scarcity of 
 labour, and the certainty of a higher price having to be paid foi- the 
 diminished quantity. Ultimately, however, the landlord would have 
 to bear the burden of higher wages to land-labourers, as his sleepmg- 
 partner interest in land cultivation will be that which will justly and 
 reasonably lend itself, in the form of lower rents, to the demands for 
 the better payment of agricultural working men. Protests will come 
 from this gentleman also, no doubt. This, however, will only lead to 
 a British Land Commission and the fixing of fair rents by judicial 
 process, as now obtains in Ireland ; after submitting to which experi- 
 ence the English, Welsh, and Scotch, like the Irish, landlord will 
 advocate a Purchase Act, or Landlord Kelief Bill for Great Britain. 
 Whether by the process of being bought out, or of being taxed out, 
 the landlord must, of economic necessity, go. The sooner the better 
 for the industrial welfare of three countries. When he is replaced 
 by County or District or Village Councils, the anomaly of vested 
 interest barriers standing between idle acres and idle but willing 
 hands to work them will no longer mock the absence of a little com- 
 mon-sense in our land laws. 
 
 When land is looked at and legislated upon as a medium for the 
 employment of labour — and consequently for food-production — and 
 not as a means of growing rent, or of providing a social status for a 
 landed aristocracy, it will be unnecessary to advocate the manning of 
 the land of jNIanitoba with Scotch crofters or English agricultural 
 labourers. It will lie remembered when such a day arrives, that we 
 have inside this United Kingdom more soil lying idle, but capable 
 of giving work and growing food, than is comprised within the 
 kingdom of Belgium, with its 5,000,000 of an industrial population. 
 Such a day is rapidly approaching, no doubt. ' The land for tlie 
 people ' period of legislation is dawning, and we shall soon see ]Mr. 
 Chaplin's Bill amended in the two directions in which it is most de- 
 fective — to give to Village Councils the right of expropriating landlord 
 owners, and empowering them to administer the land in the way 
 which will best promote the industrial interests of the locality. 
 When the Community becomes the landlord, land will not be left 
 idle if willing hands are ready to employ themselves in its cultivation. 
 It will be recognised then that if the soil can do no more than give 
 employment to farmer and labourer, the all-round economic advan- 
 tage to other industrial classes will be of far greater benefit to the 
 country at large than the social status of a single proprietor who can 
 
April 
 
 1892 IMPIiESSIOXS OF NORTH-WEST CANADA G43 
 
 ^i home 
 re. To 
 
 stry of 
 \^ vvouid 
 Iflux of 
 
 to the 
 rcity of 
 Ifor tlie 
 tl ha\(> 
 emnor- 
 h' and 
 ds foi- 
 
 J come 
 ead to 
 idieial 
 -x'pei'i- 
 I will 
 itain. 
 out, 
 setter 
 >Iacetl 
 
 tested 
 illinsc 
 
 com- 
 
 the 
 -and 
 31- a 
 ?of 
 irnl 
 we 
 ble 
 he 
 m. 
 he 
 [r. 
 e- 
 •d 
 
 y 
 
 
 now determine whether or not it shall be cultivated or allowed to lie 
 useless. And if economic rent accrues, all the better for the Com- 
 munity. 
 
 ]iut that day is not yet. In the meantime, the lot of the land- 
 less agricultural labour excites the active sympathy of reformers and 
 
 * demands the attention of the Ijegislature. He is also a disturber of 
 
 ' the labour market in industi'ial centres. He is virtually driven off 
 
 ([ the land, by low wages and a cheerless prospect, into the towns and 
 
 I cities, or he voluntarily goes there in search of a more varied exist- 
 
 ,' ence ; and in the struggle to obtain his desires he brings down the 
 
 I wages of other workers, adds to the congestion of city life, and creates 
 
 I- the social problem. 
 
 A great Imperial purpose would likewise be promoted by colonising 
 the North-West by such a class as that indicated. Canada, of itself, 
 cannot develop this extensive region of rich soil. She has neither 
 the means nor the population to do so. She has done her best, but 
 that, much as it is when her limited resources are considered, counts 
 for very little compared with what the vastness of the territory 
 hungering for population requires, if it is to remain a part of the 
 Dominion, and its JDOundless possibilities are to be opened up to 
 labour and enterprise. 
 
 Annexation may or may not be the best solution of the Canadian 
 (question. I found comparatively few in the North-West who favoured 
 incorporation with the United States. Next to a desire to remain 
 within the Empire was a feeling for independence ; which sentiment, 
 however, was held as a preference to annexation, and as contingent 
 upon the Dominion and Imperial Governments failing to do for the 
 North-West what the United States would undoubtedly perform, if 
 the Stars and Stripes were permitted to supplant the Union Jack 
 north of the international boundary line. Much as there is to admire 
 in the government of the United States, I confess I would not wish 
 to see it extend its sway across the St. Lawrence to the North Pole. 
 It possesses quite enough of territory already. The furtlier it is ex- 
 tended, the weaker'will become the central influence which is ruling 
 so wisely and so well so vast a continent, embracing communities 
 including people of every European race, by the simple but efficient 
 method of allowing the citizens of the Kepublic to manage their own 
 affairs in their own way. No friend of free institutions would wish 
 to see tlie federal system of the United States weakened. Its great 
 object-lesson of government by the people will ultimately help to 
 democratise all European Governments ; and upon international 
 grounds alone the acquisition of Canada by the United States would 
 be a misfortune. Independent, Canada may become. She has the 
 chance if she wills it, along with territory enough to form a heritage 
 fit for an empire. But such independence, if established in defiance 
 of the Imperial Government, would always be menaced by the 
 
644 
 
 y or rnnr-r^ -.•!,. 
 
 eo^/t T ir "r ■»*- over ,he h . 
 
 ono of colomWion or „ ^ ''"""''on for tie w?«" '''""''' out tie 
 Things poh-t ea, ajr^-™"™- '*""'-"'''««&, therefore 
 
 are now in kr. j ' ""onomic cannot 
 
 ■" ^bt, With no e^^fttr''^™""^ aTI; oM,"*""" « 'io oni^ 
 l-O'ures of malver/atlT. "'"'"'' 'o borro, ° 'r "'' '""erj 
 ;^dn,i„;.tr„ti„„ „„Tt C'go ' '■" ''™»oc,^:„' :,';* 'io recent ex- 
 to ielp the country a l*'"""™"™' of QueL ' ^^ ^"""n'on 
 ""AWon for .,on,e t n^^f '" ^^t it,. ii„a„et'ir„ ■"" '*-'»'«, 
 
 ™ bo found, n^ Terri'n '^o Xorth-Wesf , , °'' ^ower 
 
 f'on. to the privile/er'r'' ""'^ot admitted fo'""''-^^»'-<^n,ed. 
 'nerease in their an, f !, 5, " f™ "nee have rltlTT' "^ P°l'"'a- 
 ?,"" as Ontario ha^ j Lotf? """''"y from mo oon f """"'«' an 
 I'ominion CJovernmen/ ''"^' 'o provide th7 *° ^*00,00n • 
 
 Canada which barC^^'^^'o^aris the detr """'^^^ for the' 
 
 ^° ;f-* fields and" S'reT""";^ '"rge tm ~ "' '^ '^^' "^ 
 to this enlarged denilrrf , "''"■' "'ere will be ''"*a"o farmers 
 
 ^:^^-t^ B^tTii:- "'--oK'tioVbr' 
 Manito^i trr ^■'f'y fan 'n: t tt^ro^tf ""^ - ™™ t 
 
 'on.e #000,000 Tu ™« ""b a united "1; "" ^""od States 
 
 SasJcatchewan and ir™"'"'"^<' a*nini trati^ "' """^ ^"'Wof 
 
 „^?- not got tirt^e"^' '■' - -ore t'h n^Vro^^ of ^ssinib^oi:,' 
 
 300.000;. a year. ^^7"' "^ "^^ "''ole 111 «-' ?'"" ^""""ai 
 f vast an area can b° ^ '" *'"' "'ay of a ™ ''' *■"" "bort of 
 ^S-O- It is tr^the r°"'!*-'''0d ul^on ; ^^J development rf 
 f colonisation p„r t^' ""C™ Parliament CC""^ "^ "'- 
 Y;^". and that '«; rf t, ^? ''^P^osents an add^r^f "'^'-^ ^''^ar 
 of these countries i, Z , '^ """st ki„d ™*t,o„ai as.sistance 
 
 ">at the best reJu, '°""'»"on. B„t jj /^ f « one essential need 
 '"ponded. Ifoun" 'I'""' ^'"' obtained in T ^^ »".>' "'"ans certll, 
 .'ories that it 7Xlt "'f'™ !'■■--■■'" Stan" 7;;' '"' "^^ moS; 
 ; ">e Federal W^h ^r'T """^^ "Jewitwe ',""'' *'"' ^-rri! 
 J^'orth-West Provin/ " ^'"' 'oaned monr ,^ '""''«'>antageou, 
 r *° "'o best »""-''»<' allowed them tol:' '°* '"'orest tf ,C 
 lands. "™- of brmgi„g ,^^ right ,&' J'-- own idel , 
 
 ,, f » that one of the fi . "''*' "> 'heir 
 
 tie ?forth.-H-e,( ;„ • '^"*^' railway ..-ste™ ■ 
 
 ■•'°*-tcommu„ic.^„^;;;^-;n th wo,^ ,,,os 
 
 Atlantic seaboard, 
 
 ' I 
 
 I 
 V 
 
 > ) 
 
^^ <^nt the 
 
 re. 
 
 as th 
 
 the 
 
 
 Versed 
 ^hted 
 
 '^'tory 
 
 an 
 
 00; 
 
 the 
 of 
 'r.s 
 '(/ 
 
 1892 IMPRESSIONS OF NORTH-WEST CANADA 645 
 
 it should be the aim of Imperial and Dominion statesmanship com- 
 bined to substitute a better system for the spoon-feeding policy 
 which has been so far pursued towards these Provinces, and wnich 
 has not succeeded in {/iving them strength enough to utilise the 
 immense resources with which they abound. A fair start should be 
 given to them, and then throw them upon their own ways and 
 means for necessary administrative revenue. An Imperial loan of 
 10,000,000^. at low interest, through the Dominion (rovernment, 
 would enable the Provinces and Territories to bring 100,000 select 
 colonists from Great Britain, and such an addition to the present 
 population — small as it would even then be for a country much larger 
 than France — would give such a stimulus to the colonisation and 
 development which have proceeded so far, that the future of this 
 richest but most neglected part of the Colonial Empire would be 
 assured. The interest upon such a loan might be charged in equal 
 shares upon the Dominion Government and the Provinces and Terri- 
 tories of the North-West, but a ten years' grace might be gi\en to 
 the latter, during which period this half of the interest should remain 
 an Imperial charge as a contribution to the work of development in 
 that part of the Empire. 
 
 In my judgment, this would solve the whole difficulty of the 
 Canadian North-West. ^Manitoba, British Columbia, and the Terri- 
 tories would plan and carry out their own colonisation work in the 
 manner best suited to their respective requirements. They know 
 now where the best kind of settlers come from, and, with the means 
 at their disposal of inducing those that are wanted to come, no time 
 would be lost in locating tlie imported industry where it is most 
 needed and would produce the best results. The additional wheat 
 cultivation and increase of other kinds of agriculture which 100,000 
 new farms must necessarily create, would soon operate to the great 
 economic advantage of Lower Canada, which supplies all the farm 
 implements in use in the Xorth-\Vest, as well as mostly all their 
 other mechanical requirements, by means of the Canadian Pacific 
 Railway. The increased wheat produce which would accrue would 
 have an important bearing upon our Home markets, and make them 
 less susceptible to the influence of American grain rings and ' deal- 
 ings in futures.' 
 
 Nor would the money needed to accomplish this work be a bad 
 investment from a purely Imperial point of view. The Canadian 
 Pacific liailway has recently presented itself in quite a new light to 
 some of our politicians who are wise enough to foresee a time when 
 the Suez Canal may probably not answer as the safest route to India 
 and China for British troops or transports. In an emergency which 
 might arise any day, Mr. Van Home and his incomparable system, 
 by which Yokohama has been brought within twenty days of 
 Liverpool, would become a priceless auxiliary to the War Office. 
 
G4G 
 
 THE XLXETFENTJI CENTURY 
 
 April 
 
 Should annexation be the indirect object at which the Washington 
 (lovernmcnt is now aiming in McKinleying the i)roducts of the 
 ]^ominion, the Canadian Pacific would, in the event of the success 
 of this policy, be added to the Eaihvay rings of the United States. 
 A free and uniquely advantageous highway to the East and to the 
 Australasian colonies would then be lost, and a great Imperial con- 
 necting link be broken beyond the possibility of repair. 
 
 There are those in Lower Canada, and of course in England too, 
 who say that too much money has already been ex])end(Hl in the 
 opening up of the Xorth-West, and that the building of the 
 Canadian Pacific has been a far too expensive enterprise from a 
 ]jOwer (Canadian point of view. This is a very shortsighted view to 
 take. Without the present and future development of the North- 
 West to count upon, the fate of TiOwer Canada would be sealed. She 
 might throw herself into the arms of the United States at once. Ten 
 years from now the Xorth-West will be far more necessary to Lower 
 (Janadathan Lower Canada is to-day to British Columbia, ^NlanitolDa, 
 and the Territories, The Canadian Pacific has annexed an empire 
 of undeveloped resources to the Eastern section of the Dominion, 
 which must ultimately be the economic salvation of the older but 
 less naturally favoured Provinces. Certain I am, that if tlie Americans 
 only knew more about the mineral resources of British Columbia, its 
 wonderfully rich soil and teeming rivers, and of the riches represented 
 in the vast areas of arable and pasture lands of the Territories and 
 ^Manitoba, they would not hesitate in paying five times the amount 
 of money that has been expended upon the Xorth-West, in railways 
 and other respects, in exchange for possessions representing untold 
 material wealth and priceless political importance. 
 
 The World's Fair at Chicago next year will, of course, invite an 
 immense number of visitors from the United Kingdom. Those who 
 have already seen the grounds upon which the Exposition will stand, 
 as I have, and who can therefore form some idea of the unparalleled 
 proportions, yet symmetrical arrangement, of the whole plans, will be 
 more or less prepared for the biggest, brightest, and best effort of the 
 kind ever put forth. But to those who have not had this advanta;. e, 
 and who voj^y never have visited the United States before, the 
 Chicago Exposition will offer a series of attractions which will leave a 
 lifelong agreeable recollection behind. Once at Chicago, a trip to 
 the Canadian Xorth-West would be but an affair of an additional ten 
 or fifteen days, in which small space of time, however, it will be 
 possible to see a comparati\ely unknown and magnificent country, 
 and enjoy the ' Sea of Mountains,' as the Canadian Kockies have been 
 called, together with the softer but yet wild and incomparably varied 
 and enchanting scenery of the Canon of the Eraser River, as that 
 monarch of western waters rolls clown through gorge and precipice 
 and valley to the wooded plains of British Columbia. No one 
 
 i 
 
^•'foAtf v»iea advantage. >^^;, ^ ^„ ^^f^r'^u U . "', as t 
 
 in V -humble 3UUS ^ortioiis ot tue v. 
 
 ':tVe most i.vosi«°'^» 1« ^j,^„,,, B.vvrr.