CONSUMPTION IN CANADA—DAVIDSON. yal 
From these figures it is possible to construct an index number 
which shall express the relative house accommodation of the 
various provinces more readily than the actual figures. There 
are four possible tests within our reach :—The material of which 
the dwelling is constructed, the number of rooms it contains, the 
number of stories in it, and the number of people who inhabit 
it. But these are obviously not all of equal importance. The 
number of rooms is of much greater importance than the number 
of stories. A house of five rooms with only one story is better 
than a house of three or four rooms with a story and a half or 
two stories ; and for many purposes it is indifferent whether the 
house is built of wood or of stone, or brick. The material out of 
which a house is built is determined sometimes by the relative 
cheapness of materials on the spot and sometimes by municipal 
regulations about a fire district. But from the figures quoted 
above, it is evident that a stone or brick house is at least more 
fashionable than a wooden house; and in the slum districts of 
our cities the worst houses are built of wood. We must allow 
some importance to these two considerations ; but not by any 
means as much as to the others. If to the two taken together 
we allow half as much importance as to each of the others, taken 
separately, we will not, perhaps, exaggerate its importance ; but 
in case of error, the index number will be stated, both including 
and excluding these minor considerations. The figures quoted 
above are taken negatively, 7. ¢., instead of saying how many 
houses have four rooms or less, we calculate on the number of 
houses which have more than four rooms; but this is a matter 
of arithmetical detail. The average for Canada is expressed as 
100 in the cases of the number of houses containing more than 
four rooms and of the number of persons in each house, and by 
50 in the case of the two minor considerations :— 
