the quest for gold, silver, lead, or iron ores will, on occasion, 

 seem more like poets than money-seekers, sitting by the 

 hour talking of no more than the beauty of some high tarn, 

 some tract of tall timber with its tassels of Spanish moss. 

 They will tell of how they have crouched still as a stone, 

 till they cramped, watching coneys making hay, or bear- 

 cubs boxing, or marmots at play. L,et any of these men 

 know that you have an eye for such things and an invita- 

 tion is immediately proffered to "come up and see me in 

 my camp." They do not only prorr.ise the opportunity 

 of shooting bear, or goat, or elk. They hope for an oppor- 

 tunity for their guest to see the coneys hay-making, or the 

 cubs boxing. Unashamed they promise a view. It is 

 generally "the finest view in all the country." 



Yet the charm of the West (that is, of course, for those 

 who are not utterly impervious to such charm, and lost 

 and lorn away from their marine parade, esplanade, local 

 pavement Kensington High Street, Upper Street, Isling- 

 ton, or what not) is in more than scenery. Out of the 

 landscape something comes; in just living there, there is 

 something good. I think I know why the last of the cow- 

 punchers call the Alberta foot-hills "God's Country," 

 having been alone on the prairie there, with the Rocky 

 Mountains along the horizon, a blue line with a broken 

 crest of white. 



As for the mountains, too, and their green tran- 

 quillity, I think I know what that something is, in the great 

 scene, that is more than the scene. I think it is what the 

 poets mean when they use the word "God." Where 

 paving stones prevent grass, and sky-signs obliterate stars, 

 there seems little in the nature of a god visible except the 

 blue policeman on point duty. 



Canada's Decennial Census 



Canada's sixth decennial census since her 

 birth as a united Dominion at Confederation in 

 1867 is at present in process of being compiled, 

 and it is expected that the results when published 

 will give Canada a population return well over 

 the nine million mark. Altogether, the various 

 works contributing to the exact and exhaustive 

 undertaking will cost about two million dollars. 

 For the compilation of the census an extra staff 

 of about four hundred clerks are engaged at 

 Ottawa, and the securing of returns employs 247 

 commissioners and about 13,000 enumerators. 



It may not be generally known that the 

 credit for taking the first census of modern times 

 belongs to Canada, the year being 1666, and the 

 census that of the Colony of New France. The 

 results of this systematic enumeration at a fixed 

 date, showing age, sex, place of residence, occu- 

 pation, and conjugal condition of each person, 

 are to be found in the government archives at 

 Ottawa, the record showing 3,125 souls. In 

 Europe, the first modern census dates only from 

 the eighteenth century, and in the United States 

 no census was taken before 1790, so that New 

 France exhibited progressiveness of ideas ahead 

 of the times when it instituted what has become 

 one of the principal instruments of modern 

 government. 



In Canada, the fundamental reason for the 

 taking of the census is the representation of the 

 Federal Parliament. The British North America 

 Act, which brought about a united Canada, gave 

 the province of Quebec a fixed number of seats 



(sixty-five) in the Dominion House of Commons, 

 those assigned to the other provinces being pro 

 rata of population. Thus the census is taken 

 primarily to enable a Redistribution bill to be 

 passed by parliament. The first census was 

 taken in 1871, four years after Confederation, 

 and they have been compiled at ten year periods 

 since that time. 



Census Covers a Wide Field 



As, however, a tremendous organization has 

 to be built up to secure this information on the 

 people of the Dominion, it is put to every avail- 

 able use as a machine and made to cover a much 

 wider field. The schedules used in the census are 

 five in number dealing respectively with: 

 (1) population, (2) agriculture, (3) livestock, 

 fruit growing, etc., in towns, etc., (4) industrial 

 and trading concerns, and (5) blindness and deaf- 

 mutism. The population schedule carries some 

 thirty-five columns recording for each person 

 name, family, kind of dwelling, age, sex, con- 

 jugal condition, birthplace, citizenship, racial 

 origin, language, religion, education, occupation, 

 etc. That relating to agriculture elicits informa- 

 tion on farm acreages, land values, buildings, 

 implements, crops, fertilizers, farm labor, or- 

 chards, small fruits, farm gardens, livestock, 

 poultry, animal products, forest products, irriga- 

 tion, drainage, etc. The schedule on animals in 

 towns secures statistics of horses, cattle, poultry, 

 bees, etc., and their products within urban limits, 

 and those of market gardens, orchards, etc., in 

 towns and other centres. The schedule on busi- 

 ness and industrial concerns collects only the 

 name, address, and class of each, a detailed 

 annual inquiry being conducted by correspond- 

 ence by the Bureau of Statistics. The record of 

 the blind and deaf mutes is to facilitate the work 

 of educational and other institutions for these 

 classes. 



The nucleus of the organization which con- 

 ducts the census is a small permanent staff of 

 the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. The country 

 is divided into "census districts" in charge of 

 "census commissioners." Districts are divided 

 in subdistricts, the territory allotted to a "census 

 enumerator." The tremendous breadth of the 

 work, covering, as it does, half a continent, may 

 be imagined. For the remote and seldom pene- 

 trated regions of Ungava, Northern Ontario and 

 the North West Territories, the organizations of 

 the fur trading companies and various church 

 missions have been engaged. 



In other similar districts the Royal Canadian 

 Mounted Police are taking the census, whilst the 

 agents of the Indian Department are performing 

 a like service for Indians on reserves and else- 

 where. In many localities pack trains must be 

 organized, steamers chartered, and long journeys 

 made to ensure that no section of the vast 

 Dominion escapes enumeration at the decennial 

 census. 



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