the wilds, often cut off from communication 

 by rain and storm, hunting for their food and 

 living on what the woods provided. Full of 

 courage however, they began their first homes 

 and before the snows of winter came, ten big 

 log huts testified to their unflagging energy. 



Persistent Effort Brings Success. 



The development of the Colony since its 

 inception has taken hard, persistent struggle. 

 The long expected Alberta and Great Water- 

 way Railway reached the Colony site the fol- 

 lowing year, and for the first time, writes the 

 consul, "the train, bumping and rolling like a 

 boat on the rolling sea, made -its appearance 

 through the woods bringing comfort and civil- 

 ization". Many difficulties beset them. The 

 Italian Government during the great war, 

 called many of them to the colors. Most of 

 them returned, however, bringing wives and 

 children with them so that the population has 

 now reached the 200 mark with an annual birth 

 rate of 20. A school house, followed by a 

 church has reared itself overnight ; much land 

 is under cultivation while herds of cattle past- 

 ure about. Crops and prosperity have begun 

 to smile upon the pioneers. VENICE in 

 Canada will some day attain a bigger record 

 of Italian progress and success an example 

 and incentive to their fellow countrymen to 

 emulate their splendid example. 



Writes the Consul in conclusion. "The 

 Italian Colony may be said to be yet in the 

 first stages of its existence and judging from 

 what has already been accomplished there is 

 little doubt that in the near future it will attain 

 the highest degree of prosperity and welfare. 

 And there is no psychologist who can ade- 

 quately describe the feeling of happiness of the 

 good Italian farmer when at dusk, smoking his 

 pipe, sitting on the doorstep of his own home, 

 he can rest his eyes on the land, on his cattle 

 leisurely grazing nearby, thinking of the crop 

 he will put in next season or how he can im- 

 prove his stock." 



Women on the Land 



Very noticeable since the conclusion of the war 

 has been the attitude of women in general towards 

 the land and in the desire so many of them evince 

 to get back to the out o'doors life. The past two 

 summers have witnessed the flocking of hundreds of 

 women and girls to the farming districts and toil 

 in the open air and this has been attended with the 

 most gratifying success. The Canadian Depantmemt 

 of Labor and other organizations interested in ac- 

 commodating with employment those applying to 

 them, are literally besieged by inquiries from women 

 and girls who desire work on the farms, not in a 

 domestic capacity, but in the open of the fields. 



The great war brought to a sudden climax the 

 changing status of woman in the cosmos. For 

 years there had been a gradual evolution, almost 

 imperceptible except in comparative retrospect, as 



she forced her way into a nation's economic life 

 and asserted herself as the equal of man in his every 

 day affairs. The war, which demanded the limit 

 in the utilization of her services, brought her en- 

 deavors to hasty fruition, gave her more than she 

 had expected and drew in those standing hesitant 

 upon the brink. 



Woman took up practically every phase of man's 

 work, and in the majority of cases carried it out as 

 well as her brother. The entire womanhood of na- 

 tions found itself occupied upon work which had 

 never entered its conception and, what was more, 

 for the main part, thoroughly enjoyed it. Woman 

 performed the most laborious of tasks, including 

 work in the fields, but the termination of hostilities 

 inevitably relegated many of them to their old lives 

 and environment. It was a hard matter to take 

 up the old threads and little wonder that many of 

 them, seeing their own land limited in opportunity, 

 and overcrowded, looked across the seas to fresh 

 green pastures awaiting the development of human 

 hands and minds. 



Since the signing of the Armistice, with the de- 

 mobilization of the army, or more correctly since 

 the availability of transport after the return of the 

 Canadian troops, women from the British Isles and 

 elsewhere have crowded the steamers arriving at 

 Dominion ports. Many were war brides but the 

 greater number consisted of those for whom war 

 employment had gone with the return of rthe men 

 from the front and who, finding themselves belong- 

 ing to a class of two million superfluous women, de- 

 cided to start out anew in a virgin field where their 

 efforts were nat only obviously nedeed but urgently 

 sought. 



A Feminine Hegira. 



This movement continues unabated and every 

 boat sees parties of fresh-cheeked English women 

 arriving under government auspices to find homes 

 in every part of the Dominion. Many of them be- 

 longed to various battalions of rthe women's army, 

 many are experienced land workers, others followed 

 pursuits purely feminine. Groups are bound for do- 

 mestic service, others to fruit sections for light land 

 work and still others, with limited capital, are taking 

 up small pieces of land for themselves. Groups of 

 women go straight from the boat to linen mills and 

 other factories, being engaged in the old land and 

 brought out by ithe management of these industries. 



It is a burning question in older countries just 

 what opportunities await women and girls in Canada. 

 There is a widespread misconception that Canadian 

 life is too hard and severe for girls reared in the calm 

 aitmosphere of the civic and urban centres of the 

 old world, whilst it is pointed out that the govern- 

 ment is encouraging only the immigration of girls 

 willing to take up domestic servce. 



Whatever may have been true of a young wo- 

 man's hardihood prior ito the war is no longer so, 

 and it has been proven that a girl can follow suc- 

 cessfully most unskilled trades. In Canada there is 

 the fundamental that the sexes are more nearly bal- 

 anced which offers a more expansive field to woman. 



No tribute .too great or worthy can be paid to 

 the pioneer wives and mothers of the Canadian agri- 

 cultural regions, but as a general rule agriculture is 

 carried out on too large and expensive a scale for 

 woman to take any but a supplementary pant. It is 

 not uncommon to see a farmer's wife driving a 

 binder at harvest whilst her husband is on an ac- 

 companying machine or stocking the grain as she 

 cuts, but this is occasional and the wife of the mod- 

 ern farmer finds her time well occupied in her house- 

 hold duties, her poultry and her superintendence of 

 the dairying. 



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