a house which shall be for them a sure haven, 

 and the accomplishment of this becomes the 

 prime object of such monies as can be set aside 

 from the contents of the weekly pay envelope. 



Just as Canada is a land of farm owners, 

 where the tenant farmer is practically unknown, 

 so is the Dominion a country where city dwellers 

 very largely own the property they reside upon. 

 If prosperity is to any extent to be gauged from 

 the extent of home possession, which is usually 

 the prime aim of human acquisition, then 

 Canada is a land of prosperous and civic urban 

 population. A comparison between Canada and 

 the United States, for instance, shows the 

 Dominion to be in at least as desirable a situation 

 in the matter of individual home ownership as 

 the richer and greater republic. 



London, Ontario, leads in Home Owners 



Statistics carefully compiled in the United 

 States reveal the fact that 45.6 per cent of the 

 people of that country own their own homes 

 and that 54.4 per cent live in rented quarters. 

 The same statistics are not available for Canada, 

 but for the purposes of a rude comparison 

 figures have been secured on the ten most 

 populous cities of the Dominion, and it is found 

 that 35 per cent in these are owners of their own 

 homes. When it is considered that the remainder 

 of the country comprises agricultural land and 

 the smaller towns and villages, and that the 

 tendency is for a larger proportion of home 

 owners the smaller the settlement, it will readily 

 be conceded that the percentage for the entire 

 Dominion must be higher than that of the 

 United States. 



Taking only Canada's larger centres of 

 population, these are found to possess a greater 

 porportion of home owners than the corres- 

 ponding centres of the United States, though, in 

 justice, the great disparity in population must 

 be considered. London, Ontario, leads the 

 Dominion with 80 per cent of its population 

 owning their own homes. Hamilton and Calgary 

 have 60 per cent of their people living in homes 

 they own. The city of Toronto has a fine record 

 for the second most populous city of the 

 Dominion it has 55 per cent of its people 

 living in homes owned by them. Fifty-one per 

 cent of the people of Halifax are home owners. 

 Vancouver, the fourth Canadian city in popula- 

 tion, is another fine example of home ownership 

 with 46 per cent of its people home owning. 

 Edmonton falls slightly behind with 45 per 

 cent, and Winnipeg, Canada's third city, just 

 after this with 44 per cent. Ottawa has 40 per 

 cent of its population owning their own homes, 

 and Montreal, the first city of the Dominion, 

 has a scant 5 per cent, pulling the average of the 

 ten cities down to 35 per cent when it might 

 have been more than 50 per cent. 



DCS Moines and Grand Rapids Lead 



The ten cities taken for matter of record 

 range in their numbers of residences from 9,000 

 to 134,000. Of seventy-two United States 

 cities, with a population of 100,000 or more, 

 only two, Des Moines and Grand Rapids, can 

 boast a fifty per cent proportion of home owners. 

 Des Moines stands at the top of the list with 

 51.1 per cent, and the remainder of the list 

 tapers off from that point down to 12.7 per cent 

 for New York city. With a few notable excep- 

 tions the experience of the United States has 

 been for the larger cities to have a proportion- 

 ately smaller number of home owners. Of the 

 Canadian cities noted, most are below the 

 hundred thousand mark, and the poor showing 

 made by Montreal might indicate the same 

 trend in Canada. In the case of Montreal, 

 however, many dwellings classified as being 

 occupied by tenants are in reality three-flat 

 houses, one floor of which is occupied by the 

 proprietor and the other two flats leased. 



The Canadian record, on the whole, as 

 indicated by merely the Dominion's largest 

 centres of population, is a very gratifying one. 

 It is one that is extremely encouraging to those 

 contemplating establishment within civic or 

 urban centres, the possibility of rapidly owning 

 one's own home being an added inducement. 

 The situation is accounted for, of course, by the 

 relatively low prices of land which prevail over 

 the Dominion which renders conditions similar 

 in the cases of farm land and industrial estab- 

 lishment. This is rapidly changing with the 

 development of the country, and each year sees 

 a considerable increment in the value of city, 

 farm, or industrial property. 



Active Mining Season 



In every province in Canada, prospectors, with outfits 

 overhauled, grubstaked for the season, have set out in 

 hope and expectancy for the mineral producing zones of 

 the interior. Gold and silver mines, for the most part, are 

 operating to their limit of output, and it may be said with 

 conservatism that Canada has never experienced a 

 season of such general mining activity in the gold and 

 silver fields, with portents for valuable discovery or 

 prospects more propitious for voluminous production. 

 This is generally true of every precious metal mineral area 

 from coast to coast and comes as most gratifying after 

 the depression of last year. Copper is still quiet, lead and 

 zinc brisk, iron and steel and asbestos picking up. 



On the Pacific coast a season of exceptional activity is 

 promised, particularly in gold mining. Placer mining is 

 experiencing a mild boom in British Columbia and expec- 

 tations are centred in the newly discovered Cedar Creek 

 district of the Cariboo, where it is hoped that development 

 will fulfill expectations. The new schedule issued by the 

 Consolidated Mining & Smelting Co., and especially the 

 steady operation of its custom lead, zinc and silver 

 smelters at Trail, will doubtless lead to the opening up of 

 many properties in the Slocan and Ainsworth districts. 

 The Consolidated is building a 1, 500-ton mill at Kimberly, 

 B.C. The report of the finding of radium-bearing mineral 

 in the Queen Charlotte group of islands has already 

 resulted in the staking of numerous claims, and in all 



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