322 



DOMINION OF CANADA. 



30,400 acres in the first week of the following 

 month. At the same season in 1879 the ar- 

 rivals of new settlers ammounted to -as many 

 as 2,000 per week. The wheat-growing region 

 of western British America is said to be more 

 fertile than Minnesota, and, instead of possess- 

 ing the polar climate which has hitherto been 

 ascribed to it, to be so temperate that melons 

 and cucumbers ripen in August, and stock can 

 be wintered without shelter, and find ample 

 nourishment in the succulent grasses which are 

 kept green by the snow. Manitoba soil yields 

 20 bushels of remarkably fine flinty wheat to 

 the acre, of 63 to 66 Ibs. to the bushel. Oats, 

 barley, rye, potatoes, turnips, beets, flax, and 

 hemp thrive admirably. Wild fruits abound ; 

 the forests are full of game, large and small, 

 and the lakes and streams of fish whitefish 

 abounding in the lakes, pike, catfish, sturgeon, 

 etc., in the rivers, and trout in the brooks. 

 The capital of the province, "Winnipeg, for- 

 merly Fort Garry, has grown in three years 

 into an intensely active business town of 10,- 

 000 inhabitants. The price of wheat, owing to 

 the want of railway communications, is only 

 45 cents a bushel. When the Pacific Railway 

 is completed and the country settled, the Cana- 

 dians expect that Manitoba and the Northwest 

 Territory will be able to undersell the Ameri- 

 cans in both breadstuffs and meat and provis- 

 ions, and supply the entire European demand 

 for imported food materials. The area of their 

 newly discovered wheat-fields is, according to 

 a sanguine estimate accepted in Canada and 

 Great Britain, at least 2,984,000 square miles, 

 or three quarters of the area of entire Europe. 



The public accounts of the Dominion show 

 a total indebtedness at the close of the fiscal 

 year 1878 of $174,957,268, with assets of 

 $34,675,834, against $174,675,834 of liabilities 

 and $41,440,525 of assets in 1877. The Trea- 

 sury receipts for the year were $22,375,011. 

 The total expenditures were $23,503,158, in- 

 curred under the following heads: debt and 

 subsidies, $11,659,523; charges on the reve- 

 nue, $5,301,124; ordinary expenditure, $6,- 

 542,510. There was a decrease in the ordinary 

 expenditure of $293,167, compared with the 

 previous year. The estimates of public expen- 

 ditures for 1879 were $23,427,882, a decrease 

 of $241,171 compared with the appropriations 

 of the previous year. The Finance Minister 

 went to England about the middle of the year 

 to negotiate a loan of 3,000,000, which he 

 succeeded in placing on favorable terms. 



According to the last volume of the census 

 of 1871, the increase of population in the four 

 provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Bruns- 

 wick, and Nova Scotia was from 2,312,919 in 

 1851 to 3,090,561 in 1861, and 3,485,761 in 

 1871. The area of these provinces is 337,524 

 square miles, making the population per square 

 mile 6-8 in 1851, 9'2 in 1861, and 10'3 in 1871. 

 Of the inhabitants of Canada in 1871, 20'26 

 per cent, were of English extraction, 15 '77 per 

 cent, of Scotch, and 24'48 per cent, of Irish 



descent, while the descendants of the French 

 original settlers comprised 31 '07 per cent. The 

 immigration from the United States was found 

 to have been very considerable, the number of 

 those born in the United States numbering 

 more than half as many as the immigrants 

 from Scotland. The inhabitants in the Prov- 

 ince of Quebec who had come from the States 

 exceeded in number the English-born settlers 

 in that province. The most populous of the 

 four provinces in proportion to its extent is 

 New Brunswick. Quebec is the least thickly 

 populated. 



The religious statistics show that 42-80 per 

 cent, of the population are Catholics, 16*27 per 

 cent. Methodists, 15*63 per cent. Presbyte- 

 rians, and 14'20 per cent, members of the 

 Church of England. In Quebec the Roman 

 Catholics form an absolute majority ; in an- 

 other province they are relatively the most 

 numerous, and in a third are nearly equal in 

 numbers to the most numerous religious body. 

 In Ontario the Methodists exceed any other 

 denomination in numerical strength, and in 

 Nova Scotia the Presbyterians. 



According to the trade and navigation re- 

 turns, the aggregate import and export trade 

 of the Dominion again shows a falling off, the 

 value of exports having been $79,323, 667 in the 

 fiscal year ending June 30, 1878, against $75,- 

 875,393 in 1877, an increase of $3,448,274, while 

 the value of imports was $93,081,787 in 1878, 

 against $99,327,962 in 1877, a decrease of $6,- 

 246,175. The total for 1873 was $217,304,516 ; 

 for 1877, $172,175,876; for 1878, $170,523,- 

 244. The trade with Great Britain in 1878 

 was made up as follows: imports, $37,431,- 

 180; exports, $45,941,539. The imports from 

 Great Britain decreased $2,141,059 in 1878, 

 while the exports increased $4,374,070 as com- 

 pared with the previous year. The trade with 

 the United States decreased $3,211,777 in 

 1878, the exports showing a reduction of $531,- 

 347, and the imports a reduction of $2,680,930. 

 Trade with the British and Spanish West In- 

 dies fell off $700,000 : in imports, $210,000 ; 

 in exports, $490,000. Trade with Australia 

 increased $185,000, which may be attributed 

 to the impetus given to the export of Canadian 

 manufactures by the Sydney Exhibition. 



The total number of vessels registered in the 

 Dominion of Canada in 1878 was 7,469, mea- 

 suring 1,333,015 tons. This gives Canada the 

 fourth largest merchant marine in the world, 

 Great Britain, the United States, and Germany 

 alone leading her. The number of steamers 

 registered was 834, with a gross tonnage of 183,- 

 935 tons. The estimated value of the total ship- 

 ping is $39,990,000. The number of vessels 

 built during the year was 329, measuring 100,- 

 873 tons. The number of ocean-going ships 

 which visited the port of Montreal during the 

 year was 516 249 iron ships, with an aggregate 

 tonnage of. 311,968, and 267 wooden ships, 

 with a tonnage of 85,298 ; 482 of the vessels, 

 with a tonnage of 382,056 tons, were British. 



