270 



DOMINION OF CANADA. 



Immigration. Immigration to Canada fell off 

 a great deal during 1884. The chief demand 

 being for farm-laborers and domestic servants, 

 those classes are more largely represented in 

 the returns than any others. There are vari- 

 ous private immigration organizations, whose 

 chief aim is to find homes for destitute and 

 orphan children. These bring out numbers of 

 young boys and girls, and apprentice them to 

 farmers for a term of years. As a rule, such 

 children are not very moral, but^many of them 

 bid fair to become useful citizens. Another 

 class of immigrants who have selected Canada 

 as a resting-place came in great numbers dur- 

 ing the year. The class includes bank mana- 

 gers, cashiers, treasurers of municipal corpora- 

 tions, directors of societies, etc., in the United 

 States. Many of these gentry sought asylum 

 in Canada, where the sporting community gave 

 them a ready welcome. They are likely to be 

 permanent settlers, as the extradition treaty 

 with the United States does not cover their 

 offenses. 



British Columbia. The progress of this prov- 

 ince in 1884 was very marked. The export 

 trade has doubled within a few years, and in 

 1884 amounted to over $5,000,000. This was 

 chiefly in gold, coal, salmon, oils, timber, furs, 

 etc. The export value per head in the prov- 

 ince is more than triple that of any other 

 province. 



The western section of the Pacific Railway 

 has trains running regularly inland for two 

 hundred miles. Another railway, connecting 

 Esquimalt and Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, 

 is under construction ; while one through the 

 central part of the province, running north 

 from Yale, on the Canada Pacific Railway, is 

 surveyed. The wages paid to men during the 

 year were very high, and farmers obtained ex- 

 traordinarily high prices for their products. 



The Crown lands in the province are owned 

 partly by the province and partly by the Do- 

 minion. The lands held by the Dominion are 

 in the Fraser river valley and in the Peace river 

 district, toward the northern portion of the 

 province. They were granted by the province 

 in aid of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The 

 provincial lands are open for settlement, as are 

 also those of the Dominion, under favorable 

 circumstances. The farm and buildings of a 

 settler, when registered, can not be taken for 

 debt incurred after registration; it is free from 

 seizure up to a value of $2,500. Goods and 

 chattels are also free up to $500. 



The mining laws are very strict. Certificates 

 must be taken out by all miners; and "free 

 miners" can have right or interest only in 

 mining claims or ditches, and then only o'n pay- 

 ment of $5 annually. To record a claim re- 

 quires a fee of $2.50, and it must be recorded 

 three days after location, if within ten miles of 

 the office. An additional day is allowed for 

 each two miles of distance. Claims are to be 

 rectangular. The sizes are: bar diggings, 100 

 feet wide at high- water mark, and thence ex- 



tending into the river at its lowest ebb; dry 

 diggings, 100 feet square; creek claims, 100 

 feet long, measured in the direction of the 

 stream, and in width from base to base of the 

 hill on each side, unless the hills are less than 

 100 feet apart, when the claim is 100 feet square; 

 hill claims, 100 feet wide on the base-line 

 fronting a stream, with parallel side-lines to the 

 summit of the hill ; mineral claims, precious or 

 base (other than coal), in lodes or veins, or in 

 firm rock, 1,500 feet long by 600 wide. 



The fisheries of the province last year em- 

 ployed nearly 6,000 men and boys, and yielded 

 an export value of nearly $2,000,000. Frozen 

 salmon were shipped to Ontario and Quebec 

 during the winter of 1884-'85, and it is in- 

 tended to repeat the experiment another year. 



There is a splendid public-school system in 

 the province, and the school property is worth 

 $100,000. 



Every locality with over thirty regular male 

 residents may become a municipality for self- 

 government. This tends to assist the admin- 

 istrators of justice in preserving order among 

 the miners, fishermen, etc. 



Immigration was very brisk in the province 

 in 1884. Over 5,000 entered at Victoria alone. 



A magnificent cantilever bridge was complet- 

 ed over Fraser river, at Lytton. It is part of the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway, and was constructed, 

 as the residents of the Pacific slope boast, by 

 engineers from that coast. The bridge is 530 

 feet long, the central span being 315 feet. The 

 piers are of solid masonry, 96 feet high, and 

 contain 6,480 cubic yards of stone. The bridge 

 proper contains 6,000 tons of cast- steel and 

 iron, and cost $280,000. The great engineer- 

 ing feat in connection with the construction 

 of this bridge, as compared with the Niagara 

 Falls cantilever bridge, is that the site was ap- 

 proachable from one side only. The material 

 for the western end or half of the bridge was 

 taken across on a steel cable. The first iron was 

 placed on March 17, and on June 14 a train 

 crossed the bridge. 



The Chinese were very troublesome in some 

 parts of the province during the year. They 

 are there in settlements of hundreds, in all 

 several thousand. There are urgent demands 

 from the whites in the province for repressive 

 measures against them. Partly to allay that 

 excitement, the Federal Government sent com- 

 missioners to the province to report on the 

 question. 



Saskatchewan, Assiniboia, and Alberta. Settle- 

 ment was not so brisk during 1884 as was ex- 

 pected from the extraordinary rush in 1883. 

 The past year has seen more ranching than 

 grain farmers entering the Territories. How- 

 ever, the crops were beyond the expectations 

 of even the sanguine farmers. On the whole, 

 the report for Manitoba falls a few degrees be- 

 low that of the Territories. 



Some slight trouble was experienced with 

 several Indian tribes, who insisted on changing 

 their reservations. They claimed to be starv- 



