CONSUMPTION IN CANADA DAVIDSON. 21 



From these figures it is possible to construct an index number 

 which shall express the relative house accommodation of the 

 various provinces more readily than the actual figures. There 

 are four possible tests within our reach : The material of which 

 the dwelling is constructed, the number of rooms it contains, the 

 number of stories in it, and the number of people who inhabit 

 it. But these are obviously not all ot equal importance. The 

 number of rooms is of much greater importance than the number 

 of stories. A- house of five rooms with only one story is better 

 than a house of three or four rooms with a story and a half or 

 two stories ; and for many purposes it is indifferent whether the 

 house is built of wood or of stone, or brick. The material out of 

 which a house is built is determined sometimes by the relative 

 cheapness of materials on the spot and sometimes by municipal 

 regulations about a fire district. But from the figures quoted 

 above, it is evident that a stone or brick house is at least more 

 fashionable than a wooden house ; and in the slum districts of 

 our cities the worst houses are built of wood. We must allow 

 some importance to these two considerations; but not by any 

 means as much as to the others. If to the two taken together 

 we allow half as much importance as to each of the others, taken 

 separately, we will not, perhaps, exaggerate its importance ; but 

 in case of error, the index number will be stated, both including 

 and excluding these minor considerations. The figures quoted 

 above are taken negatively, i. e., instead of saying how many 

 houses have fou.r rooms or less, we calculate on the number of 

 houses which have more than four rooms ; but this is a matter 

 of arithmetical detail. The average for Canada is expressed as 

 100 in the cases of the number of houses containing more than 

 four rooms and of the number of persons in each house, and by 

 50 in the case of the two minor considerations : 



