5IO 



The Review of Reviews. 



THE REAL CANADA. 



Practical Hints to Prospective Emigrants. 

 A Scottish settler in Canada of thirty years' stand- 

 ing, Mr. Norman Murray, gives, in Chambers's Journal 

 lor May, some practical hints to would-be emigrants to 

 tlie Dominion. 



THE LADY OF THE FLOWERS AND SNOWS. 



Canada, he saj-s, is the best country in the world at 

 present for some people to come to, and the very worst 

 for some other people. Ten times as many people as 

 are now there would make it a much better country to 

 live in, but they must be of the right sort. Much mis- 

 chief has been done by suppressing the truth about 

 the climatic conditions. People should be made to 

 realise that the six months of ideal weather, not 

 excelled an}' where in the world, is followed by very- 

 severe cold during the other six months. Not only does 

 the climate change from extreme heat to extreme cold, 

 but the change is often very sudden. There are also 

 great varieties of climate in different parts of the 

 country. This question of climate is a delicate one 

 with Canadians, and they never forgave Mr. Rudyard 

 Kipling for calling their country " The Lady of the 

 Snows." Canada is really " The Lady of the Flowers 

 and Snows." 



THE strenuous LIFE. 



Life in Canada is very strenuous. The kind of people 

 wanted are farm-hands, railroad and builders' labourers, 

 and domestic servants. The only industry which really 

 requires frost and snow is the lumber business. The 

 building trade is another important indus*'ry, more 

 especially as it is quite a common thing to erect build- 

 ings and pull them down again after a short time, 

 to build better ones in their place. Much more trying 

 than the cold in the bush and on the farm are the heat, 

 the black-flies, and the mosquitoes. It is possible, 

 however, to protect oneself from the snow or frost, but 

 the mosquitoes ! Nothing seems able to scare them, 

 and the writer remarks he has not noticed any reference 

 to this interesting feature of Canadian life in the 

 circulars sent out to encourage emigration to Canada. 

 One advantage about the winter is that it is frosty 

 weather, with a clear sky practically all the time. 



WHERE MEN ARE NOT SPOILT. 



A few other details, small but useful to know, are 

 mentioned for the benefit of prospective emigrants. 

 There arc various things which men have to do which 

 they would probably not be obliged to do at home. 

 \ man going out to Canada to look for farm-work 

 should learn to milk cows beforehand. IFe should also 

 learn to darn his socks and mend his clothes. Canadian 

 women will not brush shoes or mend clothes for their 

 lodgers. A man should provide himself with brushes 

 ancl blacking, otherwise he will have to pay 2Jd. every 

 time his boots need a shine. Canadian women are kept 

 quite as busy as women at home, but the work is not 

 always the same. As a rule, a great many more dishes 

 arc prepared, and one meal may entail as much work 

 as three at home. The writer would prefer fewer dishes 



and more food. Scotsmen are warned that they will 

 not get the same kind of porridge or oatcake which they 

 have been used to. The Canadian women have many 

 difSculties to contend with, mainly due to climate. 



CANADA UNDER LAURIER. 



The Edinburgh Review gives an instructive survey 

 of the progress of Canada during the fifteen years of 

 the Laurier regime : — 



In rnihvay building it \i'as a period of unexampled and con- 

 tinuous activity. It was a period of great development of 

 manufacturing in Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. Tliere 

 was, in particular, a great expansion of the iron and steel indus- 

 try in Ontario and Nova Scotia, and in the coal industry of 

 Nova Scotia and Alberta, and the establishment of a quite new 

 industry in steel shipbuilding at Toronto and Collingwood and 

 other Ontario ports on the great lakes. But the greatest 

 development of all— the development on which mucli of the 

 prosperity of the manufacturing industries of Ontario, Quebec, 

 and Nova Scotia was chiefly dependent — was beyond the great 

 lakes, and was directly due to the filling up of the grain-grow- 

 ing provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. In 

 1891 the population w.as 4,830,000 ; in 1901 it was 5,370,000 ; 

 in 1911 it was 7, oSi, 000. During the last decade the greatest 

 increase in population was in the prairie provinces. The 

 population of Alberta increased from 73,000 in 1901 to 372,000 

 in 1911 : that of Manitoba from 255,000 to 454,000; and that 

 of Saskatchewan from 91,000 to 453,000. In 1896 there were 

 16,270 miles of railw.ay in operation. At the end of the 

 Laurier rt'gime there were 26,977 n'i'es in service. Most of 

 this new mileage was west of the great lakes, and was due to 

 the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific ; to the network of 

 railways of the Canadian Northern ; and to the large extensions 

 made between 1896 and 1911 by the Canadian Pacific Railway 

 Company. In the single year 1911 this company established' 

 forty-one new towns in the prairie provinces, and in 19H it had 

 11,756 miles of railway in service, with 4,381 miles under con- 

 struction, as compared with 7,251 in service and 1,781 under 

 construction in 1896. In 1896 the aggregate freight handled by 

 all the railways was 24,000,000 tons ; lor 1911 it was ne.irly 

 8o,oco,ooo tons. 



Statistics that best gauge the growth of Ihc West are those of 

 elevator capacity at Fort Williai-n and Port Arthur ; for except 

 in times of extraordinary pressure all the grain grown in the 

 prairie provinces passes through these elevators at the Lake 

 Superior ports en loiile for the eastern provinces and the 

 markets of Great Britain. In 1896 the storage capacity at 

 the head of lake navigation was 4,350,000 bushels. In 1911 

 it was 25,700,000 bushels ; and enormous as had been the in- 

 crease in storage capacity, there was proof in the winter 

 months of 1911-12 that it had not nearly kept pace with the 

 increase in production uf the grain-growing provinces. 



'• Bachelor of Domestie Seienee." 



The GirVs Own Paper for April urges that the 

 domestic branches of work form the only profession 

 for woman that is not wofully overcrowded ; it is 

 entirely neglected. The writer says : — 



To my mind, the greatest hindrance to educated girls as a 

 whole taking up this work is the absence of lliat definite status 

 wliiili has iieen accorded to the trained nurse from the very 

 iKU'inning, 



What is needed is that the domestic profession should be 

 placed on as high a plane hy the educational authorities as the 

 leaching ))rofcs>ion, the medical profession, etc. There ought 

 to be .a B.D.Sc. degree (Bachelor of Domestic Science) that 

 should rank on a par'with IJ.Sc. and H.A., or even higher, Im 

 it ought to carry a great deal mmc fiadiciil knowledge witli it 

 than either of the other degrees. 



