50 EUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 



founded in new districts, with an aggregate of 188 fami- 

 lies. The increase of the Presbytery as it existed in 

 1901 is but 213 households. There were at that time — 

 including missions — 33 charges. Of these two now 

 number just what they did in 1901 ; 13 show an in- 

 crease — of these two only are purely rural; 18 show a 

 decrease. But the increase in the congregations in the 

 towns of Arnprior, Renfrew and Smith's Falls is 284 

 families. There is therefore a loss throughout the rest 

 of the Presbytery, including the towns of Almonte, 

 Carleton Place, Pembroke and Perth, of 71 households ; 

 while the falling off in the 18 congregations actually 

 losing amounts to 215. The facts underlying 

 the total figures when analyzed in this Presbytery 

 would be found typical elsewhere. But let us take a 

 wider unit still. The three central Synods increased in 

 each case steadily from 1901 to 1909 in the number of 

 families. Then there comes an ominous change in all 

 three cases. The Synod of Montreal and Ottawa had 

 in 1909, 21,720 households. In 1910 it had 21,276, a 

 decline of 444. Toronto and Kingston in the former 

 year had 42,507, in the latter 42,176, a decrease of 331. 

 Hamilton and London in 1909 numbered 28,243; in 

 1910, 28,037, a falling off of 206. The latter recovers 

 in 1911 to 28,784; Montreal and Ottawa recovers to 

 21,637, but is still short of the mark of two years be- 

 fore; Toronto and Kingston had still further fallen to 

 40,986, an added loss of 1,521 households. We ma^^ 

 perhaps realize the trend most vividly by noticing that 

 six Presbyteries suffered loss in the total number of 

 households in the decade, namely Kingston, Lindsay, 

 Barrie, Saugeen, Stratford, and Bruce, with an aggre- 

 gate decline of 963 families; while the Presbyteries of 



