SOCIAL CONDITIONS 97 



III. Haliburton County (1911 List) : 



Township 



Cardiff 7 



Dudley 1 



Dysart 1 



Glamorgan 6 



Guilford 2 



Harbum 3 



Lutterworth 7 



Minden 5 



Monmouth 13 



Snowdon 8 



53 4,645 $1,747.09 



A total of 194 farms comprising 18,085 acres to be sold for three 

 years back taxes aggregating $3,178.29, or at the rate of less than 6 

 cents per acre per year. 



Social Conditions 



It is a matter of universal observation, that, with such economic 

 conditions as have been described, there is associated more or less 

 social degeneracy, and many of the settlements show that this territory 

 is no exception to the rule. Mental and physical defectives were 

 commonly encountered, and the moral tone of some communities was 

 very depressing. The explanation is traceable to the conditions of 

 securing a livelihood, not to the people. 



For the same reason the status of education is, in the majority of 

 the townships, far from satisfactory. Sparse settlements with meagre 

 returns from the soil make the efficient maintenance of schools very 

 difficult. In some schools the teachers were found to be professionally 

 unqualified, other schools were found closed, and, in other cases, the 

 dwindling of the settlement is making the financial up-keep too heavy 

 for those remaining. 



The impression received daily throughout the season's investiga- 

 tion was the dreary hopelessness of attempting to secure returns by 

 agricultural activities, from a soil inherently adapted only for forest 

 use. The amount of human energy unavailingly expended in this 

 attempt, represents an incalculable asset lost to the Province. It is 

 but another example of past misguided or rather unguided occupancy 

 of townships which should never have been thrown open for settlement, 

 and of the lack of appreciation by Government of its obvious duties. 



Early Advice — That this was not done through ignorance of condi- 

 tions is shown by various reports of the early Commissioners of Crown 

 Lands and of Parliamentary inquiries. Extracts from two of these 

 \\ill suffice to show that, even in those days, there were men who were 



