EHRAL DEPLETION 23 



British Columbia gained 100,318 in rural, but 113,505 

 in urban, population in the decade. Manitoba, rich in 

 still unoccupied land, won 70,511 for her farms and 

 hamlets, but 129,892 for her villages, towns and cities. 

 Quebec, although so largely agricultural, gained 39,951 

 in country population while advancing by 313,863 in 

 city growth. 



Our country people formed, when the previous census 

 was taken in 1901, 62.4 per cent, of the total popula- 

 tion; when the recent one was taken in 1911 they had 

 fallen to 54.4 per cent. Our city population, 37.6 in 

 1901, had grown to 45.6 in 1911. 



The proportion of rural to total population has fallen 

 in every Province during the decade ; in Prince Edward 

 Island from 85 per cent, to 84 ; in Saskatchewan from 

 80 to 73 per cent. ; in Xew Brunswick from 76 per 

 cent, to 71 ; in Manitoba from 72 to 56 per cent. ; from 

 71 per cent, to 62 in Xova Scotia and in Alberta; from 

 60 to 51 per cent, in Quebec; in Ontario from 57 per 

 cent, to 47; and in British Columbia from 49 to 48 

 per cent. 



But it is not from relative increase merely, of city 

 as compared with country, that the grave rural situa; 

 tion arises. Our addition of 34 per cent, in a decade 

 does indeed present serious problems of several kinds, 

 in evangelization, in assimilation, and even in trans- 

 portation. But it does not give rise to the rural prob- 

 lem, j^or does the fact that we added 62 per cent, to 

 the city and but 17 to the country population reveal the 

 real heart of the problem. The country's loss is not 

 relative merely, but absolute. The question is not one 

 of slackened growth, but of waste begun. The country 

 is not simply falling behind in the upward race; she 



