42 COMM ISSION OF CONSERVATION 



conservation of village life by means of the promotion of rural indus- 

 tries is a matter of great importance. 



The question of promoting new and extending existing indus- 

 tries in rural areas will be dealt with in a later chapter, but at this 

 point attention may be drawn to the great developments which have 

 already taken place in Canada in that direction. We have seen that 

 between 1901 and 1911 no less than 142 new towns were created, 

 having a population of 1,500 or less. Many of these new towns 

 are in rich agricultural regions, where distributive and social centres 

 are needed and where they can obtain the needed staying power from 

 the surrounding territory. Others, however* will only succeed in 

 proportion as they have the facilities to enable small manufacturing 

 industries to be promoted, and as they succeed in organizing these 

 industries. 



The wealth of old Ontario lies largely in the small indus- 

 trial town, and while great cities like Toronto are no better from a 

 point of view of public health and convenience than some of the great 

 cities of America and Europe, the average small town of Ontario is 

 probably superior in regard to the general average prosperity and 

 living conditions of their citizens to any towns of a similar size in 

 other countries. The creation of small towns in rural areas is a much 

 healthier and more stable form of development than the expansion 

 of large cities. Of the towns having a population of from 1,000 to 

 5,000 in population in 1911, 233 showed increases in the eight main- 

 land provinces between 1901 and 1911, as follows: 



Nova Scotia 15 New Brunswick 9 



Quebec 81 Ontario 82 



Manitoba 9 Saskatchewan 10 



Alberta... 15 British Columbia .....12 



In the eight mainland provinces no less than 529 towns or vil- 

 lages having a population of 1,000 or under were either not in exist- 

 ence in 1901, or increased in population between 1901 and 1911. As 

 against 81 of these towns which increased in population in Quebec, 

 only four showed a decrease. 



The growth of these towns represented an accumulated develop- 

 ment of manufacturing and mining industry in each province of great 

 aggregate volume and importance. A few years prior to 1901 the 

 control of the planning and development of a great many of these 

 towns was vested in rural municipalities and their present condition 

 reflects the good or bad management and direction they received in 

 the initial rural stages of growth. During the next twenty or thirty 



