RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 187 



more successful, and to do so on sound economic lines. But before 

 the business of agriculture can be made generally successful it is first 

 necessary to intelligently carry out the business of land settlement in 

 accordance with proper schemes of development. 



Provincial Organization of Land Settlement 



What has been said regarding Federal administration of land 

 settlement and other matters, applies generally to provincial adminis- 

 tration. It is unfortunate that there is no uniform system of con- 

 trolling immigration and settlement in force in all parts of the 

 Dominion. There is inter-locking of interests and overlapping 

 between Federal and provincial institutions, which has been the chief 

 cause of many defects in connection with the development of land 

 and the system of government, although the latter, in most other 

 respects, is admitted to be sound in principle. It is not suggested 

 that this lack of uniformity and overlapping can be avoided, but an 

 endeavour should be made to minimize their effects as far as possible 

 by co-operative means. 



A leading highway engineer and land surveyor in Saskatchewan 

 writes as follows, in April, 1917, with regard to the overlapping of 

 Federal and provincial administration of land settlement and high- 

 ways: 



"The difficulty of securing any action in the way of improve- 

 ment, as far as Saskatchewan is concerned, lies in the division of 

 authority, the Federal Government having control of the Crown 

 lands and the provincial authorities being concerned with the roads. 

 There are too many absurdities in the present system, and the chief 

 one would seem to be that a branch of the Dominion Government 

 should make the survey of the township, including the road allowances 

 with which the government is not concerned, and the provinces must 

 accept the roads so laid out and make the best of what, in the northern 

 and surveyed parts, is a very difficult situation. 



"It has been chiefly due to their connection with the problem 

 of amending the badly located road allowances that the surveyors 

 haye come to realize the faults of the system. In my own experience, 

 gained in six years' work on highway location and improvement in 

 practically every part of Saskatchewan, I have found that, in hilly 

 and rough country, the road allowances are not only useless for miles 

 at a stretch but, by their very existence, are a detriment to the location of 

 roads in the natural and most economical position. Local opinion is 

 always strongly against any departure from the system of road allow- 

 ances other than is absolutely needful in order to avoid some unsur- 

 mountable difficulty." 



All governments derive their power from the people, and what 

 are the most efficient methods to apply that power within legal limits 



