General Infarmation about Canada, 49 



and will no doubt in time extend to the western parts of llie Doininion 

 also. 



Reference is sometimes made? to some Canadian farms 

 Mortgages. being mortgaged. It should be borne in mind, however, 



that a proportion of the Canadian farmers start willi 

 little or no capital. In order to provide capital in such cases, the farm 

 is mortgaged, but the loan companies, as a rule, do not advance more 

 than half the value of the properties. The interest paid bears no com- 

 parison to the rent of similar-sized farms in the United Kingdom, and 

 the fact of the existence of a mortgage, in these circumstances, is not 

 detrimental to the position of the farmer. Not only is the interest 

 invariably paid, but the experience is that the loans are paid off as they 

 mature. The losses of the Canadian companies arc comparatively small, 

 and the investment, therefore, is a good one to the lender, and an 

 advantage to the farmer. 



Canada's trade — import and export— amounts to nearly 

 Trade Imports X50,000,000 per annum, and is largely with Great 

 and Exiwris. Britain and the United States, the balance being 



exchanged with European countries, the West Indies, 

 South America, xVustralasia, China, and Japan. The figures given 

 above only include the outside trade, and do not embrace that done 

 betw^een the various provinces. Free trade, in its entirety, exists 

 within the boundaries of the Dominion, and the local business is 

 very large, as the tonnacje carried on the railways and canals and on 

 the coasting vessels will show. It may be stated that the revenue 

 now amounts to about S36,000,000 per annum, of which about 

 .'§20,000,000 — equal to 17s. per head of the population — is obtained 

 from customs duties on goods imported into Canada. 



Markets, either within or without the Dominion, exist 

 Markets. for all the products of the country, and no difficulty 

 is found in this respect. New markets have been pro- 

 vided by the establishment of lines of steamers to the West Indies, 

 Australasia, China, and Japan, which are now in operation. Canada 

 is well served with railway and water communication, and the 

 shipping owned in Canada is so large that it occupies a high place 

 in the list of sbipH3wning countries of the world. A railway extends 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and each province possesses 

 excellent railway accommodation; in fact, there are over 15,000 miles 

 of line in operation at the present time. The rivers and canals have 

 been so much improved of late years, that the largest ocean-going 

 steamers can moor alongside the wharves at Quebec and Montreal, 

 and it is possible for a vessel of 500 tons burden to pass from the 

 Atlantic into the great lakes. The enlargement of the canals now 

 in progress, which is to be completed in 1895, w-ill i^ermit ocean 

 v(}ssels of 2,000 tons gross burden to pass to the head of Lakr* 

 Navigation without breaking bulk. 



The distinctions of class do not exist in Canada to the 



Social same extent as in the mother country. There is no law 



Distinctions, oi primogeniture, and there are no paupers ; a feeling of 



, healthy independence pervades all classc?, which no doubt 



