IMMIGRANTS FOR CANADA.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1105, 19 April 1911, Page 5

IMMIGRANTS FOR CANADA.

GREAT DEMAND FOR LABOUR. By Teleiraph—Press Association—Ocpyrlelit Ottawa, April 17. Canada expects 175,000 immigrants from Great Britain this year, as against 112,000 last year. DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEST. A correspondent of the "Standard of Empire," writing on March 1, states: . . It is announced that /the i Canadian Pacific, Canadian Northern, and Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Companies will each require .y)OD additional men in connection with tliq construction work which they will undertake this spring. The demand for labour iu the West will be further largely increased bv the fact that the farmers in the three Prairie Provinces will require at least 20,000 farm hands for the spring activities. For the harvest later in the autumn many more thousands will, of course, bo required. The demand for labour in practically every branch will be greater this year in Western Canada than ever before.

The Commissioner for Immigration at Winnipeg states'that, notwithstanding tho energetiu efforts that. will be .miiclo to satisfy this great demand for workers, there will still ba many hundreds of applications for men -in - excess of the; available supply; The officials of the railway companies frankly admit that they do not know where they will obtain tho labour which they will require this year; and the farmers are in much the same position. February bank clearings at Winnipeg show an increase of ten million dollars compared with those for the corresponding month of 1910. This means not only n very considerable expansion iof trade in the" province, but also. a largo influx of new settlers possessed of means. A noticeable feature is.the inquiry for land on the part of United States agents and farmers, who , anticipate that tho Reciprocity Agreement will enhance values in every part of the Western Provinces. Tlie stream of new settlers that has been directed towards Saskatchewan since the beginning of_thc year is growing rapidly in volume, both from the United Kingdom and the Western parts of the United States. Tor those who do not possess either the capital or the experience to enable them to take up land for fanning on their own account at once there is abundance of work to be had. The farmers are now taking on men for the coming season, and the demand is much larger than the supply. The immigration officials state, however, that the next few weeks should bring about a decided improvement in this respect, although, despite the heavy immigration movement that is anticipated this year, the deficiency will be difficult, if not imsossibje, to make good.