CANADIAN CENSUS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1264, 20 October 1911, Page 5

CANADIAN CENSUS.

SEVEN MILLIONS OF PEOPLE. By Telerranb—Press Associati/io— OoDyrlfihl Ottawa, October 18. Tho census of Canada gives tho population at 7,100,000, as against 5,370,000 at tho census of 1901. There has been remarkable growth in tho cities. Vancouver has a population of 125,000, an increase of 27,000. Toronto now lias 370,000, an increaso of 17G.000. Montreal has 100,000, an increaso of nearly 200,000. Tho Alberta, and Saskatchewan provinces have grown enormously, their population being 750,000 instead of IGO,000 at tho previous census. The general result is disappointing, tho statistical officers haviDg led tho public to think, from the previous census enumeration, that the population would be 8,000,000. CANADA AND HER PEOPLE. DISAPPOINTED EXPECTATIONS. Tho figures for Vancouver given in the above cable message are in error, as tho population there at the census of 1901 was only 20,133, and if it is now 125,000 tho increase must have been vastly greater than tho 27,000 given above. The Toronto correspondent of "The Times," writing of Canadian expectations on June 7, said:—

On Jnne 1 we began to take the decennial census. Ten years ago tho totial population was returned at 5,371,315. It is the general expectation that tho census of 1911 will show a population of 8,000,000. In his Budget speech Mr. Fielding ventured an estimate of 7,785,000. During the decade, according to a bulletin just issued by the Department of Immigration, wo received nearly two million immigrants. Of theso" approximately 750,000 came from Great Britain and 700,000 from the United States. The actual figures down to March 31 were 1,711,320, but during the last two months nearly 200,000 additional immigrants havo arrived. Sixty-fivo per cent, of thoso arriving from tho United States wero fanners or farm labourers, most of whom settled in tho prairio province.?. Of tho British and Continental immigrants 30 per cent, were farmers or farm labourers, 25 per cent, general labourers, and 25 per cent, mechanics. Of those from Great Britain 560,003 wero English and Welsh, 150,000 Scotch, and 45,000 Irish. Other nationalitifn or* represented by 121,000 AustroHungarians, 63,817 Italians, 46,675 Hebrew?, 36,950 Russians, 19,349 Swedes, 21,145 Germans, 12,236 Erench, 13,798 Norwegian \ 5223 Svrians. 400 negroes, and 5200 Hindus. It. is estimated that half a million of theso immigrant; settled in Saskatchewan and Alberta, 403.f.98 in Ontario, 303,599 in Jfonifcona. 158.820 in Ouobw, 188,509 in British Coulrabia and the Yukon, and 73.902 in the maritime provincos. Thus the western provinces f:ot 300,0C0 more of the new settlere than Eastern Canada.

This, however, by no means shows tho distribution and shifting of population during the ten-year period. From Ontario and the maritime provinces there has b«<n a great and continuous movement of people to th« West. Probably the loss by emigration equals the gain by immigration. In Quel>ee, however, the population has been relatively stationary. There ha.? been an overflow of French into En.-3t«rn and Northern Ontario, a diminished emigration to New England, and a thin migration westward. But undoubtedly Quebec will show a greater natural increase and a smaller loss of people by .migration than the. old English provinces.