IMMIGRATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 85, 12 April 1937, Page 12

IMMIGRATION

PROSPECTS IN CANADA

A REVIVAL OF INTEREST

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVER, March 17. Although the Dominion Government has not yet formulated any definite programme, public opinion in Canada is growing more favourable to a resumption of immigration. Land values have been liquidated, building and supply costs are lower than for many years, livestock values and interest rates have been reduced, staple industries, such as -mining and lumber, are in a h/oly-prosperous state, unemployment and." relief costs have continued their downward trend; in fact, the time is considered to be ripe for large-scale colonisation, with relatively small capital outlay. . ■ ■ ... x■- > ■ It is significant that Saskatchewan, which suffered seriously from drought, is the first province to move for the introduction of British settlers, with a view to their being placed.on the land. The Legislature adopted a resolution, similar to that passed by the House of Commons in London, "for the voluntary redistribution- of the .white peoples of the Empire, thereby creating a stimulation of shipping and trade under the flag." Saskatchewan is concerned at the fact that the British origin of its people is the lowest among the English-speaking provinces. Its Government indicated that it was prepared -to receive five thousand British immigrant families, to be settled, during the next five years, under the Hornby Plan. Brigadier-General Hornby, a retired British officer, is a successful farmer in Southern Alberta, who has been preaching the doctrine of selected Empire settlement for several years, His long-range ambition is to secure at least one settlement of five thousand Britishers in each province. This means the organised immigration of selected families, to be established in self-supporting homes on the land, under a policy of financed and supervised settlement. One of the first ventures of the kind is well under way in Central Saskatchewan, approved by the Provincial Legislature, and awaiting confirmation at Ottawa and Westminster. . : '

British capital is to be used to buy. the farms on which the settlers arc to be placed during the period of training. They willbe provided with loans to cover equipment, stock, and seed, when they are ready to operate their own fajms. General Hornby believes, after having : explained his ; plan to members of the British Government, that it will furnish part of the necessary capital. The fund it voted,.some years ago, subject to a pound-for-pound subvention by the Dominion Governments, is still intact. The Secretary for the Dominions, Mr. Malcolm Mac Donald, secured ■ the approval of the House of Commons,- in January last, to a resolution, empowering the Government, in certain cases, to contribute 75 per cent, of the cost of any immigration plan—an increase from the former subsidy of 50 per cent. The Minister expressed the hope "that the Dominions would! shortly approve of immigration being resumed.