RAPID IMMIGRATION

Hokitika Guardian, 18 May 1920, Page 4

RAPID IMMIGRATION

CANADA’S EXPERIENCEVANCOUVER, April 7. Immigration into Canada' is rapidly increasing, and the mystery is liow the | thousands of liealthy-looking European settlers will be able to secure housing accommodation in a country where house-building has been dormant for at least live years. All the large cities of . Canada report a remarkable scarcity of good homes. Toronto, Winnipeg, Cal„ary Regina, and Vancouver are all overcrowded. Rents of houses are exorbitant throughout Canada, the poorest five-roomed house fetching up to £8 or £lO a month as rental, and appli-. cants for all houses are offering more, ; than is demanded. There are frequently 200 applicants for a single house when the vacancy is advertised. In one week over 1000 immigrants ( passed through the prairie metropolis of Winnipeg, according to Mr Thomas Galley, Commissioner of Immigration. Many of them were Belgians, a few . French and Dutch and the remainder, British. Manitoba and Saskatchewanreceived the greater number of settlers . and British Columbia got a large pro •. portion. “The type of these settlers is better, than ever before,” said Mr Ge. Hey,. “That is because of the stricter immigration rules. They represent a good , class of people, and intend to buy and work their own lnad. The Belgian and French immigrants nearly all came-, from the devastated areas in Europe. ’ The housing difficulty has arisen mainly owing to the high prices demanded for lumber in Canada, a conn-, try noted for its gigantic supplies of first class building timber, a material which is now approximately throe times the price it was five years ago. All other essential building material is , also excessively dear. One explanation is offered that Canada is exporting too much lumber to the United States and Countries beyond America. Out. in tlie West there is a. mad scan•per of all sorts of people to plunge Into the shingle-making business, and old disused, machinery, outwardly worth but the proverbial song, is being grabbed "at high figures. During the last few months, several concerns with very limited capital have started in a small way and are growing rich through, tlie'r enterprise, hut the price of shingles has beaten all records. Building laths could tell a similar story, and recently they reached so high a price in British Columbia that metal lath manufacturers were selling cheaper than wood lath makers, and the prices of wood laths were reduced.