THE DOMINION OF CANADA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6503, 30 December 1881, Page 6

THE DOMINION OF CANADA.

The Canadian census of last April has now been published. It exhibits an Increase of population to every direction, greatest absolutely to Ontario, greatest by comparison with farmer figures in the larger and less settled district* of the West. Tbe rate of increase over tbe whole country since tho census of 1871 is 18*05 per cent, and this, curiously, it the exact rate at which the alngle Province of Ontario has grown. Ae for as present results go, Ontario and Quebec are very far in advance of all the rest. Ontario has taken the lead, and has kept it and improved upon it, from tho date of the first census onwards. Her population, which was 1,896,091 in 1861, had risen to 1.620,851 in 1871, and is now set down at 1,913,460, The growth of Quebec, the next largest Province to Ooterio, has been a good deal less rapid. Quebec started behind Ontario with a population of 1,111,566 in 1861, The interval was increased still further by 1871, Quebec during thoso ten yean having added only 79,950 to her former number*. The ten Stn following have produced better results, e addition daring thoir course to the population of Quebec has been against tbe 233,609 of Ontario. The rate of progress has been 1401 per cent, against the 18*05 of her neighbour. For the largest percentages and for tbe best promises of future development we must look further to the West. Tho actual population of that region is not as yet great, but if it continues to grow as it has been growing in the Province of Manitoba, at the rate of 289 per cent, another eentna or two will bring it up to a level with that of Ontario, or beyond It. Ontario is already beginning to feel itself threatened by tbe growing popularity of the West. Settlers, uod old inhabitants, too, are drawn off to the vast unoccupied prairies, where land is to bo bad most cheaply, and where tho unexhausted soil gives the most ample returns to the fortunate first cultivator. When we go further west still, we pata from exact flgmeeo to a region of conjecture. The one established fact, however, is that the whole West is growing, and that very fast. Tbe first few steps have been the hardest. A country which had long been declared hopelessly sterile by the only authorities who could be supposed to know anything about it, has now been bettor explored, and has been found to be just the reverse of what it wss persistently assorted to bo. Emigrant* are beginning to press Into it, and we may expect that each fresh year will bring them in continually larger numbers. Canada is thus moving in parallel steps with the United States. The coarse of emigration is westward with both of them, and above and below the boundary line the same process of settlement is going on. The example lias come from tbe United States, where the population in need of elbow-room u larger, where the capital available for (heir support is greater, end where tbe spirit of enterprise has ever been more marked. But in Canada, too, (here has been growth and extension, end there Is an almost infinite potentiality of growth yet to oome. The entire population ot Canada is now 4,352,080, These figures ere 685,484 in advance of the figures of 1871. But th«y may be multiplied a good many times over and there will be raomyet remaining for emigrant* from tbe Old World. The best lands of Canada hay* been left to the hut. They are to be had at yet literally for the askieg, by any body who wilt engage to settle down on them and to do his part in bringing them under the plough. By-aod-bye, when th* Pacific Railway hoe been completed, and when the country has begun to fill, the Canadian Government will become less liberal in it* offers. The demand at present is for men, and it is bidding very highly for them.— European Mail.