Rangitikei Advocate. FRIDAY, MAY 1, 1908 EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9134, 1 May 1908, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. FRIDAY, MAY 1, 1908 EDITORIAL NOTES.

IN the last of a series of articles fn the .London Times on Industrial Canada Dr. Shadwell gives some interesting details with regard to Montreal which he describes as a great industrial city and worthy of a place in the front rank of manufacturing centres. Tire population is about 300,000, though wore the outskirts of the city included the members would be nearer half a

million. The numbers of French and English are nearly equal, but the former show a slight preponderance. A marked difference is shown in the birth-rate of the two races. In the five years 1901-5 the mean was 35.18 per 1000; but among the French Canadians it was 43.40, and among the Protestant population—which means chiefly English and Scotch—it was only 21.17, or considerably less than half. The death rate is much higher among the French Canadians, the respective figures for 1905 being 37.0 and 14.3 per 1000; but the vitality, as measured by excess of births over deaths, is enormously in their favour. The excess of births over deaths in 1905 was at the rate of 17 per 1000 among French Canadians, and only 6 per 1000 among the Protestant population. But the fecundity of the former is also tending to decline ; in the years 1887-91 the birth rate averaged 53.8 per 1000, or 10 points higher than in 1901-5. The decline is not steady and continuous as in European countries, and in the last two or three years the rate lias risen again considerably ; but the general tendency to fall is marked and unmistakable. The workmen’s houses are more of the American and French types than of the English; that is to say, they are not small four or six roomed cottages, but larger buildings with several floors and occupied by more than one family. The newer ones look substantially-built and clean. Renta, says Dr. Shadwell, are high though to New Zealand ideas they seem moderate enough. Good workmen’s dwellings are rented at about 2s to 2s 6d a week per room. In actual cases mot with he found five-roomed tenements at 10s to 13s a week, and seven-roomed tenements at 14s to 18s a week; but some, which he was told were exceptional, could be had at Os for four rooms and 7s Cd for five.

THE cost of living appears to be lower than in tills country, the price of butter, eggs, potatoes, and cabbages being noticeably cheap considering the great severity of the winter in Canada. Following is a list of prices of various commodities in a working-class district; —Meat, Gd to 7>dd per lb; bread, 7d and 8d the 41b loaf; milk, 3d a quart in summer and 4d in winter ; flour, la for 121 b; sugar 2%d and 2;Td per lb; butter, lid per lb in summer and 14d in winter; eggs, 5d a dozen in summer and lOd in winter ; potatoes 3/pl per lb; cabbages, IjLl t° each; tea, lOd to 18d per lb; coffee, JodtoSOd per lb. Board for men runs from 14s to IGs a week.

WAGES do not appear to be very high and the hoars of labour are longer than with ms. In engineering shops the hours aro 55 in summer. 58 and 59 in winter. The difference, which ii common in Canada, is caused by Saturday afternoon ; in summer the men leave off at 12; in winter, since there is no football, they go on till 8.30 or 4.30. They begin at 7 a.m. and have half an hour for dinner. The wages per hour are Machinists and fitters, 13d and upwards; boiler-makers, to 15d; blacksmiths 7>Ml (helpers) to 181; cabinetmakers, lid to Is; carpenters, to Is; painters 8d to Is. Day labourers get 5s Gd to 6s a day.