RAPID IMMIGRATION.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3483, 11 May 1920, Page 7

RAPID IMMIGRATION.

CA;\'.-XDA TEXPEHIENCE.

M‘.—\'l‘ERIALS AT ' Hit: H‘T<l~:lc'}ss.

VANCOUV ER, April 7.

Imniigration info Canada. is rapidly‘ increasing, and the inystery how the thousands of healthy-looking Euro-‘ pean settlers will be -able to secure housing accommodati-on in a country where house-building has been dormant 1 for the last, five years. All the large 3 cities of Canada report a remarkable scarcity of good homes. Toronto, Winuipeg, Calgary, Regina, and Vancouver are all overcrowded. Rents of houses .are exorbitant; throughout Canada, the poorest fiVe—l-oorned house fetching up to £8 or £lO a. month as rental, and applicants for all houses are offering more than is demanded. There are frequently 200 applicants for a. single house when the V-rrczmey is l advertised. ’

In one week, over 1000 immigrants passed through the prairie metropolis’ of Winnipeg, according to Mr Thomas Gelley, Commiss'lon'er"of Immigration. Many of them were. Belgians, ami a few French and Dutch, and the reromainder British. Manitoba and Saskatchewan received the greater number of settlers; and British Colombin got a large proportion. *“The type of these settlers is better than ever before,” said Mr Grclley. “That is because of the stricter immigration rules. ‘They represent. a. good class of people, and intend to buy and

work ‘rheir own land. The Belgian and French immigrants nearly all came from devastated areas in Europe.” The housing difl‘ieult.y has ilrison um-.linly owing to the high prices clemandod for luinber in Canada, a country noted for its gigantic supplies oi‘ first-class building timber, a material which is now approximately three times the price it was five years ago. All other essential ‘building material is also excessively dear. One explana? tion is offered that Canada is exporting too much lumber to the United States, and countries beyond Anierica.

Out in the West. there is 21 umd scamper of all sorts of peoffle to plunge into’ the shingle-making business, and old, dis-used machinery, outWal.'dl§' Worth ‘but the proverbial song, is being grabbed at high tTgu.re's. During the last few months, several concerns with Very limited Capital, have started in :1 small way, and are growing rich througii their enterprise, but the price of shingles has ‘broken all I'ee.ords. Building laths could tell a similar story, and .recelit.l}' they rczichcd so high :1 price in British Columbia that rm~t2.l lath nlanut':ictill'ol's were SClll1,I;;'i: cheaper than wood lath makers, nmll the pl‘l(’.(?S of wood laths were I'e(luce<l. ‘