A LESSON FROM CANADA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 383, 7 May 1910, Page 4

A LESSON FROM CANADA.

Canada is whole-hearted iu her desire to get as many English boys and "iris as the possibly can into the country. And to forward (this end, Lord Mown ■Stephen has just made a very liberal contribution of £OO,OOO. This will be expended in passage money, outfits, and the ware of the children on their arrival. But it is only the young ones that Canada is making provision for. She also wants as many British adults sis she can get. preferring them to those of any other nationality" Already averaging an inliux of something like 1150,000 immigrants per annum from the United Kingdom, private opinion realises that more are wanted; and private enterprise is 'now getting ready to indefinitely increase the number." .Certainly, the Dominion Government, as it is, does much in this direction. But the great Canadian Pacific (Railway has just come into the field with a scheme which qiute surpasses in liberality and patriotism anything of the kind yet on |record, The C.P.R. is the largest landholder in Canada, and among other holdings, owns some millions of"tacrcs near Calgary, on this area the ''Canadian Pacific Colonisation Company" has constructed a gigantic irrigation system, the greatest of its kind among the many great ones in the North American continent. The work is even now: rapidly approaching completion; water is supplied from the Bone river, and the source l is an inexhaustible one. When the whole enterprise is completed, there will -be, it is calculated, over 4000 |miles of waterways and canals available for irrigating the area. The principal feature of the scheme, however, is the reserving of the 'district entirely for British settlers. The district is to he. .divided into holdings of from 80 to 100 acres of irrigable land, or IliO meres of non-irrigated land. And on these portions the company will erect all necessary buildings for the use of the (new arrivals. Also, they .propose to break up and render fit for" cultivation so much of each allotment, say ifrom 40 to 60 acres, as may enable the settler to gather a crop in a comparatively short time after reaching its destination, and to thus become fl revenue-producing unit. The colonists are to be settled in groups of a maximum of sixteen; mnd thus, relations and friends will be fairly close neighbors, and, if necessary, cam assist each other in various ways. Under the provisions laid down for the management of the scheme, these British settlers, or colonists, as they arc termed, will become to a certain extent the wards of the company, jwhos'e object it is to ensure the success of each individual in every possible fashion. Preference is to be given married couples with families; and each family is expected to show possession of- a moderate sum of money for its own support until the crops are marketed. The company, diowever, if necessary, will lend money to a coionist to aid him in puttJng on improvements. Hundreds of applications have already been received from people anxious to settle on the company's land. And the work of selection has been started by the choosing of thirty fiimilies to sro out as a first ■consignment. Tenant farmers and agricultural laborers are at present given priority, but 'later on other classes are to have their chance. As a leading London newspaper remarks, commenting on the scheme:—"The Canadian Pacific Railway seems to the fact that with great possessions come great responsibilities. And it deserves the thanks of the British people at home and in Canada for the handsome way in which it does its share of Empire building." The lesson to be drawn from the whole business appears to \be that if immigrants of the best description are to be procured, then special inducements must be offered Ihem to leave their native land. 'in other words, "spoon-feeding" is a 'necessary accompaniment of any successful plan having for its "object the placing on the land of a class that cannot be otherwise obtained. When a great and powerful corporation like the C.P.R. admits iso much, and goes to the expense and trouble of making ready a home; of irrigating and preparing thedand for the new-comers; also offers to lend them money at need to plant their holdings, then, indeed, anything that New Zealand or Australia is doing to attract a .similar ckiss of immigrant must seem ineffectual and poor bv comparison.