A LAND OF MANY RACES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 91, 7 October 1911, Page 10

A LAND OF MANY RACES.

Have the British people any adequate, comprehension of the immense problem of assimilation which confronts Canada? This is not (says a Canadian correspondent of the Times) peculiarly a British country. It is not even a bilingual country as is the new South African Confederation . It is a country of many races with English and French as the dominant elements.- In the whole Confederation there are nearly 2.0110,000 French-speaking people. Of these 1,350,Oili) are in Quebec, where French is the language of the masses of the population, and where the racial solidity is as compact as it was fifty or a hundred years ago. In Ontario there are 230,000 French-Canadians. In Nova Scotia there are .",0,1)00 French. There are 80,000 in New Brunswick. 20.000 in Manitoba, and 10.(100 in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The country is divided into 221 electoral divisions, and in SO of these the French electors are numerous and inlluential.

Beyond Ontario and Quebec and the Atlantic provinces there is the great West with new conditions and new problems. During the last ten years 1.250.000 immigrants have entered' Canada. The mass of these have settled in the Western Prairie provinces. It is estimated that there are now nearly (100.000 of these have come in during the last five years. Many of these are German or Scandinavian, but they are not Hritisli. They can have no'inherited love for British institutions. They can have no natural loyalty to a liag which Hies over-sea and which is the svmbol of monarchy. The Canadian West is not to be divided between French and English or even occupied by the overflow from the United States. All the nations of Europe claim part and lot in this inheritance. It is estimated that there are now 40.00 ltulhenians in .Manitoba, 50.000 in Saskatchewan, and 30.000 in Alberta. In the West there are 10,000 or 12.000 Poles. 10,000 Hungarians, 25.(100 Swedes. 15,000 Norwegians, 10,000 Finns, and 500 Danes. There are Memnonites, Donkhabors. Mormons and fragmentary representations of various other group's and sects. Since 1(100 50.000 Italians -HUKIII Jews and 12.000 Japanese have entered Canada, and in the older provinces there is a considerable and important Gorman population.

Aii amusing episode (the '.Mail relates) marked (lie Kind's journey from Sandnngham to London, when tlic roval train was stopped tn assist in the luint for a. hoy's straw hat. The train was duo to pass tlie railway station a.t Harlow, Essex. a,bont midday. A few minutes' before 12 a special train from London filled with children taken for a dav's outing in the country rushed through flic s<l action. Suddenly the train came, to a. standstill. Thinking that „ cliild hail fallen out of the train, police oll'iecrs anil railway servants rushed on to Ihe line and began to search. At Unit moment the royal (rain came in sight, mid (lie driver, mil icing the commotion < m flic station, .slowed down. It was only on passing the children's train that, it was ascertained that a. little holiday-maker had lost his straw hat and promptly pulled the communication cord in order to recover it. The royal train went on its way. ami by the time the children had resinned their journey the lad's straw hat had been recovered by a platelayer.