THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1910. CANADA'S FUTURE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9688, 12 January 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1910. CANADA'S FUTURE.

A cable message the other day re--1 ported that in 1909 Canada received 90,148 immigrants'from the United I States and 95,552 from Europe. Assuming that the term. European ' covers the immigrants from the United Kingdom, it seeuis clear that the year's influx of population ■ from abroad was preponderantly non-British. Though she does not issue an indiscriminate invitation, Canada gets a good many people from Continental Europe. All the \ Scandinavian family and Teutons are warmly welcomed. Certain others, if they complyjwith the law, are admitted,.but they are keenly scrutinised at the gate. Perhaps the most interesting question involved in Canada's foreign-immigration is her future political position in the world. It is not the near future thatlis concerned. No change is imminent. The idea of annexation to tjie United States may revive some day, but there is no life whatever in it now. Even the immigrants from the United States show no, desire to rub out the international boundary. ' They are quite content to be Canadians, and if Canadian means Britisher, well, they do not protest. Nor is there any articulate cry for separation from the British Empire. But what will happen in the course of time? Do all these foreigners accept the obligations of the British Empire, in addition to the obligations of Canada? Will they help to give de- I finiteness and'force to a feeling and movement in favour of an independent Canada? And would the United States rather see Canada independant and separate than continue always to be a member of the British Empire? There are two sections of the Canadian nation in which Empire sentiment is weak: The Continental Europeans, and the Americans; The Americans, it may be remarked, are a decidedly superior class. For the most part they are energetic, welltordo farmers and their families. They are tempted across the boundary by the north-west lands and other chances. They soon become employers, and that means they become an influential part of the community. A very large proportion of the European immigrants Jare Wag££

earners, excellent ih their way, but no equal to the Americans as makers of public opinion. Nobody can foretell with certainty the political future of Canada.