No.

No.

No.

1890

1891

No. No. 2,537,990 1,439,119 2,531,523 6,508,632 16,756,568 10,515,891 27,272,459 2,773,609 2,657,054 1,504,649 2,691,118 6,852,821 17,786,941 10,945,617 28,732,558 2,888,773 2,650,891 1,666,706 2,627,186 6,944,783 17,957,049 10,777,655 28,734,704 2,137,859 2,554,624 1,580,242 2,565,810 6,700,676 17,039,739 10,240,595 27,280,334 2,113,530

No.

No.

No.

1,454,370 24,329

96,267 86,464 61,376 244,107 917,310 537,060 or 5'3 p. c. or 1'1 p. c. or 38 p. c. or 5'4 p. c. or 23 p. c. or 3'6 p. c. or 5'3 p. c. or 52 p. c.

16,634 141,123 34,287 192,044 283,171 or 6 p. c. or 9'8 p. c. or 13 p. c. or 29 p. c. or 17 p. c.

7,875

or 0-2 p. c.

275,296 or 26 p. c.

660,079 or 20'4 p. c.

AGRICULTURAL Produce Statistics (Wheat, Barley and Oats), in Great Britain for the years 1891, 1892 and 1893.

A most interesting report has just been made by an eminent authority as to the amount of farm capital employed in the United Kingdom, and he shows that, since 1887, a shrinkage has taken place of £17,000,000 (over eighty-five million dollars). Estimating the amount invested in live stock, a reduction is shown during the same period of £12,800,000, and the capital invested in implements, seed, labour, manure, tenant rights, etc., a reduction of £4,200,000-a total reduction of the capital engaged of over one hundred and seventy million dollars.

The following is the detailed statement, which, I am sure, must prove of interest:

In my last report I referred to the fact that the price of agricultural land had not fallen in 1892, and I have now to report that in 1893 prices on the whole have been maintained. Decreases in value have been recorded annually since 1877, but the lowest ebb appears to have been reached. This will have some influence on emigration as people find it to their advantage to purchase improved farms in Canada rather than pay enhanced prices in this country. I may state that during the last year there has been a greater inquiry here with regard to the older provinces, more especially New Brunswick and Nova Scotia than has been experienced for many years, and I know of several considerable investments which have been made in farm property in the province of Ontario. I have also reason to believe from communications I have received that numbers of people are going forward who have sufficient means and intend to purchase improved properties, many of them persons who have incomes sufficient to support them without being dependent upon their farms. There is a large class whose income has been so reduced during recent years that, while sufficient to support them in comfort, it is not enough to allow them to live in England in the style to which they have been accustomed, and these turn their attention to the colonies.

CENSUS AND AGRICULTURE.

The census of 1891 reveals the fact that in England and Wales there has been a decrease in the twenty years from 1871 to 1891 in the number of tenant-farmers, of 26,297, and their male relatives (the sons, grandsons, brothers, and nephews of farmers, so returned when they live at home and work more or less on the farm) 13-3***

have decreased by 9,129. The figures for farm labourers can best be shown in detail in the following tabular form:

The most striking fact elicited by these figures is the decrease of 90,091 or 10.3 per cent in the total number of farm labourers employed. There has been a large diminution of female labour in the fields, but this does not affect the significance of the total decrease of labourers, as obviously if the demand for labour had not been lessened, the women would have been replaced by men. In 1871 the total number of farm labourers returned was 962,348, so that since then there has been a decrease of 181,641 or 18.9 per cent. These figures then exhibit the extent of the agricultural field in England and Wales upon which we have to operate.

DEPRESSION IN TRADE AND AGRICULTURE.

The great financial and agricultural depression, which has been almost unprecedented, and the ruinously low prices which have prevailed all over the world have naturally had a great effect on emigration. Emigration to the United States shows a marked falling off, whilst we have more than maintained the numbers to Canada. It has often been pointed out that a regular movement takes place in emigration— the figures rise and fall periodically-and when this period of depression is past we shall reap the advantage of keeping Canada steadily to the front. Canada should be kept in advance of the movement instead of following much behind it as in former times. The decrease in the number of agricultural labourers and farmers has not resulted in an extended emigration from the British Isles, but rather in a migration to the large centres of population and manufacture. There are to-day hundreds of thousands in the manufacturing districts engaged in various occupations who have been brought up on farms, and many of these, owing to the great depression in the manufacturing circles, will find themselves forced out.

THE UNEMPLOYED.

The subject of the "unemployed" has been debated in the British House of Commons, but no remedy for the distress has as yet been devised. Mr. Samuel Smith, M.P., of Liverpool, member for Flintshire, who has been giving a great deal of attention to the matter, says that the real cause of the present wide-spread poverty

is just the extreme and long continued depression of trade: he is of the opinion that the great industries of the country have lost their former expansiveness, and are either declining or stationary, while the population increases 300,000 annually.

EXODUS FROM THE COUNTRY TO THE TOWNS.

The exodus from the country to the towns commenced to be remarkable when the Compulsory Education Act of 1870 came into operation. I was engaged immediately after this lecturing for the Canadian Government in the agricultural districts in England in connection with the National Agricultural Labourers Union and the Kent and Sussex and Lincolnshire Agricultural Labourers Societies, and during the memorable lockout in 1874 and 1875 was successful in transferring some 15,000 of the cream of English agricultural labourers to Canada. Of course the bulk of these went to Ontario and the province of Quebec, as at that time the great North-west was not easily accessible, and there were very few employers of agricultural labour there. At the same time the funds of the union, and some thousands of pounds subscribed by private individuals, were used to transport agricultural labourers from the eastern, midland and southern counties of England to the manufacturing centres in the north, then in a state of prosperity, and this migration from the country to the towns has been going on with more or less volume ever, since. It has recently been estimated by a statistician that the net immigration into the large towns and thickly populated districts between 1871 and 1891 has been not less than 1,082,000. It follows that there are very large numbers of persons in the manufacturing districts who are competent farm workers, and there must be a very large proportion of them who are at any rate at the present time dissatisfied with their position. It is not however only those conversant with agriculture who are suitable for settlement in the North-west, although this is the opinion generally held in Canada. Some of the most successful settlements in the Dominion were made by emigrants from manufacturing districts, and one instance of this which occurs to me among many others is the Paisley block in Ontario, peopled originally by Paisley weavers.

WALES.

A recent Royal Commission report states that the number of agricultural labourers in Wales has decreased in an extraordinary degree, owing partly to the conversion of arable land to pasture, and partly to the withdrawal of women from field work. The proportions of decrease in the three decades ending with 1861, 1871, and 1881 are given as 17.9, 27.9, and 15 per cent, and there can be no doubt that a further large decrease has taken place since the date last mentioned. The percentage of women among the agricultural workers in 1881 is returned at 5.4 in North Wales and 15-2 in South Wales. As regards Welsh emigration every possible effort has been made to secure settlers from the principality as well as from the Welsh Colonies in Chupat, Patagonia, and in the United States, and considerable success has been achieved. During the past few years numbers of Welsh settlers with capital have gone forward, and have located on the line of the Manitoba and North-western Railway, and near Edmonton, and at several points in British Columbia. Judging from the communications received from them we may look forward to a considerable addition to their numbers during the season of 1894. Mr. Edwards, the delegate of 1890, has delivered lectures in a good number of villages and market towns in North Wales, and I have been present at as many of them as was possible. There are many thousands of Welsh people in Liverpool, and several Welsh clergymen who have visited Canada have given addresses to their congregations and others descriptive of the Dominion, and have freely used the magic lantern views with which I was able to supply them to illustrate their remarks. The Rev. J. Davies, one of the most popular preachers in Liverpool, has been specially active in this way. Then they have availed themselves of my specimens to have displays of Canadian produce at their bazaars, and in this way the advantages of Canada as a field for emigrants have been brought before a very large number of desirable people. Altogether a greater interest is 13-31***

being evinced to-day in Canada by Welsh people than has ever before been experienced. Messrs. Roberts and Dempster, the tenant farmers' delegates from Wales, who visited Canada last autumn, are influential men, and judging from the conversation I have had with them their reports will be most favourable and unusually interesting, and cannot fail to be of great assistance to us.

RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.

The religious societies have been an important factor in the work of promoting emigration to Australasia, and I have again devoted my earnest attention to them. My close connection continues with the important work carried on by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, through the Rev. J. Bridger, and this practically brings my office into communication with the clergy of the Church of England all through the country. My correspondents amongst the nonconformist bodies are also increasing in number. A large number of clergymen and others who have visited Canada are delivering lectures on the Dominion in various parts of the country to their congregations and friends, and as this is done quite independently, a very great, and at the same time inexpensive propaganda is thus made.

An addition has been made to my sets of magic lantern slides, and I have three sets now in constant use by such lecturers in the winter and spring seasons-indeed it frequently happens that I am not able to supply all the applications for the loan of the views. Supplies of pamphlets are sent to each of these lectures for distribu

tion.

PAMPHLETS, POSTERS, &C.

Having received the High Commissioner's instructions to advertise throughout my district I inserted an advertisement, setting out the advantages offered by Canada, in 161 newspapers in the North of England and in Wales, and a very large correspondence resulted. The handbooks prepared by your department, and the Tenant Farmer Delegates' reports, have been of immense service, and perhaps I may be permitted to say that the vigorous propaganda made under your directions has not only proved of value from an emigration standpoint, but has undoubtedly been the means of securing the investment of a large amount of British capital in Canada.

The very handsome posters which were prepared for the steamship companies, and which have been displayed by them from one end of the country to the other, cannot fail to be of great service, and the special bills which are exhibited by the post office authorities in 22,000 post offices, are of the utmost value.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES.

As often as possible I have contributed matter to the various newspapers in my district, and I have taken every other means, which my experience of 25 years in connection with this work has suggested, to further the Dominion emigration

interests.

CORRESPONDENCE.

The volume of correspondence is very large, and continues to show a tendency to increase in a greater ratio than the emigration. An intending emigrant to-day makes at least five times the number of inquiries that an emigrant did 15 or 20 years ago.

I would respectfully call attention to the suggestion made in my last year's report as to the advisability of sending Canadian newspapers to this agency. I regret to say that several which I received regularly for many years have now ceased to come forward.