LIFE IN CANADA

Evening Star, Issue 19848, 23 April 1928, Page 3

LIFE IN CANADA

HARDSHIPS FOR MIGRANTS “ Over-boost.ml as a land ol opportunity for immigrants who want to take up land.'’ That is the impression of Canada gained by a (fisbornc .-hoop fanner who has returned after gel ling experience of working, condition; there.'' Mr J. A. Matthews, after louring id i gland and I lie Continent, decided he would like lo see Canadian conditions, ami perhaps lake up land there. In Homlon he was led to believe hy tho ullieials that good land was to he had cheap near the railways. He soon found that all the land which had been opened up was already taken, and that idle new fanner would have to go north to the I’.caee Hirer coiitury in Northern Alberta. Here tlio land was given to the farmer on 'the understanding that he would farm it for three years. There were no railways there yet, and the fanner was dependent on river transport. If the harvest was la to or the freezc-up ” occurred early, the grain had to he stored until the next thaw. The climate was Air Matthews's main objection to the grain country. Tho summer was hot and dry—in New Zealand it would be called a drought—and in winter the temperature wont to (Jt)dcg below zero. In November there was 2ft of snow in Manitoba. After the “ ITcczo-np ” farm work finished, practically all the hands were dismissed, and the entile were housed in barns.

“ There is n feverish haste about the harvesting,” said Air Matthews, “ami then a lung, dreary winter. Anyone going to the country would find farming; terribly monotonous, hnt the native-bred do not seem to mind. Afost of the immigrants I went over with received a wrong impression at the Canadian office. They were practically all of the working class from the cities, and they would be unable to find constant work on the fax ms.”

Canadian grain farmers could teach a great deal to (ho New Zealanders. Their farming was on a much bigger scale. Three or four implements would ho sent out to reap a 800 to dOO-acrc paddock. At harvest tunc there was a big rush ol labor Irom the States, British Columbia, and Hie eastern provinces. Hast year there was a shortage, and wages went i>;> from four dollars to six dollars a day for laborers, who were iound. “Make hay while the sun shines,” was tho rule, and everybody worked from dawn In dark In get the harvest, in before tin weather broke. At any farmers even lighted the straw stacks as beacons, and went working into the night, after the “ freeze-up ' tho labor went to the cities or into the lumber camps. Tbc average’ price of land was about to or T 6 an acre. There was considerable waste, according to a New Zealander's viewpoint, in the agriculture. A wheat pool had been established, and the general opinion was that it was a good thing and a preventive against speculation b.v buyers.