CANADIAN IMMIGRATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15552, 9 March 1914, Page 6

CANADIAN IMMIGRATION.

The report that Canada is about to make efforts to stem the tide of unsuitable immigrants will occasion no surprise to those who are familiar with the industrial conditions of • that country. The Canadian Government has always made it clear that only farm labourers and domestic servants could. enter the Dominion without risk, but the tide of immigration which has now been swollen to such large proportions bears in many clerks and unskilled labourers. The distance of New Zealand from the centres of the Old World protects us in a larga measure from this unsuitable immigration, but we receive a sufficient share to enable us to appreciate Canada's difficulty. As long as uninterrupted expansion was taking place in Canada the majority of these immigrants were absorbed, but when a check came, as it did a year ago, there was a great deal of unemployment, and clerks and unskilled labourers were the first to feel the pinch. At the present time Canada is suffering from the inevitable ' results of over-specula-tion, and in the West particularly the bursting of the land boom has seriously affected the labour market. British Columbia has already taken steps to stop the immigration of artisans, mechanics, and clerks, and the Dominion Government ap- ! parently contemplates putting a I check on the stream of immigration. This is highly desirable, for during the past few months many men who had gone to Canada to improve their fortunes have been compelled to return to Great Britain witb smaller resources than when they emigrated. The severity of the Canadian winter raises unusual economic problems. Large numbers of skilled and unskilled workmen are temporarily thrown out of ■work and crowd the limited labour markets of the towns. Canada can absorb an unlimited number of domestic servants and farm labourers, for whom there is such demand that they can be certain of situations all the year round, even though in the case of farm labourers there may be little Work to do. These classes of ■ workers are welcomed in all new countries, but Canada's power to absorb other : classes is •at present very limited.