LOSING POPULATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18341, 6 March 1923, Page 5

LOSING POPULATION.

CANADA'S SERIOUS PROBLEM. EXODUS INTO THE STATE 3. EFFORTS TO CHECK LEAKAGE. [FROM. OT'E OWN CORRESPONDENT.] , TORONTO. Feb. 3. An exodus of population to the United States, which has developed "within the last few months, has caused surprise and some concern. A Western member of ,« Parliament, arrived in Ottawa for th« ses- - sion, told of being on a train carrying 30 families from Alberta, bound for Oregon and California. Another related, how a. party sitting in a prairie farm house had reckoned up 40 families who had left the neighbourhood within the year. From Victoria, 8.C., it is reported that bun- . dreds of families have moved. South./ From the Atlantic Coast oome reports that there is a steady stream of artisans from industrial centres like Amherst and Halifax to the New England States. In Ottawa, it is said, the bricklayer, plasterer and painter have become almost extinct by emigration. "It is not a cheerful situation," bemoans the Toronto Mail and Empire. "Our best brain and brawn are being lostto Canada, which, under the policy of negation, is becoming but an incubator for the United States. Unemployment solved by expatriation; immigration subordi iated to emigration, is surely a sad commentary on the Government of a -country that requires more people and more capital to share in its war burden, to 1 bring prosperity to its transportation systems, and to secure aggressive development of natural resources." The United States immigration policy is charged with being responsible for Canada's loss. The restrictionii fixing a quota* of each 1 nationality which may enter the United States annually do not apply .to r Canada. On the other hand, .these re-, . strict,ions have prevented congestion of the labour market so that high wages and labour demand attract Canadians across the boundary. Another explanation put forward is that it is the -wide circulation - in Canada of American publications con- ... taming American propaganda that is making Canadians dissatisfied with their own country. '■ ' • The loss by emigration is not being re- ' ■. placed by immigration. Figures for 1922 .- - show that any influx of populations is even less than it was during war years, . when the means of transportation were sealed up. Barriers against a migration from ' * Europe have been effective. - * - One ray of sunshine is that the unemployment problem has been relieved. An unemployment oonferer.ee called not long .. ago declared there was no unemployment in Canada and promptly adjourned. : A fortnight ago the Minister for Immigration called another conference of Pro- • vincial Ministers to devise an effective 1>: plan of securing and absorbing new population. But it is apparent mat the immigration problem is being dominated by - revelation of the exodus to the United - States. The plans of the Canada Colonisation Association, from which something - ■ had been hopad, seem to Itave gone awry. . Two presidents in succession have resigned. "We don't want to be running after new settlers until we have satisfied • ' the dissatisfied men at present -in the country," declared one of them, Mr. J". H. Ashdown, of Winnipeg. .^y A similar note in sounded by the . >. r Canadian Forum, which argues: "Immigration is no substitute for the cradle. What a mockery the appeal for farmers • £• and agricultural labourers from abroad " becomes, when for the past two years very few native farmers, who know "Can- 5... adian conditions and . have skill in the varied processes of agriculture, have been able to 'break even!* These men may be brought to the farms in trainloads; (thus reducing for the moment the railway de- ■ ficits), but under present circumstances no- • force in Heaveft or Ottawa can keep them on the farms." .V >■-.•. ,V " - The problem, while undoubtedly baffling, ought not to be insoluble. Africa, New Zealand and Australia are getting immi- ' gration—the kind that Canada wants— " from the British Isles. But they have no 1 United States at. the side door. When - • Canada discovers a way to stop, the leak ' through that side door she will have gone : a long way toward solving her most •• • pressing problem. i