PEOPLE OF CANADA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22864, 20 October 1937, Page 9

PEOPLE OF CANADA

NATIONALITY OHIGINS LESS THAN HALF BRITISH I POSSIBLE FUTURE TRENDS [from our own* correspondent] VANCOUVER, Oct. <1 Less than half the population of Canada is now o£ British or AngloSaxpn origin. By 1970, unless current trends change, the Anglo-Saxon portion of tho people will be virtually stationary, and the Dominion will bo 40 per cent French-Canadian. By the end of the century, British stock will be outnumbered, two to one. In-1763, the residents in the territory now included in the Dominion of Canada were almost entirely 1' rench. In loss than a century, Anglo-Saxon immigration, first from the United States, and later from the British Isles, changed the whole picture. By 1850, English-speaking persons outnumbered French, and in 1871 they con-stituted-an all-time-record of 60.5 per cent of the population of Canada. This change was hastened by heavy emigration of French-Canadians to tho United States, particularly after 1810. The latter movement grew in volume until the end of the century, Bfid combined with heavy British immigration to conceal tbe inevitable effects of declining Anglo-Saxon birth rates on tho racial structure of tho Canadian people. In 18^9 ) Anglo-Saxons still constituted 59 per cent of tho population of Canada, and in 1901. 57 per cent, but the tide had definitely turned. The tide mav how be checked in three ways:—Resumption oi immigration in large volume; resumption of emigration, chiefly to the United States; and differential or unequal declines (or increases) in birth and death rates.

,If future immigration from Continental lOurope is in excess of that from the British Isles, or even as great, decline in the Anglo-Saxon proPortion of the population will bo accentuated. This' decline could be hastened if the United States were to drop the barriers—erected as a depression Measure —to the emigration of native Canadians, for, as' in the recent past, disproportionate drain of persons of British extraction'would almost certainly ensue.

* Offsetting those possiblo influences is the chance of a disproportionate drop Jj tho French and non-Anglo-Saxon birth ra,tes.