THE WESTERN CANADIAN.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12909, 24 February 1906, Page 3

THE WESTERN CANADIAN.

The population of Western Canada, says Mr E. B. Osborn, has been drawn from many sources—from the eastern provinces of Canada, from Great Britain, from the United States, and from almost every country of continental Europe. The man from Ontario—more often than not of Scottish ancestry—and the man from Scotland have been and are the most successful settlers. Englishman though I be, I must confess that the gift of adaptability—the first of the colonist's virtues —is possessed by these types in a greater degree than any others. The leadership of nearly every community in Western Canada is in hands of Scotchmen, and the settlers of every -other' nationality—even the Americans who have had experience of prairiefarming—can learn something from them about the arts of agriculture, commerce, and the governance of men. It is impossible to exaggerate the debt we owe to the Scotch pioneers of farming in Manitoba. They stuck to the country through the long years when the success of. wuat was an experiment in colonisation seemed very doubtful, and whatever they have won by waiting, has been well •earned. The American settler is the second-best type, though he does not as a rule, take the .Scotchman's interest in fulfilling the duties of citizenship. The third place belongs to the English immigrant, who is somewhat lacking in the virtue of adaptability, and is often, 1 am sorry to say, unpopular because he is a. chronic grumbjer. But m one important respect the English emigrant serves his adopted country batter than the America. The unit of settlement in a. new country is a man and his wife, and the fact that the Englishwoman is superior in. physique and stamina and industry to American woman is generally admitted to be a sufficient compensation for the Englishman's comparative lack of adaptability. For these and other reasons the numerical increase in immigration from Great Britain is welcomed by all Canadians, more especially as the quality of this portion of the annual influx has steadily improved of late years. Western Canada now gets the pick l of the annual exodus ox population Irom the United Kingdom, except as regards the Irish emigrant. When one remembers that land hunger is a Celtic complaint,- it is difficult to explain why the Irishman should prefer existence as a navvy under the Stars and Stripes to life as an independent landowner under the Union Jack. Of course I am referring to the emigrant from the south and west of Ireland, not to the Ulster farmer and his son, who have been considerable factors in the agricultural development of the West. The latter are among the most successful prairie farmers, and the colour of their Orangeism deepens as they travel westward—as the Dominion Government knows only too well. Of the foreign-born elements—ls.7s per cent, of the population in Manitoba, 30.83 per cent, in Saskatchewan and Alberta, ana 26 per cent, in British Columbia, where the Asiatic appears in farce—the Scandinavian is certainly the best. Next to him must be placed the German, who more often than not has spent some years on the way in the American West. lam inclined to think that the Doukhobortsi, when the inevitable disintegration of their communal system is completed, will be' useful settlers. Here I may point put that except in irrigated districts such 'tis the south-west corner of Alberta, which is now effectively occupied by Mormon grillages, the com-' | mupal system is not suited to the conditions j of life and labour which must obtain in a ! country where the unit of occupied land is so large as one-fourth of a square mile, and where successive units are sometimes | separated by areas of bush, swamp, and unprofitable soil. But it is probable that the extensive territory occupied by Doukhobqif settlers will always be troubled by sporadic outbreaks of fanaticism, and in that;'respect will resemble the famous " burnt-over area " of New England, which has produced the/Salem witch-finders, the' founder of Mormonism, and a motley host of revivalists. Again, there is reason to fear \that the population of the whole sec-1 • ; tion!-of which Rosthern, the capital. of the Mennonite (German) settlements, and Yorktbn are the chief market towns, will' always resemble,thattry side in its comparative inability to assimilate of the-Empire which is accepted in other parts of the Dominion. On the other hand, it must be admitted that all the Scandinavia* settlements are in line with Western opinion. The Mormon settler is equally willing to adapt himself to the customs of his new environment. Indeed, the Mormon Church officials now find great difficulty in collecting the tenth part of his produce; and the "time will soon .come,, no doubt, when the "little square tithing-house in its capacious "corale," or fenced enclosure, ceases to be a quaint feature of the Mormon villages along the diverted river which irrigates the southern corner of Alberta. It is astonishing how -quickly Western Canada absorbs and assimilates the various types of foreign immigrants. The late Principal Grant—one of the greatest personalities Canada has produced—told me a little story which admirablv illustrates this point. A little Swedish girl 'said ; to him in her native tongue, "I am a Canadian, but I speak Swedish." More intractable emigrants soon suffer-a prairie change into the Western Canadian tvpe. It is not easy to define this type, though it can be recognised at a glance. Its three chief virtues are adaptability, joviality, hospitality. - The tvpical Western Canadian will turn-kis hand to any kind of work. Unlike the British working man, he, does not look upon himself as a mere cog in the mechanism of a single industry. He is a thorough-going optimist with a well-developed sense of humour. He is hospitable, not only to the passing stranger, but also to new ideas. For the rest he thinks more of the future than of the past. The West does not ask what a new-comer has been : it asks what he is, and what he will be for his adr.pced countiv.

Finally, the sentiment of cmradeship' permeates Western societv. The lured labourer sits at. the well-to-do farmer's table: an officer in the North-West Mounted Police does not regard his men as belonging to an inferior order of creation; the millionaire talks' to his driver as man ta" wan. There is more of: the spirit of liberty, . equality, and : . fraternity among the peop'le of Western Canada than "in" aJJ'y "other democracy of the Old or New World. x lt follows that thev have the

capacity for co-operative effort in a greater degree than any other people; and khhc an almost passionate pride in their country and a firm faith in the future inspire them, they will certainly make the best use oi its advantages. The psychological quality, or ethos—as the ancient Greeks, a great colonising race, called it—is the chief factor in the development of a new country, and no modem economist would think of ignoring it.