The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea" WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 1923. CANADA’S DESTINY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18821, 11 July 1923, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea" WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 1923. CANADA’S DESTINY

There are those who believe that Canada has been destined, by some overshadowing power, to be one of the later reserves for the abounding population of this earth to overflow into. There are people old enough to remember when European folk—especially these who “left their country for their country’s good”—used, almost invariably, to make for the United States. Californian gold sands attracted thousands of the class which

had failed to be lured by the invitation to “work mid the cotton and the corn” of southern plantations. Then farm and glazing lands out in western states or territories, to be had. for the taking or the holding, called thousands from the eastern States, whose places were taken by land-hungry folk from. Europe. It is one of the marvels of civilisation how in one i man’s lifetime the United States doubled, trebled its population, and filled no small portion of its great! waste places with people. And to | thinking people it must be something of a puzzle why Canada, across an invisible boundary line, as big as and potentially wealthy a country as the United States, did not add to its population in similar manner at the same time. Whatever the reason the fact is there; Canada with a capacity for absorbing probably a couple of hundred millions has, according to the last census returns, only between eighv and nine millions of inhabitants. The Lnited States has some hundred and ten millions! Why? Probably the future wiil reveal the reason; but in the meantime many Canadians are beginning to question whether it is not about time for the big Dominion to wake up and strive to attract people from overcrowding lands, to make the Canadian nation greater, wealthier, and more proportionate to her wide territory and other vast resources.