The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-04-13 00:00:00

MIGRATION OF LABOUR.

The following letter, which has been sent to The
Times for publication, will possess more than ordinary
interest just now :--
In an article headed " Land, Labour, and Capital," which
appeared in The rimer. of the 29th of March, some ideas are
suggested likely to deter many of the working classes from
enngrating from a land in which, unaided by some charitable
institution, nothing but a homeless future presents itself to
the mind of the labouring man when he asks himself,—
Whore and how shall I spend my old days?"
In referring to an article which appeared in The Tiinell
about two years ago, the writer says :
" I t was a mistake to suppose that by a mere transfer of
unemployed labour on to uncultivated land capital could
created and a prosperous colony bethe result, but that capital
itself was as much a necessity to successful settlement as
either land or labour." . -

If your correspondent would allow a qualifying word to he
Introduced, than I would sanction the whole sentence as
applicable to the timber lands of nritish America as well :is
to the we.tern prahies of the United States,— if we say
" rapidly " successful settlement.
-• •

But thousands of the agricultural labourers of the United
Kingdom would be perfectly satistled if they cciuld only
look forward with certainty to a home with a comfortable
living in their old age, even if procured very slowly, with
much toil and many privations; and with your permission.
I will try and point out how the single man, or the man
with a large family, may laud in LialifAx, Nova Scotia; St.
John's, New Brunswick ; or at Quebec, without one
shilling, and yet, if willing to work, not given to drunken.
11000, and possessing a good sound constitution, be in a few
years lifted above the dread of homeless poverty when old age
renders him unfit for laaour.

Let as, then, follow the man with a large family, and
suppose that every farthing has been spent in paying his
passage, or that even that has been provided by some bene-
volent organization. On landing at either of the almve-
named ports the Dominion immigration agent takes charge
of the family, and all their immediate wants, as regards
food and lodging, are provided for. After consultation with
the agent they are forwarded, by railway, steamboat, or
otherwise, to the point selected, or direct to parties need.
hag labour, where the family can soon he provided with a
small log or frame house or, in many cases, the farmer,
having moved into allow bottling, leaves his " old house "
In a comfortable condition for a labouring man's family,
Here evtry member of the family old enough will get
abundance of work and fair wages; while the children fit
to go to school will find good free schools, where they silt
be taught in the same class and with as much care as the
children of the most wealthy farm, •r merchant. After
spending a year or two under the dirt ction of those who
from long experience are perfectly acquainted with the agri-
cultural requirements of the cnentry, the man with be
prepared either to rent or take a farm or shares for a few
years, or, more likely, will have selected a spot of Govern-
ment land for himself. Dot, having found this suitable
spot, how shall a man who landed a year or two ago without
a shilling pay for 100 acres of land? When wanted for
settlement in Nova Scotia he has only to get from the Crown
Land °thee an order of survey, which he hands to the
county or local surveyor, and he "runs out the lot," the
cost of which is about £2 sterling; and on the payment of
that sum he is furnished with a grant which makes it his for
Over.

_
In New Brunswick he pays for his land by about two
pounds worth of labour per year upon the road near or in
front of his own farm for three years. The Government of
New Brunswick proposes to provident the next Session of the
Legislature that every bead of a family containing children
under 15 years of age can obtain, on condition of settlement,
a free grant of 200 acres; and any male person over 15 years
of ego, on condition of settlement, can obtain a free grant of
100 acres of the best farming land in the province. In
Quebec sad Ontario the terms are Just as liberal.
- - • - • • • .

v --
Having secured Ida land, he is pow ready to work for him-
eel( when not engaged for others. If he has boys to
help him, they will either in %troll or April, or between seed
time awl harvest, cut down from four to ten acres: if Ome.
from one to four, which will lay until a suitable time in tin
summer for burning, which, if successfully performed, will
leave him nothing but the larger timber to pile and burn off,
which, with the aid of boys, is soon done. If Wore, by ex-
changing stew days work with his neighbour, or by getting
a few hands to "give him a day'a piling," the heaviest part
of a backwoodrnan's work is done. Up to this time the only
tool he ha required has been his "narrow axe," which
would cost him M. steling, and If he could not make a suit-
able handle (a particular Job to do It nicely) he can get one
for dd. from the store.
The neat thought lea "log-house," or, if near a savumill,
he may Pod it better to build a small fraine house. Ifs log
cabin, he again takes a spare day and cuts logs enough for
the building, and with a little gratuitous help from the

neighbours (a thing always freely given to anew beginner In
these lower provinces), the logs are put up. If no mill is
near the roof will be covered with bark and spruce houghs; if
near a mill, with boards, and Blabs for battens ; a door, two
;mill windows, a rough board floor, and a rough fireplace,
and he has a comfortable home, it which he will never
realise that the outside "gale of wind is at a temçerature of
O ti,g. below zero." And happy will the poor man he that
.lay when for the first time he bows beneath his own roof
with gratitude and thankfuhuss to worship the living God,
the G ci 4 Isiß I dhers, while the flag of his native land finite
above his hens!.

And now every moment of spare thee will be devoted to
improvements around the log cabin sod prepatiee his first
field by famine and burning off the remaining wood—a work
in which both wife and children can be of great help, while
the husband is workiny away from home. As soon as
'lining opens, and the ground is dry, a few bushels of early
potatoes and a little early Farley will be put in : and now
comes the next demand for tools, Which will be hoes enough
for the family, at a cost of from Ss. to 4e. rterileg each,
and a rough barrow, which is made by taking a tree wilert
two branches divide at equal angles from the centre of the
tree the arms being cut about 4ft. long ; it is flattened,
and the teeth set sleeting back-wards, so as to pass over the
roots, the whole cost being about is. or Se. The potatoes
are planted with the hee. Wheat, oats, buckwheat, etc.,
are all harrowed in by the aid of wime neighbouring
farmer's horse or oxen, which is again, paid for by wok at
some other season ; and this, his first season, will be
started with a cow and a pig, both of which have been
procured at a low figure, instead of money, for wages.
Through the summer preparations will be made for
another huhrlieg ot the same class, to be used as cow.
house ankbarn. And in the fall, should his crops do even
moderately well, he would have, say, from four acres, one
acre of potatoes' from 100 to 200 bushels; teem two acres
of wheat, from 20 to 40 bushels, according to the quality
of the soil and the number of stumps on an acre, nun
acre of buckwheat, from 20 to 30 bushel. Thee, from
the four acres they will have enough to feed a couple of good
pigs, some poultry, and a year's supply of food for those of
the family unable to mi from home to work. A pair of two-
year-old steers, procured the second or third year, with a
few sheep, in payment for labour, as toe test of his stock has
been. with a seed' wooden cart, at a cost of, say, from eG for
the pair .4 stu-rs, and £2 for the work fluids cart, will enable
him to do all the carting, etc., width a new farm in the
stumps requires. And by the time his land is fit for stumping
his oxen will be strong enough to break it up, and his means
will then eilable him t.• provide himself with a good plough,
at from £2 to £2 10e. ; with a good atrong ox-cart, at about
£5 sterliug; and thua step by step the new settler gathers
Armin,' him eufficient property to make him a c mifortable
home, Its success will, however, depend led only upon hie
own temperance am! industry, but upon the prudent care and
industry of his wife.
Let thousands rf sober, industrious men, each with a
prudent, skilful housekeeper as a wife, land in British
America without a pound, and the Government of the
country will give them a title to a portion of the soil, from
which their labour will produce capital. Through Prince
Edward Island, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where the
writer's le yho d was spent, and from Cape Breton, it Nova
Scotia, to Sarnia, in Ontario, thousands can be pointed out
who started in the manner described above, who are now
Independent, with an abundance of everything necessary for
their own and their families' comfort.

We must, however, acknowledge that the position of the
man possessing from .E2oo to .El.OOO will be very different at
first from that of the man whose only capital is in the
trength of his own right hand and willing heart. Vol the
former often becomes banker for the latter, lending him
money to help him out of troubles Ice has fallen into by
going ton fast. Although my letter is already too long, allow
Me to call the attention of your readers to one fact more in
favour of British America as a home either for the rich or
the poor, and that is that fevers are cot " always rife- on the
wild or prairie lands of Manitoba, or the Saskatchewan, and
lung diseases are almost unknown in that vast territory,
which will soon he the great Wheat-raising garden of the
world.-1 am, &v.,
EDWIN CLAY, M.D , Emigration Commis-
sioner from Canada.
Tavistock llotei, Govent-garden, April 3.