Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-01-16
ABOUT CANADA.
SOME FACTS CONCERNING IT'S
POPULATION AND AREA.
Not Larger Than the United States
Representation 1t Would be
Entitled to In Congress.

that the majority OF Canadian voters ma,
not favor the change, it is timely for thu
people OF this country to gather informa
ton regarding the area, the population
and the different elements of the province.
composing the Dominion. The enthusiast,
Canadian is in the habit of saving tina,
the territory is greater than that of the
United States, but in no sense is this true
Some standard works put the area Of
Canada at 100000 square miles. and
Others at 100000, it is true, but the cen.
sus report makes the area of the United
States little over 100000 square miles.
The one statement includes Alaska. but
the other includes two or three times as
much territory less inhabited now, and SO
tar as is known less fit..for human habita-
ton. An enormous portion of the Ca
madam area is covered with water, and the
extent OF the land surface, though not
even approximately known, must be very
much less than that of the United States.
The entire area of the provinces.
Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, New Bruins.
Wick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward
Island, is but 420, ga square miles, accord
ing to official statements, but the area of
ontario Is, according to some publications,
about 10000 square miles larger than the
figures here included, while the portion of
British North America, in any sense, &C.
cupied as yet, is nowhere officially stated.
Even within the older provinces, by far
the greater part is wilderness, and hardly
one-seventh appears to be occupied at all
For IN Ontario the returns of 1881 showed
that l9,250.900 acres were occupied out
OF 1Ol, 1873 square miles in Quebec only
6,539, loo were occupied out of 1854
square miles; and in all the provinces the
area occupied at that time was not over
10000, 900 acres out of 269,212,16O, sup
posed to be embraced within the provinces
named. But since 1881 there has been
some increase; in Ontario, 21,75S,795
acres were occupied in 1886, of which
only 10,938,471 were improved. If the
increase has been relatively about as great
in the years 1887 and 1888, and for the
past eight years in the other provinces,
still the occupied area in all of them
would not exceed 100000 acres
Eight years ago there were in the
State of Illinois alone more
land occupied than in all the
Dominion of Canada, and proba-
bly, there is now. In Dakota alone,
not yet State, the public land sales within
the past eight years have exceeded 30,O0O,-
600 acres, and with the sales of corpora
tions, probably exceed the entire present
occupied acreage in the Dominion of Ca
mana.
OF the resources of the Canadian PROV
inces, in timber, in fertile land, in fisheries.
min and ~
speak; they are enormous, and so little has
been done to define or develop them that
they may greatly exceed any estimate. But
resources without men, resources which
human energy and enterprise have failed
much practical value for the future.
Therefore it is to Americans a fact which
needs explanation that the Canadian prov
Canada is older than the rich and power
was founded by Champlain five years be-
fore the first huts were built on Manhattan
Island. Ontario was settled four years be-
fore the Ohio company started down the
! n tiat-boats to make its first settle
ment in Marietta. But in and west of
Ontario to the Pacific Ocean the inhab-
100000; in and west of Ohio the inhab-
itants are more than 100000. The
entire province of Quebec has only about
the population Of the city Of New York
alone. In the absence of explanation,
men are liable TO suppose that the slowness
of growth must be due to insuperable OBJ
stacles OF nature or else to institutions yet
more rigorous.
P,,t Capojo e aeeart,o1I,, So, oa,,..4~,x
and its institutions and governments have
done much to invite and encourage immi-
grafton and to develop diversified indus
try. In spite of all these efforts there were
$1,000 people from this country living in
Canada in 1881, while there are now about
100000 Canadians living in the United
States. A fifth of the entire present popu-
lation of Canada has sought better oppor-
tunities IN this country; about thou
sandth part of the population of the United
States has removed to Canada-and some
of these have migrated only because extra
dition treaties are defective. The contrast
is startling. And yet paper read by Mr..
Blue, Secretary of the Ontario Board of
Industry, about year ago, showed that
this province would actually have lost
population during the previous seven years
grants, and the natural increase of 234, 900,
or $4,000 in all, the province only gained
$1,000. The lamentable truth is that
we are growing men for the United States,
Mr.. Blue remarks.
Ontario is nevertheless the most pro-
greSsive of the older provinces, and much
the most populous and productive. More
than twO-thirds of the occupied acreage in
h. Il
Quebec, the next province in population
and area cultivated, gained in the ten
years lS7l-1SS1 only l67 800 in popula-
ton, about twelve per cent. in ten years.
The provinces of New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia gained in the same ten years
only thirteen per cent. The population OF
the entire dominion in 1881 was 4, 224 $40,
and il is supposed to have since increased
to 100000 or more. But the growth OF
the United States in ten years ending with
cent, and its increase in population since
1880 has been nearly three times the pres
ent population of the Dominion.
The elements composing the population
of the Dominion were officially stated for
1871 as follows; OF French Canadians,
1852, $40; of Irish, $4,000; of Eng
Germans and Dutch, 100000, and of
Americans, $4,000 While the Catholic
Church has the largest number of adher-
ents, they are less than half the popula-
ton In 1881 those classed as Roman
Catholics numbered 1,7SS,250, against
2,536, $50 of all other denominations But
nearly two-thirds of the Catholic popula-
ton. l,l70,7ls, was enumerated in the sim
gle province of Quebec. In Ontario,
where there were nominally 500, S39, it ID
stated that above two-thirds of the chill
dren of Catholic families attend the public
schools.
Should political union take place, and
the several provinces of Canada be adj
miited as States, they would be entitled
to fourteen Senators. Assuming that the
ratio for Representative after the next
apportionment in this country will be
about 200, 900, Ontario would probably be
entitled TO ten or eleven, Quebec to seven
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to two
each, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba and
British Columbia to one each. This new