The Nineteenth Century , No 182, Apr 1892 [‎77v] (159/244)

THE NINETEENTH
April
Republic of sixty or more millions over tlie border; and a Home
Government whicli might neither consent to separation nor hold
Canada by force if she insisted on going, wonld be under no obliga
tion to prevent a conquest by Uncle Sam after Canada should cut the
Imperial connection. The question for the North-West is, therefore,
one of colonisation or annexation.
Things political and economic cannot remain much longer as they
are now in Canada without producing a smash. Ontario is the only
one of the provinces financially sound. All the others are immersed
in debt, with no credit upon which to borrow ; while the recent ex
posures of malversation, both in connection with the Dominion
Administration and the Grovernment of Quebec, are not calculated
to help the country at large to get its finances into a satisfactory
condition for some time to come. Bad as all this is for Lowei
Canada, it spells all but ruin for the North-West, unless a remedy
can be found. The Territories not yet admitted, for v* ant of popula
tion, to the privileges of a province have recently demanded an
increase in their annual federal subsidy from ^150,000 to ^400,000;
and as Ontario has, practically, to provide these moneys for the
Dominion Grovernment to grant towards the development of a part of
Canada which has already enticed a large number of Ontario farmers
to ' fresh fields and pastures new,' there will be opposition offered
to this enlarged demand when it comes up for consideration before
the Ottawa Legislature. But without help in some shape or form, the
North-West must inevitably fall into the hands of the United States.
Manitoba has to get along with a united revenue and subsidy of
some ,$600,000. The combined administrative income of Assiniboia,
Saskatchewan, and Alberta, is no more than ^170,000 annually. I
have not got the figures representing the revenue and federal subsidy
of British Columbia, but I am safe in saying that the entire financial
resources for the government of the whole Xorth-\\ est fall short of
300,000?. a year. Nothing in the way of a proper development of
so vast an area can be accomplished upon a pauper revenue of this
figure. It is true the Dominion Parliament votes money every year
for colonisation purposes. This represents an additional assistance,
I admit, and that too of the best kind; as the one essential need
of these countries is population. But it is not by any means certain
that the best results have been obtained in this work for the money
expended. I found the opinion prevailing in Manitoba and the Terri
tories that it would have been much more workable and advantageous
if the Federal Legislature had loaned money at low interest to the
North-West Provinces, and allowed them to carry out their own ideas
as to the best means of bringing the right class of colonists to their
lands.
Now that one of the finest railway systems in the world places
the North-West in direct communication with the Atlantic seaboard,