^J M A h i : *v« FIRST YEAR.-NUMBER 6 SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1909 THREE DOLLARS A YEAR BRITISH COLUMBIA NEEDS MORE PEOPLE T)ie McBride Government's Railway Policy Will Neither Bring to the Province People Who Will Settle on Land nor will it Help Develop Natural Resources Like Mining—What is Needed is a Poliey that will Cause Land to be Cultivated—Cultivated Land Produces Something. >" RAILWAYS WONT BRING PEOPLE; PEOPLE WILL BRING RAILWAYS The question of how best to get people who will settle on land to come to British Columbia is not one of partisan politics. Liberals are just as anxious as Conservatives to see the population of the province increase, if only the increase is made up of the right land of people. Socialists and Laborites ire on record on the question. With them it is one, not so much of increase, as that those who do come shall be self-supporting and not become charges on the country. There is room in British Columbia for thousands of people, if only they are willing to become producers. There are two kinds of producers. The one kind produces something not. consumed in the province to the extent of the production. This kind includes coal miners, metal miners, and Lumbermen. These producers :i>:m e~ciiso Const!rners. They consuttiemt»£ft»r breadstuff's, vegetables, and fruit. The other kind is made up of people who raise cattle, hogs, and sheep; wheat and oats; potatoes, cabbage, turnips, carrots, and other vegetables; who grow apples, plums, cherries, and the smaller fruits; who make butter and cheese-,-and who sell eggs, chickens, and turkeys. It isthesecond kind that British Columbia is short of, and the consequence is that thousands of dollars are every month sent out of the province to purchase what cultivated land produces, and which could be produced in the province, if only people who would become farmers could be induced Ao settle on and cultivate land known "to be suitable for farming. What inducements are offered to people to become farmers in British Columbia ? Absolutely none, if the privilege of taking up land as a pre-emption is not classed as an inducement. What are the a nditions confronting the settler in British Columbia who acquires land direct from the province ? First of all, 90 per cent of the land suitable for settling on is bush land, the clearing of which will cost, in money or labor, from $25 to $125 an acre. When cleared of the timber, from one to three years time will be required to stump it, so that it can be successfully cultivated. Second is transportation facilities; for the settler must find a market for what he produces. The southern districts 6i the province have fairly good transportation facilities, as have nearly all of the settlements on the coast, for most of them are near tidewater steamer landings. Third, and most important of all, is how the settler is to make a living until his land can be made productive? If the settler takes up a pre-emption of 160 acres, he must live on and improve it. Besides, he must pay $1 an acre for the land, in four annual installments. If he purchases land, he pays $2:50 an acre for second-class and $5 an acre for first-class land, together with the costs incident to staking land for purchase. Both the pre-emptor and the purchaser, in most cases, will have to pay for surveying their land. All these costs will add from 75 cents to $1 an acre to the cost (of the land.: >^fee pre-emptor with $50*Lin cash!&M the if they were not "broke**1 before theli^^Slprp would be producing enough for them to \ive on. If this is a fair statement of the conditions under which land, expensive to clear, can only be obtained from the government, is it any wonder settlers are not breaking their necks to get on land in-British Columbia? Up here in Central British Columbia, alongside or within 20 miles of the located route of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, is land, a million acres of which are suitable for cultivation, leaving millions of acres for future fuel, fencing, and buildings, and for grazing. The cultivation of even a fraction of this land would produce the foodstuffs that are now purchased outside the province. Most of this land will not be expensive to clear, as compared with the heavily timbered land along the coast and on Vancouver Island. Estimating the cost at $35 an acre, a pre-emptor or land purchaser would, in addition to the price paid for 160 acres, have to expend in money and labor not less than $2000 to clear 50 acres and erect a habitable dwelling, and no settler in Central British Columbia can hope to make a living on less than 50 acres of cleared land. How many settlers are likely to come to Central British Columbia with $2000 working capital? Have 5000 such came to the whole of British Columbia during the 11 years the McBride Government has Seen in oil. e? How many settlers would come to British Columbia in the next 11 years, were they able to borrow working capital from the. government, with which to clear and , improve farming land only, on the same terms that it loaned its credit to Dari Mann and Witliairi Mackenzie, multimillionaires, who had"-to have working capital to the extent of $30^000 a mile for 700 miles guaranteed themb§for¦''' ¦it' ; ¦¦ 'til «*¦