IRISH EMIGRATION.

IN laying before the public last spring the result of my inquiries into the distress in Ireland, I ventured to express the opinion that for the poorest class in certain tracts in the West-poor from the inherent poverty of the soil-the only remedy was systematic and organised emigration. For these people,' I wrote,' the dwellers at Camus, or Carraroe with its five-and-twenty miles of alternate huts and boulders, neither peasant proprietary nor fixity of tenure can be expected to be remedial measures, and if it be objected that these are exceptional cases, it would not be difficult to bring forward many other localities of which, in varying degrees, the same might be said."' For these I urged that emigration, in the absence of local employment, seemed a remedy much to be preferred to scattering them over waste lands in Ireland, which needed the tardy and costly operation of reclamation; adding, 'whatever may be the merits of "scattering," I cannot think that its claims can compete with emigration.' And in reply to the argument that the natural forces at work, now drawing thousands to seek a livelihood in other lands, are sufficiently powerful without any legislative interference,' I pointed out that, as a matter of fact, these forces rarely touched the very poorest, who were unable to help themselves; further adding: 'That what seems to me to be needed is that families should be assisted to emigrate from overcrowded parts of Ireland under careful and systematic supervision, and that this oversight should not end in Ireland, but should be continued under the charge of properly qualified agents in Canada or elsewhere, whose object it should be to give assistance in the selection of land or in obtaining employment for the emigrants.'

A more influential pen than mine writes in the same strain. In a paper recently laid by Lord Dufferin before the Irish Land Commission, after enumerating the measures which he recommends for adoption, he adds (see Times, January 4) :—

But for the extreme west of Ireland, what hope is there from any of the foregoing devices? Along that region there extends a broad riband of hopeless misery which no change in the present relations of landlord and tenant is likely to alleviate.

1 Irish Distress and its Remedies, 5th edition, pp. 109-10. Ridgway & Co.

To convert these poor make them copy-holders Even to give them the Many of them, indeed,

Perennial destitution accentuated by periodical seasons of famine has been the sole experience of its inhabitants during the present century. people into peasant proprietors would be impracticable. To under a quit-rent would be scarcely more to the purpose. land for nothing would not prove a permanent alleviation. have no land at all. What then is to be done? Manifestly the only remedy is emigration. At this moment emigration is being much discredited, but to anyone who, like myself, has seen its effects, such an outcry has no meaning. In my opinion it is simply inhuman to perpetuate from generation to generation a state of things which has been deplored by every traveller who has visited those parts during the last eighty years. Within the compass of little more than a week, after a pleasant voyage, a proportion of these unhappy multitudes might be landed on the wharves of Quebec, the women healthier, the children rosier, the men in better heart and spirits than ever they have been since the day they were born. Four or five days more would plant them without fatigue or inconvenience on a soil so rich that it has only to be scratched to grow the best wheat and barley that can be raised on the Continent of America.

With the object of seeing for myself these future harvest fields of the world, and of inquiring how far they could be peopled with advantage by the poor people of the west of Ireland, I paid a visit to America last autumn, and returned a few weeks ago. I paid particular attention to the rising and important States of Iowa and Minnesota, and to our own Province of Manitoba in the great North-Western Territory, meeting with a large number both of older residents and of newly-arrived emigrants from Europe, Canada, and the more easterly States of America. From these gentlemen I invariably received the greatest courtesy in the prosecution of my inquiries, and from them as well as from other sources I received very explicit information which enables me to corroborate all that has been said of the fertility of these vast tracts. In Minnesota, the Catholic Colonisation Association,' directed by the splendid energy of Bishop Ireland, is providing a home and an honourable future for many a poor Irishman or others from the eastern States; while in Manitoba the Canadian Government is holding out the most liberal inducements to any who will come to till the soil. Without wishing to recommend the Canadian territory as a more suitable field for Irish emigration than that offered by the United States, I shall refer to it chiefly in the following remarks; for if there is to be, as I uphold, organised emigration (gradually carried out) on a scale to be termed national, it is manifestly more natural and convenient to deal with our own colony of Canada than with a foreign Government, even although it be as friendly as that of the United States. There is also the additional reason for doing so that the Canadian lands are offered free, whilst those in the States must now be purchased at a cost of 108. to 308. per acre. But anything that I have to say in favour of western Canada as a field for Irish industry may be considered to apply with equal or greater force to the States of Minnesota and Iowa.

The great prairie region of north-western Canada consists of a

triangle, having its south-west angle in Manitoba, its base stretching about 1,000 miles along the parallel of latitude 49° (the boundary of the United States), its second side running 700 or 800 miles northward along the base of the Rocky Mountains, and its third side following a broken line of lakes, beginning with the Great Peace River in the north, and passing through Lake Athabasca and Deer Lake to Winnipeg. This represents a tract of about 250,000,000 acres of fine agricultural country, nearly ten times as large as all Ireland. The southern portion of it is watered by the Saskatchewan River, which with its two great branches flows through the rich central districts into Lake Winnipeg. It has been navigated for more than 1,000 miles. Lake Winnipeg itself is 300 miles long by fifty to sixty miles wide. Its outlet is by the Nelson River to Hudson's Bay, at a point eighty miles nearer to Liverpool than is New York. Through this vast region the Canadian Pacific Railway, the scheme for carrying out which is now being warmly discussed in the Ottawa Parliament, is intended to be carried.

By this project it is proposed to unite the Atlantic seaboard of Canada in the East with the province of Columbia and the Pacific Ocean in the extreme West, and thus to render our Canadian possessions independent of the United States for the conveyance of grain or other merchandise.

Whatever portion of this vast project may be relegated to the distant future, that which extends 400 miles eastward from Winnipeg to Lake Superior, and 700 or 800 miles westward to the Rocky Mountains and thence to British Columbia, seems within reach, under spirited management, in the next three or four years. Already some portions of this railway have been completed, and by its southern branch to Emerson, Manitoba and Winnipeg are connected with the Western States by means of the great network of railways which extend through Minnesota to Chicago and thence to Canada and the States.

Manitoba with its 9,000,000 of acres stands like one square on this great chess-board, and is watered by the Red River and Assiniboine, whose streams unite at Winnipeg, flowing thence northward into the lake. The deep alluvial soil of this district is unequalled for cultivation of wheat, and although the moisture of some portions may for a time hinder their development, the wonderful fertility of the Red River lands must cause them to come much more fully under cultivation. Indeed, they are fast being taken up, while settlements are already in formation, 200 to 300 miles west of Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba. Among recent emigrants I met a considerable number who had selected tracts along the Saskatchewan, and heard of other settlers even by the more remote Peace River.

Is this newly-opened colony fitted to be the home of thousands, or it may be of tens of thousands, of poor Irish emigrants? This was

to answer.

the question I set before me. At first sight it may seem an easy one Here are millions of acres of most productive land to be given away, or sold so cheaply that an acre may be bought for the wages of one to three days' unskilled labour. There is a waste of boulders, and brown moor, swept by the drenching Atlantic gales. Here there is a great and increasing demand for labour at a high rate of wages. There are tens of thousands of strong hands and arms needing, nay demanding, to be employed. Is this not the very place we want? the long-sought for 'paradise' for the Irish peasant? Yes, if we can only bring the peasant to the 'paradise.' This is the problem to be solved, and to be solved in the best manner possible. The primary difficulty which is more or less common to all emigration schemes is the cost of bringing out the emigrant. Here it would be magnified by the great cost of travelling from the eastern seaboard (say 2,000 miles) to a distant inland territory; and this land conveyance cannot be taken at less than 67. per head, including food, in addition to the sea-passage costing 5l. or 61. more.

In estimating the other difficulties that present themselves, it will be convenient to consider them under two heads as they affect (1) the emigrant as a labourer, (2) the emigrant as a farmer without

means.

1. The Emigrant Labourer.-The ordinary rate of wages in Manitoba is as follows:-For unskilled men, 1 to 2 dollars per day; for boys, 15 or more dollars per month and board; for bricklayers and carpenters, 3 to 4 dollars per day; for gardeners and coachmen, 30 to 40 dollars per month; for female servants, 12 to 25 dollars per month and board. For single men board and lodging may be had for 4 dollars per week, and for a married man and his wife it would cost little more.

But high as these rates are, it has at once to be understood that the climate for nearly half the year forbids any employment on the soil or in building. Unskilled labourers, therefore (unless engaged for the year), and bricklayers are, to a large extent, dependent on a seven months' wage for a twelve months' maintenance. That a large number of unskilled labourers might find employment at a distance of from seventy to one hundred miles as lumberers is certain, but for married men with families it would hardly answer to be separated for so long a period. We have, then, to consider whether the seven months' wage would suffice, taking it at say ten dollars per week, with board and lodging costing four dollars. Would the margin after providing clothing and other necessaries suffice? With great frugality, and the employment obtained by the younger members of the family, the evidence of other parts of Canada or the States proves that it might. Washerwomen, for instance, can earn a dollar a day and food. But coal or wood costs 5l. or 6l. per ton. A large supply of warm clothes and bedding is also necessary. And for the first year VOL. IX.-No. 48.

BB

or two no doubt the very closest economy would have to be practised: after all nothing new to the Irish peasant we have before us. After their first year I think there would be no question as to the labourers' doing well.

But it must be remembered that any large influx of labourers upon a limited population, as in Manitoba, would inevitably tend to the reduction of wages, unless they were employed on some special work which would not otherwise be taken in hand. Such work might be found on the Canadian Pacific Railway. It is true that the nearer portions of the western section are very light, involving comparatively little labour. Last autumn two gangs of forty men each were laying down nearly a mile a day. But further West as well as eastward of Winnipeg, towards Thunder Bay, more labour will be needed, and it was probably in reference to these sections that Mr. Lynskey, the Superintendent of the Canadian Pacific Railway, informed me 5,000 men would readily find employment.

Should it be proposed to bring out large working gangs for the Canadian Pacific Railway, it is to be hoped that a well-digested plan may be devised for their oversight from the day they land on the continent. The drinking saloons of Winnipeg already abound, and ample experience has shown how often demoralisation and ruin have attended the pioneer workmen of other railways on this continent. It would probably be best to give only part wages in money to the labourers on this railway; the balance being given in proper shelter and food, with allotments of land on completion of the line. The labourers would thus become eventually small farmers and confer a double benefit on the country. Their advent would then be hailed with satisfaction, in place of their becoming a bye-word and reproach to our civilisation.

I was informed by the Hon. I. Ryan, of Portage-la-Prairie, 70 miles west of Winnipeg, that it would answer to employ labour on land, bringing increased quantities into cultivation, if men could be had at, say, 150 dollars per annum with board. At this rate he thought thousands of acres in his district now unproductive would be brought under the plough, and hundreds of industrious men and women might readily find work. This appears an important matter for consideration as regards the emigration of single men and women.

From the evidence of Archbishop Taché, of St. Boniface, Manitoba (who has special knowledge on this subject), and of others, I believe that while there would be a natural and strong objection to the sudden importation without due notice into their midst of thousands of Irish labourers, the colonists would heartily welcome a limited number of families, and in this way a very considerable number might be yearly absorbed.

Leaving the emigrant labourer, I take up—

2 The Emigrant Farmer without means.-At this point let us