Canada and the British immigrantWeaver, Emily P. (Emily Poynton)
History
Canada and the British immigrant
Weaver, Emily P. (Emily Poynton)
Canada -- Description and travel; Canada -- Economic conditions
Nova Scotia has several universities, supported by different religious
bodies, in addition to the non-sectarian Dalhousie University at
Halifax. The oldest of these institutions is King’s College, at Windsor,
which dates from 1790. A comparatively new institution is the
Agricultural College at Truro. Here instruction is given free of cost to
farmers, farmers’ sons and new settlers intending to farm. Besides the
full two years’ course, there are short practical courses of two weeks,
including one for women on dairying and poultry keeping. In connection
with the college is a fine Model Farm, where excellent stock is kept.
The government also maintains experts to give instruction in various
branches of agriculture, and endeavours in a variety of other ways to
improve the methods and conditions of farming in Nova Scotia.
There is a demand always for good farm workers and capable domestic
servants. Even inexperienced young people have little difficulty in
getting work, if they are strong and willing to learn, but they must not
expect high wages till they are competent. For competent farm men the
wages offered are usually from $20 (£4) to $30 (£6) the month, with
board and lodging for a single man, and with a rent-free house and
certain allowances of milk and vegetables for a married man. In the
latter case, the wife, if willing to assist the farmer’s wife, can often
make a considerable addition to the family income. For day labour in the
country a man might expect from $1 (4_s._) to $1.50 (6_s._), with board.
In the towns wages are higher, even for unskilled labour, but in Halifax
at least rents are very high, and a man who is looking forward to
getting a little land of his own would usually be wiser to settle from
the first in a country district where living is cheap, and where the
experience gained would be of definite value in farming operations.
Moreover, if he is able to keep a few fowls, and a pig, and have a
garden of his own, it very much lessens the cost of living. There are
many prosperous farmers in Nova Scotia who landed a few years ago with
scarcely a shilling in their pockets, but these have been hard workers.
The population of Nova Scotia is chiefly of British descent, though not
a few of the early settlers came by way of New England in Loyalist and
pre-Loyalist days. Scottish names are common in many parts of the
province, especially in Cape Breton Island. The ancient Acadians are
represented by something like fifty thousand French people, and the Nova
Scotians of German descent are not much fewer.
Of religious bodies, the Roman Catholics are the strongest, but the
Presbyterians make a good second, then come in order the Baptists, the
Anglicans and the Methodists. In the country places there are a few
union churches, but there is a good deal of “over-lapping,” which
aggravates the difficulty of ministering adequately to communities so
scattered, as they are, for instance, on the south coast.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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