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CANADA AND THE EMPIRE.

largest influx of settlers from Britain and is
considered the most British part of Canada. The
North-West is becoming largely populated by
Americans and Scandinavians. Eastern Canada
is the home of practically all the old Canadian
families; also of the French Canadians, who
number about a million and a half, or nearly a
third of the total population. Quebec is the home
of the latter, but they are spreading rapidly into
Ontario, and even into the North-West, Immigration
 must, of course, play a large part in the
development of so vast a country. With the free
gifts of land offered by the Government, and the
splendid organisation of the Department of the
Interior for helping those who are willing to help
themselves, immigrants are arriving as fast as they
can be settled on the land. No fewer than 80,000
United States farmers entered the North-West
last year, bringing with them capital derived from
selling their former homes. Their advent is
regarded with much favour by the authorities,
for they make splendid settlers, being thoroughly
accustomed to prairie farming. It is a noteworthy
fact that 8o per cent. of these immigrants from the
United States become Canadian citizens as soon
as they have qualified for naturalisation. The
feature of the immigration into the North-West,
as the figures given in the Appendix will show,
is the vast preponderance of foreigners over those
of British birth, and as immigration increases it is
probable that the proportion of foreigners will