DOMINION GOVERNMENT POLICY ON IMMIGRATION AND COLONIZATION. 1867-1938. by ELEANORA PIGGOTT. ' A Thesis submitted in Partial Fulfilment of The Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of HISTORY. The University of British Columbia. September, 1950. An abstract of the the3is DOMINION POLICY on Immigration and Colonization. 1867-1939. This dissertation gives a brief background of the development of Canada in the period preceding Confederation. In this is included a short account of the plans for acquiring]and the acquisition of the North-^est Territories. Then follows an account of the development of dominion policy regarding the disposition of the Crown lands and the attempts to attract settlers to farm those lands. The building of the first transcontinental railroad is also briefly treated. Some attention is given to the early settlements, both for• eign and British, and the reasons for the failure of much of the government effort in that field. The study of the great priod of development in the years following 1896, the work of Sifton in bringing about the expansion of settlement, increasing immigration, building additional railroads, stimulating the colonization companies, and the resulting increase in all branches of industry, is them made, in more detail. The decline of immigration as a result of depression and the disappearance of the free homestead is then s studied, and finally the effect of World War I on immigration. The following section treats of the post-war period and its curtailed immigration and of the efforts of the governments to stimulate immigration through the British Empire Settlement Scheme, especially in the application of this scheme to Canada. This leads to a brief discussion of the gradual ending of immigration as a result of the depression of 1930 and the passing of the restrictive acts that were enacted to limit the entry of immigrants to those considered "desirable". The growth of industries besides as the basic one of agriculture is briefly studied. The Oriental section deals briefly with the coming of the Chinese, the growth of opposition to them, the struggle between,Ottawa and Victoria on the subject of the control of Chinese immigration. The immigration of the Japanese is next considered, with comment on the difference of attitude on the part of the Dominion government toward the Chinesee, and the Japanese and the reasons for this difference.. A brief study is made of the Indian; problem and its special difficulty because of the fact that these Sast Indians were British subjects. Table of Contents. 1. Introduction 2. The Period after Confederation 3. The Sifton Period. 4. The Period between the Wars. 5. Oriental Immigration. DOMINION POLICY .ON IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT IN CANADA AFTER 1867. For some years preceding Confederation there was a growing anxiety in the British North American provinces regarding their future political status. It was only too well known that Americans had spoken seriously of annexing^ the British provinces. It was partly to avoid such an event that Canadians united in 1867 with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to form the Dominion of Canada. Within four years the boundaries of the new dominion had been moved westward to include the lands which now make up the provinces of British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, as well as the Yukon and the present North-West Territories. From the point of view of land and other natural resources, Canada's future as a nation was assured if the Govern-/ ment could adequately develop it in the political and social fields. These two events, the formation of the Dominion and the subsequent acquisition of a huge, fertile, almost empty,region presented a situation that was at once a challenge and [tunity to Canadian statesmen. The challenge consisted in the need for devising a policy that would supply, this enormous new territory with a population that would develop its vast , agricultural resources and still keep it Canadian. The opportunity lay in the chance offered to create by wise statesmanship a great dominion, power• ful, productive and above all, capable of self-government on established British principles. The response that was made to this challenge and the practical recognition of the opportunity presented is the subject of this • study. The British North America Act of 1867 gave to the new dominion control over most phases of its immigration^ Although the provincial governments had certain concurrent rights in this regard, the chief and. final powers were properly placed in the hands of the Dominion Government, immigration being a matter of national importance. W.P.M.Kennedy says of this situation: A province can legislate for purposes of encouraging immigra• tion into it; but such legislation will be invalid in:so far as :L it does not conform to the general immigration iawsbf Canada. There are obvious reasons for this. The Dominion alone can super• vise and grant citizenship. The right of entry into Canada of ;r~ ; persons voluntarily seeking such entry is obviously a purely national matter, affecting as it does the relation of the Empire with foreign states.* e Under the terms of the British North Ameria Act, the control of the natural resources of the four original provinces of the Dominion was left in the hands of their respective legislatures, but when, in 1869, Canada took over Rupert's Land, the Dominion assumed control of the natural resources there and the administration of this vast territory became one of the most important functions of the Canadian Government, involving as it did an extensive programme of expansion through settlement and railroad building. (1) Sec. VI. cl. 95. "In each Province the Legislature may make Laws in rel• ation to Agriculture in the Province and Immigration into the Province; and it is hereby declared that the Parliament of Canada may from Time to Time make Laws in relation to Agriculture in all or any of the Provinces; and any Law of the Legislature of a Province relative to Agriculture or to Immigra• tion shall have'^'effect in and for the Province so long as and as far only as it is not repugnant to any Act of the Parliament of Canada. 30-31 Vict.0*^3. (2) W.P.M.Kennedy, Constitution of Canada.1555-1957. Toronto, Oxford University Press. p. 677 (3) Sec. VIII. cl.. 109. "All lands, Mines, Minerals and Royalties belonging to the several provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick a the Union, and all sums then due or payable for such Lands, Mines,oMinerals or Royalties, shall belong to the several Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in which-the same are situate or arise, subject to any Trusts existing in respect thereof, and to any Interest other than that of the Province in the same." 30^31 Vict. Ch. 3. There were two main reasons why the Dominion Government should make a worthy effort to settle these lands. It was early made clear that it would i be difficult, if not impossible, to hold the lands of the west if they were / not settled, for American statesmen had for some years shown a desire t^ ^jy*v absorb them into the growing American empire. The Upper Canadian editor, George Brown, summed up the situation neatly when he said, "It is a question of fill_jjp— Qr^jjjiye^jap^l' A growing, producing population having Canadian allegiance was urgently needed to occupy the old huntingfiand of the fur- traders if its destiny as a part of Canada was to be fulfilled. Moreover, the economic conditions of the older provinces made expansion necessary if the Canadas were to hold the people they had. For years there had been a heavy loss of native Canadians and of immigrantsyrtio left; Canada to take advantage of the greater opportunity offered in the varied:industries of' the United States. Canadians sere also aware that the new lands being opened for settlement in the American Middle West were attracting many too could not make a living under the existing economy on the land available for set• tlement in Canada. The need for wider opportunity in Canada was shown by the statistics of emigration from Canada at that time. In 1850 it was estimated that there were about 148,000 Canadian-born in the United States, a number equal to 6.06 per cent of Canada's population at that time. Twenty years later, this number had jumped to 493,464- or 13.38 per cent of the population?" These figures were enough to convince thoughtful Canadians that a vigorous policy of settlement in the west must be an important part of future Dominion policy. Although the consequent " -'; concentration of Dominion immigration policy on the development of the west (4) R.H.Coats and M.C.Maclean, The American-born in Canada, ferento, Ryerson Press, 1943, p. 24. 4. called forth perennial criticism from the easterners, who complained that they paid the bill for an expensive immigration policy and got no returns for their money, successive governments, whether Liberal or Conservative, made the settlement &f the Prairie Provinces the main consideration of the department which dealt with immigration and colonization. As there was no *real break in method, it is desirable, before beginning the study of the immigration policy of the Dominion Government, to examine briefly the foundation on which this policy was built, namely the early immigration into Canada, the settlements made there, the problems posed, the solutions attempted, up to_the year in which the new Dominion was formed,. and in which it assumed control over.most of its internal affairs and began its great progeamme of expansion.