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Dominion government policy on immigration and colonization

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 land the acquisition of the North-West 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 foreign
and British, and the reasons for the failure of much of the government effort in that field. The study of the great period 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 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 Chinese 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 East Indians were British subjects. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/41577
Date January 1950
CreatorsPiggott, Eleanora
PublisherUniversity of British Columbia
Source SetsUniversity of British Columbia
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, Thesis/Dissertation
RightsFor non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.

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