properly used they might be turned to good account, for there must
certainly be lots to be done eventually, unless nine-tenths of the
country are going to stand still and remain undeveloped; but this is
not exactly what I expected. I thought that if a man represented
himself as an engineer, and said that he would go and work as a
navvy, fitter, or blacksmith, until the company found it would be
better worth their while to employ him higher up the ladder, he was
pretty certain of getting his request granted; but they say here
that is not so, they are not particularly in want of gentlemen of
any of the above persuasions anywhere about their line, and it won't
pay them to keep two men where they need keep but one. Thus, the
main point of difference between the two countries seems to me to be
that, here work is more or less on the increase, though to nothing
like the extent represented at home, and in England it is on the
decline. Even that is not quite right, for work here at present is
certainly getting slacker every day. There has been a great "boom"
on Canada lately as a field for labour, thousands and thousands of
people have come, and been sent out by Colonization Societies, etc.,
and the consequence is, there are more people already than there is
work for, even in the agricultural line. Winnepeg, the much talked
of Capital of the West, is simply dilapidating, and as far west as
Regina living is high and wages low. I was told in friendliness, by
a chap called Deacon (I was introduced to him by his father-in-law),
who has an enormous tract of land by league with the Government, and
to whose interest it will be to colonize it as soon as possible,
that living in the latter place cost about $10 a week, just double
what we are paying here; and that he could get plenty of men glad to
do any work for him at $15 a month and their keep. All the towns
down the line are the same, every place (so I am told) is, so to
speak, staggered by the great and sudden influx of emigrants. Of