Books: Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago
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Canniff Haight >> Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago
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But little had been done up to 1830 to establish libraries, either in
town or village. Indeed the limited number of these, and the pursuits of
the people, which were almost exclusively agricultural--and that too in
a new country where during half of the year the toil of the field, and
clearing away the bush the remaining half, occupied their constant
attention--books were seldom thought of. Still, there was a mind here
and there scattered through the settlements which, like the "little
leaven," continued to work on silently, until a large portion of the
"lump" had been leavened. The only public libraries whereof I have any
trace were at Kingston, Ernesttown and Hallowell. The first two were in
existence in 1811-13, and the last was established somewhere about 1821.
In 1824, the Government voted a sum of L150 to be expended annually in
the purchase of books and tracts, designed to afford moral and religious
instruction to the people. These were to be equally distributed
throughout all the Districts of the Province. It can readily be
conceived that this small sum, however well intended, when invested in
books at the prices which obtained at that time, and distributed over
the Province, would be so limited as to be hardly worthy of notice.
Eight years prior to this, a sum of L800 was granted to establish a
Parliamentary Library. From these small beginnings we have gone on
increasing until we have reached a point which warrants me, I think, in
saying that no other country with the same population is better supplied
with the best literature of the day than our own Province. Independent
of the libraries in the various colleges and other educational
institutions, Sunday schools and private libraries, there are in the
Province 1,566 Free Public Libraries, with 298,743 volumes, valued at
$178,282; and the grand total of books distributed by the Educational
Department to Mechanics' Institutes, Sunday school libraries, and as
prizes, is 1,398,140. [Footnote: The number of volumes in the principal
libraries are, as nearly as I can ascertain, as follows:--Parliamentary
Library, Ottawa, 100,000; Parliamentary Library, Ontario, 17,000;
Toronto University, 23,000; Trinity College, 5,000; Knox College,
10,000; Osgoode Hall, 20,000; Normal School, 15,000; Canadian Institute,
3,800.] There are also upwards of one hundred incorporated Mechanics'
Institutes, with 130,000 volumes, a net income of $59,928, and a
membership of 10,785. These, according to the last Report, received
legislative grants to the amount of $22,885 for the year 1879--an
appropriation that in itself creditably attests the financial and
intellectual progress of the Province. [Footnote: Report of the Minister
of Education, 1879.]
It is a very great pity that a systematic effort had not been made years
ago to collect interesting incidents connected with the early settlement
of the Province. A vast amount of information that would be invaluable
to the future compiler of the history of this part of the Dominion has
been irretrievably lost. The actors who were present at the birth of the
Province are gone, and many of the records have perished. But even now,
if the Government would interest itself, much valuable material
scattered through the country might be recovered. The Americans have
been always alive to this subject, and are constantly gathering up all
they can procure relating to the early days of their country. More than
that, they are securing early records and rare books on Canada wherever
they can find them. Any one who has had occasion to hunt up information
respecting this Province, even fifty years ago, knows the difficulty,
and even impossibility in some cases, of procuring what one wants. It is
hardly credible that the important and enterprising capital city of
Toronto, with its numerous educational and professional institutions, is
without a free public library in keeping with its other advantages.
[Footnote: This want has since been supplied by an excellent Free Public
Library.] This is a serious want to the well-being of our intellectual
and moral nature. The benefits conferred by free access to a large
collection of standard books is incalculable, and certainly if there is
such a thing as retributive justice, it is about time it showed its
hand.
The first printing office in the Province was established by Louis Roy,
in April, 1793, [Footnote: Mr. Bourinot, in his _Intellectual
Development of Canada_, says this was in 1763, which is no doubt a
typographical error.] at Newark (Niagara), and from it was issued the
_Upper Canada Gazette_, or _American Oracle_ [Footnote:
_Toronto of Old_], a formidable name for a sheet 15 in. x 9. It was
an official organ and newspaper combined, and when a weekly journal of
this size could furnish the current news of the day, and the Government
notices as well, one looking at it by the light of the present day
cannot help thinking that publishing a paper was up-hill work. Other
journals were started, and, after running a brief course, expired. When
one remembers the tedious means of communication in a country almost
without roads, and the difficulty of getting items of news, it does not
seem strange that those early adventures were short-lived. But as time
wore on, one after another succeeded in getting a foothold, and in
finding its way into the home of the settler. They were invariably
small, and printed on coarse paper. Sometimes even this gave out, and
the printer had to resort to blue wrapping paper in order to enable him
to present his readers with the weekly literary feast. In 1830, the
number had increased from the humble beginning in the then capital of
Upper Canada, to twenty papers, and of these the following still
survive: _The Chronicle and News_, of Kingston, established 1810;
_Brockville Recorder_, 1820; St. Catharines _Journal_, 1824;
_Christian Guardian_, 1829. There are now in Ontario 37 daily
papers, 4 semi-weeklies; 1 tri-weekly, 282 weeklies, 27 monthlies, and 2
semi-monthlies, making a total of 353. The honour of establishing the
first daily paper belongs to the late Dr. Barker, of Kingston, founder
of the _British Whig_, in 1834.
There is perhaps nothing that can give us a better idea the progress the
Province has made than a comparison of the papers published now with
those of 1830. The smallness of the sheets, and the meagreness of
reading matter, the absence of advertisements, except in a very limited
way, and the typographical work, makes us think that our fathers were a
good-natured, easy-going kind of people, or they would never have put up
with such apologies for newspapers. Dr. Scadding, in _Toronto of
Old_, gives a number of interesting and amusing items respecting the
"Early Press." He states that the whole of the editorial matter of the
_Gazette and Oracle_, on the 2nd January, 1802, is the following:
"The Printer presents his congratulatory compliments to his customers on
the new year." If brevity is the soul of wit, this is a _chef
d'oeuvre_. On another occasion the publisher apologises for the non-
appearance of his paper by saying: "The Printer having been called to
York last week upon business, is humbly tendered to his readers as an
apology for the _Gazette's_ not appearing." This was another entire
editorial, and it certainly could not have taken the readers long to get
at the pith of it. What would be said over such an announcement in these
days?
We have every reason to feel proud of the advance the Press has made,
both in number and influence, in Ontario. The leading papers are ably
conducted and liberally supported, and they will compare favourably with
those of any country. Various causes have led to this result. The
prosperous condition of the people, the increase of immigration, the
springing up of railway communication, the extension and perfecting of
telegraphy, and, more than all, the completeness and efficiency of our
school system throughout the Province, have worked changes not to be
mistaken. These are the sure indices of our progress and enlightenment;
the unerring registers that mark our advancement as a people.
CHAPTER VII.
BANKS--INSURANCE--MARINE-TELEGRAPH COMPANIES--ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
--MILLING AND MANUFACTURES--RAPID INCREASE OF POPULATION IN CITIES AND
TOWNS--EXCERPTS FROM ANDREW PICKEN.
The only bank in the Province in 1830 was the Bank of Upper Canada, with
a capital of L100,000. There are now nine chartered banks owned in
Ontario, with a capital of $17,000,000, and there are seven banks owned,
with one exception, in the Province of Quebec, having offices in all the
principal towns. There are also numbers of private banks and loan
companies, the latter representing a capital of over $20,000,000. This
is a prolific growth in half a century, and a satisfactory evidence of
material success.
Insurance has been the growth of the last fifty years. During the
session of the House of Assembly in 1830, a bill was introduced to make
some provision against accidents by fire. Since then the business has
grown to immense proportions. According to the returns of the Dominion
Government for the 31st December, 1879, the assets of Canadian Life,
Fire, Marine, Accident, and Guarantee Companies were $10,346,587.
British, doing business in Canada, $6,838,309. American, ditto,
$1,685,599. Of Mutual Companies, there are 94 in Ontario, with a total
income for 1879 of $485,579, and an expenditure of $455,861. [Footnote:
Inspector of Insurance Report, 1880.]
Fifty years ago the revenue of Upper Canada was L112,166 13s 4d; the
amount of duty collected L9,283 19s. The exports amounted to L1,555,404,
and the imports to L1,555,404. There were twenty-seven ports of entry
and thirty-one collectors of customs. From the last published official
reports we learn that the revenue for Ontario in 1879 was $4,018,287,
and that for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1880, the exports were
$28,063,980, and imports $27,869,444; amount of duty collected,
$5,086,579; also that there are fifty-six ports of entry and thirty-
eight outposts, with seventy-three collectors.
One of the most interesting features in the progress of Canada is the
rapid growth of its marine. It is correctly stated to rank fourth as to
tonnage among the maritime powers of the world. The United States, with
its fifty-four millions of people and its immense coast-line, exceeds us
but by a very little, while in ocean steamers we are ahead. In fact, the
Allan Line is one of the first in the world. This is something for a
country with a population of only five-and-a-half millions to boast of,
and it is not by any means the only thing. We have been spoken of as a
people wanting enterprise--a good-natured, phlegmatic set--but it is
libel disproved by half a century's progress. We have successfully
carried out some of the grandest enterprises on this continent. At
Montreal we have the finest docks in America. Our canals are unequalled;
our country is intersected by railroads; every town and village in the
land is linked to its neighbour by telegraph wires, and we have probably
more miles of both, according to population, than any other people.
The inland position of the Province of Ontario, although having the
chain of great lakes lying along its southern border, never fostered a
love for a sea-faring life. This is easily accounted for by the pursuits
of the people, who as has been said before, were nearly all
agriculturists. But the produce had to be moved, and the means were
forthcoming to meet the necessities of the case. The great water-course
which led to the seaports of Montreal and Quebec, owing to the rapids of
the St. Lawrence, could only be navigated by the batteaux and Durham
boats; and the navigator, after overcoming these difficulties, and
laying his course through the noble lake from which our Province takes
its name, encountered the Falls of Niagara. This was a huge barrier
across his path which he had no possible means of surmounting. When the
town of Niagara was reached, vessels had to be discharged, and the
freight carted round the falls to Chippawa. This was a tedious matter,
and a great drawback to settlement in the western part of the Province.
Early in the century, the Hon. William Hamilton Merritt conceived the
plan of connecting Lakes Erie and Ontario by a canal, and succeeded in
getting the Government to assume the project in 1824. It was a great
work for a young country to undertake, but it was pushed on, and
completed in 1830. From that time to the present vessels have been
enabled to pass from one lake to the other. This, with the Sault Ste.
Marie canal, and those of the St. Lawrence, enables a vessel to pass
from the head of Lake Superior to the ocean. The Ridean Canal undertaken
about the same time as the Welland Canal, was also completed in the same
year. It was constructed principally for military purposes, though at
one time a large amount of freight came up the Ottawa, and thence by
this canal to Kingston. The St. Lawrence was the only channel for
freight going east. All the rapids were navigable with the batteaux
except the Lachine, and up to 1830 there was a line of these boats
running from Belleville to Montreal. [Footnote: The reader may be
interested in learning the amount of produce shipped from the Province
in 1830, via the St. Lawrence, and the mode of its conveyance. It is
certainly a marked contrast, not only to the present facilities for
carrying freight, but to the amount of produce, etc., going east and
coming west. Statement of produce imported into Lower Canada through the
Port of Coteau du Lac, to December 30th, 1830, in 584 Durham boats and
731 batteaux; 183,141 Bls. flour; 26,084 Bls. ashes; 14,110 Bls pork;
1,637 Bls. beef; 4,881 bus. corn and rye; 280,322 bus. wheat; 1,875 Bls.
corn meal; 245 Bls. and 955 kegs lard; 27 Bls. and 858 kegs butter; 263
Bls. and 29 hds. tallow; 625 Bls. apples; 216 Bls. Raw hides; 148 hds.
and 361 kegs tobacco; 1,021 casks and 3 hds. whiskey and spirits; 2,636
hogs. Quantity of merchandise brought to Upper Canada in the same year,
8,244 tons.--_Journal of the House of Assembly_, 1831.] Our canal
system was completed fifty years ago, and all that has been done since
has consisted of enlarging and keeping them in repair. The total number
of miles of canal in the Province is 136.
The number of vessels composing our marine in 1830 was 12 steamers and
110 sailing vessels, with a tonnage of 14,300; and it is worthy of
remark that at that date the tonnage on the lakes was about equal to
that of the United States. The number of steam vessels now owned by the
Province is 385, with 657 [Footnote: Report Marine and Fisheries, 1880.]
sailing vessels, having a total tonnage of 137,481, which at $30 per ton
would make our shipping interest amount to $4,124,430.
A great deal has been done these last few years to protect the sailor
from disaster and loss. Independent of marine charts that give the
soundings of all navigable waters, buoys mark the shoals and
obstructions to the entrance of harbours or the windings of intricate
channels; and from dangerous rocks and bold headlands, jutting out in
the course of vessels, flash out through the storm and darkness of the
long dreary night the brilliant lights from the domes of the
lighthouses, warning the sailor to keep away. By a system of revolving
and parti-coloured lights the mariner is enabled to tell where he is,
and to lay his course so as to avoid the disaster that might otherwise
overtake him. There are now 149 [Footnote: Ib.] lighthouses in the
Ontario division. In 1830 there were only four. Another great boon to
the mariners of the present day is the meteorological service, by which
he is warned of approaching storms. It is only by the aid of telegraphy
that this discovery has been made practically available; and the system
has been so perfected that weather changes can be told twenty-four hours
in advance, with almost positive certainty. We have fourteen drum
stations, eight of which are on Lake Ontario, four on Lake Huron, and
two on the Georgian Bay.
The Montreal Telegraph Company, the first in Canada, was organized in
1847. It has 1,647 offices in the Dominion, 12,703 miles of poles, and
21,568 of wire. Number of messages for current year, 2,112,161;
earnings, $550,840. The Dominion Company reports 608 offices, 5,112
miles of poles, and 11,501 of wire. Number of messages, 734,522; gross
earnings, $229,994. This gives a total of 17,845 miles of telegraph,
2,282 offices, 2,846,623 messages, and gross earnings amounting to
$780,834. [Footnote: Annual Report of Montreal and Dominion Telegraph
Companies, 1881.]
The administration of justice cost the Province in 1830, $23,600, and
according to the latest official returns $274,013--a very striking proof
that our propensity to litigate has kept pace with the increase of
wealth and numbers. There were four Superior Court Judges, of whom the
Hon. John Beverley Robinson was made Chief Justice in 1829 at a salary
of $6,000. The remaining judges received $3,600 each. Besides these
there were eleven District Judges, and in consequence of the extent of
country embraced in these sections, and the distance jurors and others
had to travel, the Court of Sessions was held frequently in alternate
places in the district. In the Midland District, this court was held in
Kingston and Adolphustown. The latter place has been laid out for a town
by some farseeing individual, but it never even attained to the dignity
of a village. There was, besides the courthouse, a tavern, a foundry, a
Church of England--one of the first in the Province--the old homestead
of the Hagermans, near the wharf; a small building occupied for a time
by the father of Sir John A. Macdonald as a store, and where the future
statesman romped in his youth, and four private residences close at
hand. When the court was held there, which often lasted a week or more,
judge, jury, lawyers and litigants had to be billeted around the
neighbourhood. As a rule they fared pretty well, for the people in that
section were well off and there was rarely any charge for board. The
courts comprised the Court of King's Bench, the Quarter Sessions, and
Court of Requests. The latter was similar to our Division Court, and was
presided over by a commissioner or resident magistrate. The Quarter
Sessions had control of nearly all municipal affairs, but when the
Municipal Law came into force these matters passed into the hands of the
County Councils. The machinery in connection with the administration of
justice has been largely augmented for, beside the additional courts, we
have six Superior Court Judges, one Chancellor, two Vice-Chancellors,
one Chief-Justice, three Queen's Bench, three Common Pleas, three Court
of Appeal Judges, and thirty-eight County Court Judges.
The manufacturing interests of the Province in 1830 were very small
indeed. I have been unable to put my hand on any trustworthy information
respecting this matter at that time, but from my own recollection at a
somewhat later period, I know that very little had been done to supply
the people with even the most common articles in use. Everything was
imported, save those things that were made at home.
From the first grist mill, built below Kingston by the Government for
the settlers--to which my grandfather carried his first few bushels of
wheat in a canoe down the Bay of Quinte, a distance of thirty-five
miles--the mills in course of time increased to 303. They were small,
and the greater proportion had but a single run of stones. The constant
demand for lumber for building purposes in every settlement necessitated
the building of saw-mills, and in each township, wherever there was a
creek or stream upon which a sufficient head of water could be procured
to give power, there was a rude mill, with its single upright saw.
Getting out logs in the winter was a part of the regular programme of
every farmer who had pine timber, and in spring, for a short time, the
mill was kept going, and the lumber taken home. According to the returns
made to the Government, there were 429 of these mills in the Province at
that time. [Footnote: Journals, House of Assembly, 1831.] There were
also foundries where ploughs and other implements were made, and a few
fulling mills, where the home-made flannel was converted into the thick
coarse cloth known as full cloth, a warm and serviceable article, as
many no doubt remember. Carding machines, which had almost entirely
relieved the housewife from using hand cards in making rolls, were also
in existence. There were also breweries and distilleries, and a paper
mill on the Don, at York. This was about the sum total of our
manufacturing enterprises at that date.
There are now 508 grist and flour mills--not quite double the number,
but owing to the great improvement in machinery the producing capacity
has largely increased. Very few mills, at the present time, have fewer
than two run of stones, and a great many have fewer, and even more, and
the same may be said of the saw mills, of which there are 853. There are
many in the Province capable of turning out nearly as much lumber in
twelve months as all the mills did fifty years ago.
It is only within a few years that we have made much progress in
manufactures of any kind. Whatever the hindrances were, judging from the
numerous factories that are springing into existence all over the
Dominion, they seem to have been removed, and capitalists are embarking
their money in all kinds of manufacturing enterprises. There is no way,
as far as I know, of getting at the value annually produced by our mills
and factories, except from the Trade and Navigation Returns for 1880,
and this only gives the exports, which are but a fraction of the grand
total. Our woolen mills turned out last year upwards of $4,000,000,
[Footnote: Monetary Times, December 17, 1881.] of which we exported
$222,425. This does not include the produce of what are called custom
mills. There are 224 foundries, 285 tanneries, 164 woollen mills, 74
carding and fulling mills, 137 cheese factories, 127 agricultural and
implement factories, 92 breweries, 8 boot and shoe factories, 5 button
factories, 1 barley mill, 2 carpet factories, 4 chemical works, 9 rope
and twine factories, 9 cotton mills, 3 crockery kilns, 11 flax mills, 4
glass works, 11 glove factories, 7 glue factories, 9 hat factories, 12
knitting factories, 9 oatmeal mills, 9 organ factories, 10 piano
factories, 25 paper mills, 4 rubber factories, 6 shoddy mills, 3 sugar
refineries; making, with the flour and saw mills, 2,642. Besides these
there are carriage, cabinet and other factories and shops, to the number
of 3,848. The value of flour exported was $1,547,910; of sawn lumber,
$4,137,062; of cheese, $1,199,973; of flax, $95,292; of oatmeal,
$215,131; and of other manufactures, $1,100,605.
We may further illustrate the progress we have made by giving the
estimated value of the trade in Toronto in 1880, taken from an
interesting article on this subject which appeared in the Globe last
January. The wholesale trade is placed at $30,650,000; produce,
$23,000,000; a few leading factories, $1,770,000; live stock, local
timber trade, coal, distilling and brewing, $8,910,000; in all,
$64,330,000--a gross sum more than ten times greater than the value of
the trade of the whole Province fifty years ago.
Another interesting feature in our growth is the rapid increase in the
cities and towns. Some of these were not even laid out in 1830, and
others hardly deserved the humble appellation of village. The difference
will be more apparent by giving the population, as far as possible, then
and in 1881, when the last census was taken, of a number of the
principal places:--
1830. 1881.
Toronto 2,860 86,445
Kingston 3,587 14,093
Hamilton, including township 2,013 35,965
London, including township 2,415 ----
Brantford, laid out in 1830 ---- 9,626
Guelph, including township 778 9,890
St. Catharines (Population in 1845, 3,000) ---- ----
Ottawa contained 150 houses ---- ----
Belleville, incorporated 1835 ---- 9,516
Brockville 1,130 7,608
Napanee (Population in 1845, 500) ---- 3,681
Cobourg ---- 4,957
Port Hope ---- 5,888
Peterboro', laid out in 1826 ---- 6,815
Lindsay, " 1833 ---- 5,081
Barrie, " 1832 ---- ----
Ingersoll, " 1831 ---- 4,322
Woodstock (Population in 1845, 1,085) ---- 5,373
Chatham, settled in 1830 ---- 7,881
Stratford, laid out in 1833 ---- 8,240
Sarnia, laid out in 1833 ---- 3,874
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