MANITOBA as an industrial centre is not of course at all comparable with the great manufacturing districts of the Old World. In considering the Province as a centre of industrial activity, it is to be remembered that Western Canada is the newest of all new countries. It is chiefly agricultural and its native resources are yet scarcely realized.

Its progress, however, in industrial matters has been remarkable. It has developed from a village in which the manufacturing industries were confined to the mak-mg of moccasins by Indian squaws, and the turning out of horseshoes, wagon bolts and harrow teeth by the village blacksmith, into the fourth cityjn all Canada, as estimated by the value of its manufactured products. This, in 1908, was estimated at about $25,000,000.

Winnipeg is the greatest wheat market in the British Empire. Nearly all of the great grain crop of Western Canada, which in 1908 amounted no less than 222,786,058 bushels of wheat, oats, barley, flax and rye, passes through the city. For many years all the manufactured articles used in Western Canada were imported, but the advantages to be derived from home industries are now beginning to be realized. Numerous home industries depend to a large extent upon mixed farming, which it is now admitted must be adopted to a greater, extent 1han has hitherto been the case.

Some idea of the progress made by Manitoba in industrial development, may be gathered from recent census returns:—The census in Manitoba, in 1881, showed 314 industrial establishments, great and small, with a total output of $3,413,026. Ten years later there were 1,031 establishments with a total output of $10,155,182, that is to say, that there had been an increase of 200 per cent, in ten years. In 1901, the census was taken on a different basis, only establishments employing five or more hands being counted. The 1906 census showed that the ratio of increase was be-corung greater with each year. The capital invested has more than trebled in five years, and the amount of salaries paid, and also the output, have more than doubled.

In the five years from 1901 to 1906, Winnipeg made the enormous increase in manufactured products, of one hundred and twenty-five per cent; the value of such goods advanced from $8,616,218 to $18,983,290. For the year of 1907, it was estimated that the value of goods manufactured in the City of Winnipeg, amounted to $22,000,000. There are to-day, one hundred and forty-eight factories and work shops, and no less than 12,000 hands directly employed in these. This number does not include the army of men employed in the municipal departments and the great railway yards of the city, but applies only to those engaged in actual making of goods from raw material.

The results of the last Dominion Census published in 1906, relating to the number of manufacturing firms in Manitoba, the capital invested, the nature and value of goods produced and the amount of money paid out In salaries and wages, are shown in the following table: —

Among the more important work shops and factories in Winnipeg, are those of the Canadian Pacific, the Canadian Northern and the Grand Trunk railroads. The Vulcan Iron Works, the Manitoba Iron Works, the Western Iron Works, the Northern Iron Works, and ten smaller machine shops, in all employing more than 3.650 hands. In addition, there is in Winnipeg an iron rolling-mill, turning out bar and rolled iron, and five plants are engaged in the manufacture of wire fencing of various sorts—a product greatly in demand through out Western Canada, where fencing material of wood or stone is scarce and the stretches of land that require to be fenced are very great. There are also four factories for making sheet metal cornices and galvanized iron work; seven brick, clay and cement works; two paint factories; two shops that turn out stained glass products; nine planing mills, which manufacture building materials such as sashes and doors, office and bank fittings; one plant which manufactures plaster for hard-hmshing walls, the raw material being native gypsum.

Five factories which manufacture ready-made clothing, employ 350 hands. Fur garments are also largely made in Winnipeg. Although many furs are dressed in the city, the majority are exported; the annual output of undressed pelts of fur-bearing animals is valued at $350,000. Most of these are gathered by the employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Other important industries carried on in Winnipeg, are the preparation of pickles and vinegar, condiments, baking powder, bag and box manufacture, engraving, electro-plating, brass-foundering, soap making, coopering, furniture making. In the province there are also glass works and the fish industry of Manitoba is of great importance (see special article on Fisheries, by Pro fessor Prince). In the neighborhood of the larger towns poultry rearing and market gardening form important industries.

We must not neglect to mention other important manufacturing towns and cities of the province. In 1901, the value of Brandon’s output of manufactures was $541,327, and in 1906, this had advanced to $2,007,995, while Portage la Prairie made the notable increase, in the same period, from $803,290 in 1901 to $1,858,000 in 1906. Brandon, the second city in size in Manitoba, has numerous wholesale warehouses, and in addition there are thirty factories. Among the products of these may be mentioned gasoline engines, well-boring machinery, fire and bar fixtures, sashes and doors, pumps and windmills, harness, tents and awnings, cement blocks, mattresses, beer and ale, boilers, bricks, wagons, cut stone and monuments, etc. The Canadian Pacific Railway Company maintains divisional repair shops, employ a large number of men, ang the total number employed by the factories exceeds 1,000. The city of Brandon also possesses a crushing plant and sewer-pipe works.

At Portage la Prairie, the chief industries within the town are a flour mill, an oatmeal mill, a wire fence factory, a brick yard, a foundry and a planing mill.. This city is the centre of a very important wheat growing district. At Carberry, there is a flour mill with a capacity of 200 barrels daily, and also seven elevators that have a capacity of 180,000 bushels of grain.

At Carman, are located two flour milling plants, and at Dauphin, several elevators and lumber mills. In Gladstone, there is a flour mill with a capacity of 300 barrels daily ; at Grandview, a large saw-mill and sash and door factory.

In the neighborhood of Stonewall, the gardening and poultry industry is carried on to some extent by the German farmers, and within the town are several stone quarries with a combined annual output valued at nearly $200,000.

At Rapid City, there are several industries, including a woollen mill, grist mill, brick yard and lime kiln works, besides a flour mill of 175 barrel capacity.

In the near future, thousands of miles of new railways will be constructed in the three prairie provinces alone, new towns and cities are being established almost daily, and large tracts of country are rapidly being brought under cultivation,. Within the next few years, therefore, there is bound to be an enormous demand for all kinds of railway equipment, for every variety of mumci pal plant, for agricultural implements, and all the vast assortment of manufactured goods required in the building up if civilized communities.

At present, there are no boot and shoe factories in Western Canada,. The total value of these commodities sold annually in the West amounts to $3,500,000, and in Winnipeg alone, the annual sales of leather gloves and mittens amount, it is stated, to about $1,000,000. In a country which is largely engaged in stock-raising and in the export of raw hides and skins, it is somewhat remarkable that there are no tanneries, and that leather goods are not manufactured.

Motor cars are used very largely, not only in the cities of Western Canada, but in the country. The first automobile introduced into Winnipeg, was a threewheeled Knox car, in 1901, and now there are over 300 in the city. These are chiefly of United States manufacture. As a duty of 35 per cent, is charged on imported cars, it seems obvious that these might be profitably manufactured in Western Canada.

Other industries must, sooner ot later, be introduced. For example, the utilization of flax fibre, the manufacture of potato starch, the growing of sugar-beets and the manufacture of alcohol, are all obvious possibilities.

When the great extent of Western Canada and its rapid development are considered, it must be apparent that it offers an unprecedented market for the products of almost every conceivable kind of manufacture.

The great distance from large manufacturing centres involving as it does proportionately great freight charges, and the high duty on imported manufactured goods, will compel, ere long, the foundation of a large number of factories to supply even the home demand, to say nothing of the possibilities of an export trade in certain branches. Natural resources are not wanting to supply the necessary raw materials, and the energy and capacity of the citizens of the West ensure the successful establishment and development of numerous home industries.