INDUSTRIAL MANITOBA

By C. F. ROLAND, Esq., Winnipeg.

ANITOBA as an industrial centre is not of

M course at all comparable with the great manu

facturing 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 making of moccasins by Indian squaws, and the turning out of horseshoes, wagon bolts and harrow teeth by the village blacksmith, into the fourth city in 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 factured 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 than has hitherto been the case.

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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 344 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- / coming 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:

Industries in above employ

ing less than 5 hands. Industries employing 5

446,632 109,084 298,336 hands and over .. 26,860,655. 5,527,476 27,310,932 *Includes 2 aerated and mineral waters; 1 axle grease; 1 bags, cotton; 1 bak ing powder and flavoring extracts; 1 boats and canoes; 1 boxes, wooden; 1 brass castings; 1 brooms and brushes: 2 car repairs; 1 cement blocks and tiles; 1 gas, lighting and heating; 2 clothing, men's factory; 1 cocoa and chocolate; 1 coffees and spices; 1 drugs; 1 dyeing and cleaning; 2 furniture and upholstered goods; 1 hairworks; 2 interior decorations; 1 leather, tanned and finished; 1 metallic roofing and flooring; 1 mirrors and plate glass; 1 miscellaneous; 1 oils; 1 patent medicines; 1 photography; 1 picture frames; 1 pop corn; 1 soap; 1 stationary goods; 2 wire fencing; 1 woodworking and turning.

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 throughout 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 hardfinishing 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 Professor Prince). In the neighborhood of the larger towns