Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/361

 AREA AND POPULATION — INSTRUCTION 309

Minister if Mines, — Hon. Win, SUan. Minister of Agriculture. — Hon. E. D. Barrow.

Minister of Education and Provincial Secretary. — Hon. J. D. Maclean, M.D..C.M.

Minister of Public Works.— Hon. J. H. King, M.D..C..M. Attorney-General and Minister of Labour. — Hon. J. W. de B. Farris, K.C. Minister of Finance. — Hon. John Hart. Minister of Lands. —Hon. T. D. Pattullo.

An Act creating a Department of Industry was pissed in 1919. This Department is at present under the Minister of Mines.

Agent-General in London, — F. C. Wade, K.C, British Columbia House, 1/3, Regent Street, S.W.

Area and Population. — British Columbia, Canada's Maritime Province on the Pacific Ocean, has an area, according to the census of 1911, of 355,855 square miles, of which 353,416 square miles are land area, and 2,439 squaremiles water area, but exclusive of territorial s^eas. The area in 1919 is estimated at 395,610 square miles. It is a great irregular quadrangle about 700 miles from north to south, with an average width of about 400 miles, lying between latitudes 49 degrees and 60 degrees north. It is bounded on the south by the Straits of Juan de Fuca and the States ot Washington, Idaho and Montana, on the west by the Pacific Ocean and Southern Alaska, on the north by Yukon and Mackenzie Territories, and on the east by the Province of Alberta. From the 49th degree north to the 54th degree the eastern boundary follows the axis of the Rocky Mountains, and thence north along the 120th meridian.

The subdivisions of the Province, with the number of square miles in each, areas follows: Kootenays, east and west, 23,500 square miles; Yale, 24,300; Lillooet, 16,100; Vancouver and Westminster, 7,600; Cariboo, 300,500; Comox (mainland), 7,100; and Vancouver Island, 16,400.

The last census (1911) places the population at 392,480 ; in 1901 the population was 178,657. In 1920 it was estimated at approximately 650,000.

Some of the principal cities and towns are : Victoria (the capital), population, (1919), 39,500 ; Vancouver, 115,000 ; New Westminster, 17,000 ; Nanaimo, 7,800 ; North Vancouver, 8,100 ; Nelson, 5,500 ; Prince Rupert, 4,000.

The movement of the population for five years was as follows : —

-

Births

Marriages

Deaths Excess of births

1

1914 1915 1916 1917 1918-91

10,418 4,296 6,444 10,516 3,393 3,832 C.084 9,841 3,169 3,3!>7 5.954 9,450 2,861 3,896 • ! 5,554 9,010 2,829 6.696 J.3U

1 Twelve months ended June, 1919.

Instruction. — A complete system of free and non -sectarian education was established by Act in 1872. Attendance is compulsory from the age of iseven to fouiteen. The central control is vested iu the Council of Public
 * Instroction, composed of the members of the Executive Council. The