The MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE.
I have not worked out the exact proportion ; but these 339 establishments had a total annual output of $44,500, or an average of $144 for each establishment, instead of $200. This shows that the industrial enumeration was not made on the basis which has been alleged.
But, Sir, there is a much more important part of the tabulation and the enumeration which I also want to go into, that is, for the population. Hon. gentlemen opposite and their friends in the country have been making certain criticisms of the census of 1901. In the first place, I may say that the instructions that were given in 1901 with regard to the enumeration were practically the same as the instructions given in 1891, 1881 and 1871. It is true there was one difference made in the census of 1891, which was pointed out by my hon. friend from Pictou, that difference being that people who had been absent for more than 12 months were not to be enumerated ; and my hon. friend took great credit to the government of that day for taking that precaution and thereby preventing the enumerating of people who had left the country or left the particular-locality permanently. Now, Sir, what have we found ? We have found, by a careful investigation, in so far as it has gone-and it has gone very far indeed in the province of Quebec, and a reasonable distance in the province of Ontario-that if that instruction was given, it was disregarded to such an extent that we must conclude that it was wilfully disregarded. The enumerators, some of them, ignored it entirely ; because I shall be able to show, not by .general statements of the number in the aggregate, but by individual statements, that many individuals and their families were enumerated who had been more than 12 months absent from the place where they were enumerated.