The population of British Columbia was in 1871, 36,247; 1881, 49,459; 1891, 98,173 ; 1901, 178,657; 1911, 392,480. In 1911 there were 251,619 males and 140,861 females. Of the male population in 1911, 68,963 over 21 years of age were foreign born. Of these 12,188 were naturalized and 56,755 alien. By origin 133,186 were English; 40,642 Irish ; 74,493 Scottish ; 8,907 French; 11,880 German ; 7,015 Austro-Hungarian ; 15,968 Scandinavian ; 6,896 Russian ; 9,721 Italian; 20,134 native Indian. The Oriental popula tion included 19,568 Chinese, 8,587 Japanese and 2,292 Hindus. Of the total population in 1911, 170,000 were born in Canad.a; 107,000 in the British Isles; 125,000 in foreign countries, including 40,000 born on the European continent and 38,000 in the United States. Of the foreign-born Europeans, Austria Hungary contributed over 6,000, Italy over 8,000, Scandinavian countries, nearly 11,000. Classified by religions, 101,000 were Anglicans, 82,000 Presbyterians, 58,000 Roman Catholics, 52,000 Methodists, 19,000 Lutherans, 17,000 Baptists, 3,600 Greek Church ; while 26,000 are recorded as of Eastern religions, that is, Buddhists, Mohammedans, Hindus, etc. The population was more than half urban, viz., 203,687 urban to 188,796 rural. The chief cities are : VancouVer, population (1911) 100,401, the fourth city in Canada; Victoria, the capital, 31,600; New Westminster, the former capital, 13,199; Nelson, 4,476; and Prince Rupert (which commenced its existence in 1911), about 10,000.
The educational system and methods of British Columbia are quite ambi tious. Theprovincial treasury in various ways contributes $2,000,000 a year, or $5 per head, toward public education. The University of British Columbia, situated near Vancouver, has faculties in arts, applied science and agri culture. There are two normal schools and 30 high schools, with night schools for tech nical instruction. The system is non-sectarian, with English as the only language of instruc tion. The law provides for compulsory at tendance. There are 419 schools and colleges altogether, the total enrollment during 1916 being 64,570 pupils, of whom 31,523 were in graded city schools, 15,350 in rural municipal ity schools and 12,927 in rural and assisted schools. The total number of teachers em ployed was 2,064, of whom 162 were in high schools, 845 in city graded schools, 499 in rural municipality schools and 558 in the rural and assisted schools.
Government. The administration is vested a lieutenant-governor, and a cabinet, com prising the Premier and seven heads of depart ments, with two or three other members of the executive. The heads are Minister of Finance, Attorney-General, Provincial Secretary, who is also Minister of Education, Ministers of Lands, Mines, Public Works and Agriculture. There is a single chamber legislature of 47 members, elected by manhood and womanhood suffrage. Women were admitted to full citizen ship in 1917, after a popular referendum. Justice is administered by a Court of Appeal, composed of a chief justice and four other judges; the Supreme Court, comprising a chief justice and five others, 10 County Courts, each with one judge, except that of Vancouver which has three. There are also minor courts
and juvenile courts.
Early History and the Hudson's Bay When Sir Francis Drake sailed up and down the Pa'cific coast of North Amer ica in 1578-79 and took possession of what is now the State of California, in the name of Queen Elizabeth, he is said to have sailed as far north as the entrance of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. In 1592 the Spaniard whose name is borne by those straits entered them and sailed a good distance up the Strait of Georgia, be tween Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia. Juan Perez, another Span iard, in 1774 and Behring, the Danish naviga tor, in 1748, touched at points of this territory. But it remained for Captain Cook in 1778, under instructions from the British government, to really explore its coast and give names to places since well known to history.
Other explorers followed — Hanna, Meares, Dixon, Haro, Duncan and Barkley —until in 1792 Cap. George Vancouver came with instructions to carry out a thorough sur vey of the intricate coast lines of the future province. After this period, for many years, Great Britain ceased to show any interest in the country. To the aggressive, enterprising traders of the Hudson's Bay Company was due the fact that the British flag was kept flying at all and that it was not eventually replaced by that of the United States, as in Oregon and Washington. In this connection the arrival of the company's steamer Beaver by way of Cape Horn, in 1835, marked an important era in the history of the province. Of the overland ex plorers the chief were Sir Alexander Macken zie, 1793, Lewis and Clark, 1804-06, Thompson in 1807, Simon Fraser in 1808, the Astor ex pedition of 1810-11. From this time until the middle of the 19th century the history of what was then called New Caledonia is a record of Hudson's Bay fur-trading, occasional inter national or inter-company disputes, the build ing of dozens of forts, the maintenance of law and order amongst the Indians. Exclusive trading privileges were given the company in 1838, Alaska was leased by it in 1839, the Oregon boundary was fixed in 1846, and Van couver Island was ceded in 1848 for brief period.
Gold Discoveries and Early Constitu tional In 1858 a rumor reached San Francisco that gold had been found in the Fraser River. A party left at once for that region and the result of their success was a stampede from the Pacific coast city to the golden banks of the Fraser. The Horsefly dis coveries and the rich bars of the Quesnelle were the next attractions. In 1861, the cele brated Williams' Creek was found and turned out to be one of the richest discoveries of the kind in history. Many claims paid dividends of from $20,000 to $60,000 a year, and all its diggings paid well. One claim of 300 feet of ground produced $300,000. For a time the placer mines of Cariboo repeated the history of California in 11349, and then came a gradual exhaustion, not, however, before some $50,000, 000 worth of gold had been extracted.