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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 47
Money Table
Money Table.
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Table for Converting British Money into British Columbia Money, and British Columbia Money into British Money.
For general purposes, it will be sufficient to remember that the British Columbian cent and the English half-penny are almost the same in value.
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Cost of the Common Articles of Household Consumption and Use in British Columbia, and comparison of the same with English and Eastern Canada Prices in 1872.
The above are the prices on the seaboard of British Columbia. The prices of foreign produce are higher in the interior, owing to the high cost of land carriage, and this will probably continue so until the Canadian Pacific Railway is finished.
Weights and measures are the imperial; but by agreement, the American gallon, which is about one-fifth less, is sometimes used. The American ton is 2000 lbs., not 2240 lbs.
A consideration of the above prices of the principal articles of household consumption in British Columbia will show to the small farmer, to the mechanic, and to the farm labourer, and, indeed, to many others, that these prices permit a family of moderate means to have a plentiful supply of excellent food, and household and personal comforts.
There cannot be found anywhere more charming places of residence than in several towns and districts of British Columbia. It is therefore extremely likely that, as soon as communications are improved from California, visitors will reach the province from New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago, and other places. We expect also residents attracted by the climate, scenery, good schools, and abundance of choice meat, game, and vegetables at moderate prices.
The main difficulty at present for residents is the wages of household servants and the difficulty of getting them.
For the information of intending residents, I state here the estimated expenditure at this time on necessaries of a small family in a city in England with an income of 300l. a year; and I compare the same for British Columbia (seaboard districts).
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The principal difference is in servants' wages. The cost of coals and milk may he reduced in British Columbia, by having a place out of town with grass for a cow, and wood-fuel for the cost of cutting and hauling. Game and fish are much cheaper in British Columbia than in England.
The natural productions of British Columbia (berries, animals, birds, and fish) afford good help for food. Thirty thousand Indians at least have lived upon these natural productions for nobody knows how long, without, so far as we can judge, lessening their growth appreciably in the districts inhabited by Indians.