Foreigners were pouring in, bringing capital; great confidence was put
by foreign capitalists in the country, several railways had run out new
branches, new railways were built, new banks were opened, and a very
large extent of land was opened up and cultivated, and put under wheat
and linseed, harvests were good and money was flowing into the country.
Then came a very bad year, 1889; the harvest was practically lost owing
to the heavy and continuous rains which fell from December till July
with hardly a clear day. This, together with a bad government and the
revolution of 1890, created a great panic and a tremendous slump in all
land, from which it took a long time to recover. Where people had bought
camps and mortgaged them, which was the general thing to do in those
days, the mortgagees foreclosed, and, when the camps were auctioned
off, they did not fetch half what the properties had been bought for in
the first instance, some four or five years previously. This, naturally,
had a serious effect on the credit, soundness, and finances of the
country, but really, the crisis was not felt until some three or four
years after, and it was 1896 and 1897 which were very serious years for
the country.
To give one an idea of the value of land in four or five of the
principal provinces of the country, I must begin with the Queen
Province, as it is called, viz.
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