As to business failures the Secretary says:
Business failures have been few—practically the whole amount of the liabilities will be made up of one failure, and it is believed the loss to creditors in this particular case will be slight.
| Gross Postal Revenue | Tramway Receipts (gross) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1910 | $114,318 | $477,109 |
| 1911 | 119,561 | 502,399 |
| 1912 | 132,097 | 539,853 |
| 1913 | 140,102 | 605,933 |
| 1914 | 147,943 | 645,341 |
| 1915 | 154,499 | 718,840 |
| 1916 | 167,594 | 559,513 |
| 1917 | 255,815 | 859,667 |
| 1918 | 305,412 | 998,702 |
| 1919 | 349,507 | 1,258,503 |
Among other assurances at the new prosperity and the beginnings of fresh faith in the city's future is the coming of new large business interests into the city. Among the largest construction work is the building of the Halifax shipyards upon the explosion ground, involving an outlay of ten millions of dollars. There is the ever-extending plant of the Imperial Oil Company, which will eventually make of Halifax a great oil-distribution port. There is the continuation of the thirty-million-dollar scheme of modern terminal facilities, which have been constructed so close to the ocean that a ship may be out of sight of land within an hour after casting off from the quay.
In short there has been, as has been said, an “impetus given to business generally.” That the impetus will continue there is every prospect. Halifax may experience a temporary wave of depression when such waves are flowing elsewhere. But today there are fewer doubters and more believers. The day of new elevators, new hotels, harbor-bridges and electric trains is not very far away. The prophecy of Samuel Cunard made in 1840—when he inaugurated the first Trans-Atlantic line—that “Halifax would be the entering port of Canada”—seems destined to fulfilment.
As regards population after disasters Hoffman writes:
Even an earthquake such as affected the city of San Francisco may not materially change the existing numbers of the population after a sufficient period of time has elapsed for a reassembling of the former units, and a return to the normal conditions of life and growth.[161]
Yet as before remarked, the catastrophe at Halifax eclipsed all preceding disasters to single communities on the Continent of America in the toll of human life.[162] In the San Francisco earthquake the loss was four hundred and ninety-eight; at the Chicago fire three hundred; at the Iroquois theatre fire in the same city, five hundred and seventy-five; at the Chester explosion one hundred and twelve; at the Johnstown flood two thousand. It is now estimated that the disaster at Halifax probably passed this latter figure, decreasing the city's population by four per cent. Notwithstanding this heavy draught upon the population, the 1918 volume of the Halifax Directory contained six hundred and fifty more names than the previous year.
In the light of this consideration the following indication of the growth of population is also of contributory interest.[163]