The Cyples Family
Letters from the New World

11th March 1947

Fred and Family:
 
Your letter recd some days ago.The Can. Govt owes me about $200.00 known as "compulsory savings" accumulated during the war and those past 65 can now collect. However I must furnish proof of age. Therefore I wish that you would call or write and get a statement that I was born in 1881 or get a copy of my birth certificate.It may cost a shilling or so
.
The name:Leonard James Cyples born at Florence Trentham May 6th 1881 Sub. District: Trentham This is obtained at the office of Registration of Births and deaths.
 
I naturally have given the matter a good deal of thought as to what work you should follow on arrival here and am convinced that the thing to do would be to get a job as a plaster's helper with the intention of learning plastering and stucco work.There are a number of reasons why this would be best which I cannot go into here except to say that we may have a lot of such work to do especially if we should build an 8 or 10 suite apt.bldg.In such a job the plastering cost would amount to hundreds of dollars since it would consist of 30 or 40 rooms, (Plasters wages are $1.47 cents per hr.)
 
Therefore in your spare time get all the information you can there on buildings being plastered. In fact it would be a 1st class thing if you could get some experience at the trade before you came.If possible you may able to buy a good text book there on the subject and on the art of building brick chimneys.
 
I do not think there will be any action by our Govt.as regards immigration at the present time to benefit you so there is no use to await such action, but get all the information you can on the plastering that you canwhile you are awaiting passage.
 
A large persentage of houses here are finished here with a form of plaster and due to the high price of lumber any building we may do will be so finished and plastering will therefore be an important item of expense.
 
Therefore get a note book and enter in all the facts and information that you are able to obtain about it and do not depend on memory.
 
Yours etc

Leonard