<P> The Canadian government's first attempt to restrict immigration from India was to pass an order - in - council on January 8, 1908, that prohibited immigration of persons who "in the opinion of the Minister of the Interior" did not "come from the country of their birth or citizenship by a continuous journey and or through tickets purchased before leaving their country of their birth or nationality ." In practice this applied only to ships that began their voyage in India, as the great distance usually necessitated a stopover in Japan or Hawaii . These regulations came at a time when Canada was accepting massive numbers of immigrants (over 400,000 in 1913 alone--a figure that remains unsurpassed to this day), almost all of whom came from Europe . Though Gurdit Singh, was apparently aware of regulations when he chartered the Komagata Maru in January 1914, he continued with his purported goal of challenging these exclusion laws in order to have a better life . The Komagata Maru, a Japanese steamship that sailed from Hong Kong to Shanghai, China; Yokohama, Japan; and then to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1914, carried 376 passengers from Punjab, India . The passengers were not allowed to land in Canada and the ship was forced to return to India . The passengers consisted of 340 Sikhs, 24 Muslims, and 12 Hindus, all British subjects . This was one of several incidents in the early 20th century involving exclusion laws in Canada and the United States designed to keep out immigrants of Asian origin . </P> <P> Scandinavians were a strong contingent of the original arrivals from California and distinguished themselves in the establishment of the early timber industry and especially in the foundations of the commercial fishery . Later on, semi-utopian and religious colonies arrived at certain places--Cape Scott and Holberg, British Columbia and nearby areas for the Danes, Sointula and Websters Corners for the Finns, and Bella Coola and locations nearby, such as Tallheo . All originally socialist or Christian attempts at new societies, these wound up breaking up though the populations such as the Norwegians at Bella Coola continued on in the fishery, building and running canneries (of which Tallheo was one). </P> <P> German colonists, like the Scandinavians, were among the earliest to arrive from California and established themselves beyond mining in areas such as ranching and construction and specialized trades . Until World War I, Vancouver was a major centre of German investment and social life and German was commonly heard on the city's streets and bars . They remained the largest non-British group in the province until eclipsed in that capacity by the Chinese in the 1980s . </P> <P> The Doukhobor people were assisted in their immigration by Count Leo Tolstoy who admired them for their collectarian lifestyle and beliefs and ardent pacifism and freedom from materialism . Originally settled in Saskatchewan, and restive of the government's desire to send their children to public school and other matters, they migrated en masse to British Columbia to settle in the West Kootenay and Boundary regions . </P>

Where did the british immigrants settle in canada