Colporteurs were well organized by the early 1930’s. Besides those who worked by themselves, there were about seven “camps” or groups. These colporteur “camps” were in British Columbia, Manitoba, Alberta-Saskatchewan, Quebec, eastern Ontario, southwestern Ontario and the Maritimes. Such groups ground their own wheat, cooked their own meals and traded literature for fresh food. They witnessed in rural areas using house-cars in camping caravans during months when the weather permitted this. In the wintertime, these colporteurs moved into a large house in a city where they could assist a local congregation in covering its territory. At times these groups moved to several cities in one winter.

About that time, colporteurs began to be called pioneers. And in some areas they really ‘blazed a trail.’ For instance, Arthur Melin and David Hadland did fine work in the section around and to the west of Burns Lake, British Columbia. In all that territory, which they worked in the summer of 1932, there was not a single Kingdom proclaimer. With a Model “A” Ford and later with another automobile, they covered a large area. Seed was sown, and Jehovah made it grow. Today there are 10 congregations in that same area.

There were also instances of the police trying to interfere with a house-car group working in the Maritimes. The officials tried to make it appear that the pioneers were doing a commercial work and needed a license or permit. This happened at Newcastle, Dalhousie, Bathurst, Campbellton, Grand Falls and Edmundston, New Brunswick. The interference never developed beyond the stage of going to the police station, however, because Daniel Ferguson and Roderick Campbell had obtained from an official in the capital a letter acknowledging that our work was not of a commercial nature. Usually, when that letter was shown to the police, they took no further action against us.