the same conditions prevailed, whilst the season 

 in British Columbia is also dull. An abnormally 

 late season caused late driving in Manitoba. 

 Mining was below normal in the Maritimes, but 

 brighter than the previous month. There was 

 a decline in Alberta, but increased activity in 

 British Columbia. 



Averave Cost of Family Budget 



The average cost of a list of twenty-nine 

 staple foods in sixty cities at the beginning of 

 the month was $12 . 25, as compared with $12 . 68 

 in April, $16.65 for May, 1920, and $7.42 in 

 May, 1914. The total for foods, fuel and rent 

 in the sixty cities averaged $22 . 84 in May, as 

 compared with $23.31 in April, $26.44 in May, 

 1920, $21.92 in May, 1919, and $14.19 in May, 

 1914. The chief changes for the month were 

 decreases in eggs, milk, butter, and potatoes, 

 with slight increases in nearly all the other items. 

 Coal, wood and coal oil registered slightly lower. 

 Rents for the main part averaged higher. 



The departmental index of wholesale prices 

 stood at 247 . 3 for May, as compared with 253 . 7 

 for April, 356.6 for May, 1920, 275.8 for May, 

 1918, and 136.3 for May, 1914. The chief 

 changes for the month were decreases in dairy 

 products, animals and meats, grains and fodder, 

 textiles and in building materials. There was a 

 slight recovery in the prices of zinc, quicksilver, 

 antimony and tin. Iron products continue to 

 ease off gradually. All the groups were lower 

 than a year ago, and nearly all lower than two 

 years ago. 



Minerals of Nova Scotia 



The Maritime province of Nova Scotia, 

 which looms in the world's eye as one of the 

 foremost fish-producing areas of Canada and the 

 globe, has other sources of natural wealth par- 

 tially exploited which, whilst important produc- 

 ing national assets, are inclined to suffer an over- 

 shadowing from the prominence the first industry 

 of the province has attained. Among these latter 

 are the province's mineral deposits. Whilst yet 

 largely undeveloped, the provincial mines ac- 

 counted in 1920 for the not insignificant sum of 

 $30,187,533 of the Dominion's total mineral 

 production of $217,775,080. 



Nova Scotia has a wealth of coal resources, 

 with an estimated reserve of 9,718,968,000 tons, 

 and up to the present year, when Alberta 

 achieved the highest provincial output, she led 

 the provinces of the Dominion in production. 

 In 1920, the coal mines of the province produced 

 6,500,000 tons out of the Dominion total of 

 16,968,658 tons, or 38 per cent. There are in 

 the province four coal fields with thick seams. 

 The most important of these is the Sydney coal 

 field on Cape Breton Island, which supplies 76.9 

 per cent of the Nova Scotia output and has an 

 area of about 200 square miles. The Inverness 



field, a series of areas extending for fifty miles 

 along the western shore of Cape Breton Island, 

 supplies 4.3 of the product, and the Pictou field 

 on the mainland, containing about 25 square 

 miles, supplies 8.9 per cent. Further west on 

 Chignecto Bay is the Cumberland coal field, 

 supplying 9 per cent of the total. 



Coal, Iron and Limestone 



There would appear to be a bright future 

 ahead of the Nova Scotia coal fields, and the 

 recent heavy shipments to the British Isles had 

 a great significance. The mines are practically 

 all on, or within a few miles of, tidewater and 

 good harbors so that the transportation problem 

 becomes a relatively simple one. The quantity of 

 coal available is enormous and opportunities 

 exceptional for the invasion of other fields for 

 export. 



Though Nova Scotia may be considered fairly 

 wealthy in iron ore, this mineral is distributed in 

 comparatively small beds and pockety deposits, 

 making it a most difficult matter to compete with 

 the hematite of Newfoundland. The London- 

 derry mines which were opened in 1849 have been 

 idle since 1908, and those in Annapolis County, 

 though yielding 350,000 tons between 1891 and 

 1913, are no longer worked. The supply of iron 

 ore utilized in provincial manufacture is ob- 

 tained from the adjacent island of Newfound- 

 land, the distance of shipment being 400 miles. 



The province is rich in limestone, all the 

 quarries being located on Cape Breton Island, 

 comprising the Marble Mountain quarry worked 

 by the Dominion Iron and Steel Company and 

 the George River quarry and Point Edward 

 quarry of the Nova Scotia Steel Company. With 

 abundant coal on the spot, with iron ore of very 

 high quality in unlimited amounts obtainable 

 close at hand by cheap water shipment, and with 

 harbors such as Sydney and Louisburg available 

 summer and winter for export up the St. Law- 

 rence into the heart of the Dominion or any 

 other part of the world, Nova Scotia has all the 

 requisites for unlimited development in the iron 

 and steel industry. The total production of 

 blast furnace pig iron in Nova Scotia in 1919 

 was 285,087 tons, valued at $7,141,641, and in 

 1918, 415,879 tons, worth $10,451,400. 



Oil Shales and Gold 



In Pictou County there is an undeveloped 

 area of about ten square miles estimated to 

 contain 500,000,000 tons of oil shales which 

 should prove of great importance not only for 

 its high percentage of oil but from its position 

 in the heart of the manufacturing district and 

 its accessibility by sea. Antigonish and Col- 

 chester counties also contain valuable areas of 

 oil shales. 



The recovery of gold in small quantities has 

 been made in Nova Scotia since 1860, and in all 

 since that time, 958,712 ounces have been 



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