DOMINION OF CANADA. 



271 



legislation of the Dominion parliament- 

 sessions of 1873-74 has been eminently 

 Moil Mini progressive. An act of tin- i..r- 

 iii. r session, cap. 88, confirms a contra, t \ 



n the Postmaster-General and Sir Hugh 

 Allan (who has been engaged in this service 

 tor many years), for a weekly m:iil-si-r\ in- !..- 

 i Quebec or Montreal and Liverpool in 

 mer, and Portland and Liverpool in win- 

 r the sum of $126,533.38 per annum 

 i-it her paufy having power to end the contract 

 upon Diving one year's notice, and the Postmas- 

 . eneral having said power at any time for 

 IP Hi-performance. A stringent law was passed, 

 in which, besides dealing severely with "cor- 

 rupt practices," is prescribed against the par- 

 ty wrongfully elected, not only the loss of the 

 seat, but incapacity to sit during that Parlia- 

 ment. The ballot has also been introduced, 

 and, so far, has worked successfully. Cases 

 of controverted elections are by another law 

 transferred from parliamentary committees to 

 the Supremo Courts. The operation of this 

 law has been observed to be prompt and effec- 

 tive, it being evident that the grosser forms of 

 bribery must certainly disappear under its 

 strictness and influence. A source of much 

 difficulty between the governments of Ontario 

 and Quebec has been removed by the act, cap. 

 30, under which the Dominion Government 

 assumes the total debt of those provinces at 

 the time of the Union, viz., $73,006,088, instead 

 of $62,000,000, as laid down in the Act of 

 Confederation (1867). As this change dis- 

 turbed the monetary arrangements generally, 

 under which the Union took place, proportion- 

 ate concessions have been made to the other 

 four provinces. 



The Minister of Finance, in his official state- 

 ment, April 1, 1873, gave a good account of 

 the material prosperity of the Dominion. De- 

 posits in. banks had increased in five years 

 nearly $37,000,000 ; the exports in that time 

 had nearly doubled ; the increase of imports 

 was still larger. Notwithstanding, he said, 

 the large outlays in constructing the Interco- 

 lonial Railway, in purchasing the Northwest 

 Territory, in assuming the debt of British 

 Columbia, and the expenditure on the Pacific 

 Utiilway survey, the Dominion debt did not 

 amount to one cent more per head than when 

 the provinces were confederated. The reve- 

 nue of the fiscal year was $20,714,813 ; the 

 expenditure $17,559,468. By another arrange- 

 ment of figures, however, the successor to this 

 gentleman, the present Finance Minister, satis- 

 fied Parliament that a deficit of not less than 

 $3,000,000 existed when he came into office, 

 to meet which he obtained its consent to rais- 

 ing the duty on general imports from 15 to 17 

 per cent., to reimposing a small amount on 

 tea and coffee, to a limited increase of the ex- 

 cise duties, and in other particulars to a read- 

 justment of the tariff. 



The railways of Canada, on the 1st of Octo- 

 ber last, extended over 4,022 miles ; the traffic 



r turns, from July to December, amounted to 

 $8,688,750, of whirl, $4,908,769 is get down to 

 the Grand Trunk Company. 



The progress of telegraphy has also been 

 rapid in proportion to the population. The 

 position of the Montreal Telegraph Company, 

 on the 17th of October lost, will be seen by 

 the following table : 



*),*57 



is 

 1.M8 



Miles of poles 



Miles of wire 



Miles of rablo 



Number of offices 



Nets of Instrument; 



Messages for the year ending November, 



1878 1.784,753 



Words to newspapers, nearly 9,000,000 



Of the Dominion Telegraph Company it is 

 reported : 



Number of offices 800 



Miles in operation 6.000 



Number of employe's 400 



Bets of instruments 600 



The increase of tonnage and the steady ad- 

 vance of marine and fishery interests in the 

 Dominion are also observable. The official re- 

 ports of the Department of Marine show high 

 appreciation, on the part of the responsible 

 minister, of the duties devolving upon him. In 

 the Quebec division, for instance, extending to 

 the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland, 

 there were, at the close of navigation, 35 light- 

 houses, 5 light-ships with steam fog-whistles, 

 52 buoys, and 35 beacons. The fisheries of the 

 Dominion are also reported to be much on the 

 increase. A protective system has been adopt- 

 ed in favor of the estuary, river, and inland 

 fisheries.' About 1,000 decked vessels, and 

 17,000 open boats, with not less than 42,000 

 men, are computed to be engaged in the sev- 

 eral provinces. The latest official statement 

 estimates the value of the catch of the year as 

 $9,570,116, showing an increase of thirty-three 

 per cent, in two years. 



Much and increased interest is now mani- 

 fested in Canada in favor of immigration. In 

 the year 1872 the combined expenditure of the 

 Dominion and Provincial Governments for this 

 purpose amounted to $261,968,003. The vote 

 of the Dominion Parliament, alone, last year 

 was nearly $300,000. The return of the num- 

 bers settling in the early part of the year 1873 

 shows 42,000, including a large number of 

 French Canadians who had returned from the 

 United States a movement which is still con- 

 tinuing, and is being much encouraged. During 

 the past year (1874) the number of immigrants 

 is less than that of the previous report, but it 

 is stated that as a class, consisting chiefly of 

 English agricultural laborers, they are desira- 

 ble. 



The Dominion obituary of the last two years 

 contains many honored names, including those 

 of Sir George E. Cartier, baronet, for many 

 years a distinguished French-Canadian states- 

 man ; Hon. Joseph Howe, long known as 

 one of the ablest and most patriotic of the 

 public men of Nova Scotia, and the Governor 



