BRITISH COLl MI'.IA. 



107 



BRITISH COLUMBIA. Tin- third session 

 of tin- Sixth Parliament of Hritish Columbia 

 nprin'd mi .Ian. -S at Victoria. The death of 

 the lion. John Holison, Premier, made a reor- 

 gaiii/iitinn of the (iovernrnent necessary, and 

 Lieut. -<Jov. Dewdney called upon the Hon. .Mr. 

 to form an administration, which he did, 

 with the following Cabinet : lion. .Mr. Pooley, 

 President of Council : Hon. Mr. Vernon, Chief 

 Commissioner of Lands and Works; Hon. Mr. 

 Turner. Minister of Finance; Col. Baker, Pro- 

 vincial Secretary and Minister of Education; 

 Mr. Da vie. in addition to the premiership, having 

 the portfolio of Attorney-General. 



The Lieutenant-Governor, in his opening ad- 

 dress, directed the minds of the members to the 

 matters of public interest that would occupy 

 their attention during the session, the more im- 

 portant being the question of the redistribution 

 of parliamentary seats, public health, the rights 

 of the province to the lands in the railway belt, 

 ami the consideration of the relations of labor 

 and capital. 



The Minister of Finance, in his budget speech, 

 stated that the public revenue of the province 

 for the preceding year was $1,038,237, and the 

 expenditure $1,430.920, or an excess of expend- 

 iture over revenue of $392,683. Much of the 

 expenditure, however, he said, was for roads, 

 public works, and other necessary improve- 

 ments. There had been paid during the year 

 $118,978 for interest on the public debt, and 

 $41,710 on account of the sinking fund. By 

 means of a new system of refunding the public 

 debt, lower rates of interest, and increased reve- 

 nue, the minister said he hoped to begin the 

 year 1894 with about $500,000 to the credit of 

 the province. 



The Minister of Education, in his annual 

 report, gave the number of pupils in the public 

 schools as 10,773, the number of schools 149, 

 and the expenditure for the year $160,627. 



Other important items of expenditure were 

 for hospitals, etc., $33,272, and for roads and 

 other improvements $368,633. 



During the session, which ended on Apr. 13, 

 92 bills were introduced, 66 of which were 

 passed. The most important of the acts were 

 one providing for the establishing of a bureau of 

 labor statistics and councils of conciliation and 

 arbitration for the settlement of industrial dis- 

 putes ; to amend the Married Women's Prop- 

 erty act ; respecting public health ; and acts in- 

 corporating railway and other companies. 



The Dominion Government subsidy to the 

 province is over $200.000 a year, and another 

 source of revenue is the tax of $50 a head on 

 Chinese, which last year netted the province 

 $26,275. This is only one third of the whole 

 sum collected, the remaining two thirds passing 

 into the Dominion treasury. 



Dominion Grants. The following were the 

 most important grants made by the Govern- 

 ment of Canada to the province for the fiscal 

 year 1893-'94 : Indians, included under the gen- 

 eral heads of salaries, relief of distress, seed 

 grain, implements and tools, medical attendance, 

 education, etc., $92,282; collection of revenue 

 customs, $59.495 : steam service between San 

 Francisco and Victoria, $17,640, and between 

 Nanaimo and Victoria, and Comax and Valdez 



island, $6,000; Victoria new post-office. $100,- 

 000 ; lirit ish ( 'olnmbia Penitentiary, $49.449.15 ; 

 Victoria drill hall, $26,500; improving Victoria 

 harbor, the Fraser River, etc., $83,500; fortifi- 

 cations at Ks(|iiimalt, $70,000; pay of a detach- 

 ment of Royal Marine Artillery at the fortifica- 

 tions, $35,000; atid for the quarantine station 

 and wharf at William's Head, $114,500. 



Mineral Products. Coal, of which British 

 Columbia possesses vast supplies, is the most 

 Important mineral production of the province. 

 In 1874, the earliest year of which there are 

 statistics, the amount of coal mined was 81,574 

 tons. Since 1888, when the product was 548,- 

 017 tons, there has been a steady annual increase 

 in the output of over 100,000 tons, and the esti- 

 mated production for the present year (1893) is 

 1,059,517 tons. Of the coal produced about two 

 thirds is exported, and for tnis year the amount 

 received from this source of wealth will prob- 

 ably exceed $2,100.000. So far coal mining has 

 only been conducted at the Nanaimo, Welling- 

 ton, East Wellington, and Union collieries ; but 

 small supplies for home use are procured from 

 surface outcroppings and shallow deposits in 

 various sections of the province. 



Gold mining is not now prosecuted in British 

 Columbia with the enthusiasm and success that 

 characterized the industry in former years. In 

 1858, a year after gold was discovered there, 

 the value of the product amounted to $705,000 

 for the year. The amount produced rapidly in- 

 creased until 1863, when the maximum was 

 reached, the value of the precious metal for 

 that year being $3,913,563. Since that time 

 there has been a gradual decline in the yearly 

 product, until now scarcely $400,000 worth is 

 secured. Since the discovery of gold in the 

 province the value of the entire quantity pro- 

 duced is $56,500,000 nearly. 



Considerably more than half the men engaged 

 in gold mining in British Columbia are Chinese, 

 and their methods, while giving them what they 

 consider fair remuneration, are not at all scien- 

 tific, or calculated to secure the best results. 

 But the falling off in the amount of gold pro- 

 duced is less owing to improper methods than 

 to exhaustion of the old sources of supply. The 

 discovery of a rich auriferous belt at Alberni 

 last summer was hailed with delight by gold 

 miners. Col. Baker, a member of the British 

 Columbia Cabinet, visited the place a few 

 months after the discovery, and spoke highly of 

 its prospects. He describes the auriferous belt 

 as being 6 miles wide and extended between 

 China and High watches creeks as far as pro- 

 spected to a distance of 80 miles. A large 

 number of claims were recorded when Col. 

 Baker's visit was made, and prospectors were 

 eagerly pressing forward to the neighborhood. 

 Alberni has a magnificent harbor, and large 

 water power almost in the center of the town, 

 which at the time of the gold find had a pop- 

 ulation of about 200. A large area of rich agri- 

 cultural land and immense tracts of valuable 

 timber exist in the district. 



Lumber. The revenue received by the Do- 

 minion Government from the Crown Timber 

 Agency of the province in 1892 amounted to 

 $30,916, being $15,078 less than for the year 

 before. The total quantity of lumber manu- 



