596 



OREGON. 



price $6.300. These sums are paid for a yearly 

 license to cut timber, and the purchasers, in addi- 

 tion to this, pay large sums by way of dues and 

 ground rents. 



Loan and Investment Companies. Seventy- 

 six loan, building, and investment companies 

 doing business in Ontario made returns to the 

 Government for 1892. The total capital sub- 

 scribed for all the companies was $80,278,277; 

 liabilities to stockholders, $45,893,742 ; liabilities 

 to the public, $77.727,428 ; total liabilities, $123,- 

 621,170; secured loan assets, $109,251,079; prop- 

 erty assets, $14,370,091. The loans granted by 

 54 companies reporting for 1892 amounted to 

 $19,768,025, and for 1891 to $16,797,699. 



Manufactures. The chief manufacturing in- 

 dustries of Ontario are the making of agricul- 

 tural implements, railroad rolling stock (includ- 

 ing locomotives), cotton factories, woolen fac- 

 tories, tanneries, furniture factories, flax works, 

 ordinary iron and hardware works, paper and 

 pulp factories, and wooden ware. The number of 

 manufacturing establishments in the province in 

 1893 has been estimated at 35,028, the capital in- 

 vested at $182.603,340, the number of men em- 

 ployed at 170,226, the wages paid for the year at 

 $53,207,710, and the value of the products at 

 $245,100,267. 



Political. Since 1872 the Liberal party has 

 held the reins of power in the Provincial Gov- 

 ernment without interruption. But Ontario, 

 though ever since then invariably returning a 

 majority of Liberals to the local Parliament, has 

 almost invariably returned a majority of Con- 

 servatives to the Dominion Parliament. In 

 Dominion politics it has been generally Conserv- 

 ative, and in provincial politics Liberal. The 

 Opposition in the Parliament of Ontario is led, 

 as it has been for many years past, by Sir 

 William R. Meredith (recently knighted). 



OREGON, a Pacific coast State, admitted to 

 the Union Feb. 14, 1859; area, 96,030 square 

 miles. The population was 13,294 in 1850 ; 52,- 

 405 in 1860 ; 90,923 in 1870 ; 174,768 in 1880 ; 

 and 313,767 in 1890. Capital, Salem. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year : Governor, Sylvester 

 Pennoyer, Democrat ; Secretary of State, Audi- 

 tor, and Insurance Commissioner, George W. 

 McBride, Republican ; Treasurer, Philip Met- 

 schau, Republican ; Attorney-General, George 

 E. Chamberlain, Democrat; Superintendent of 

 Public Instruction, E. B. McElroy, Republican ; 

 Adjutant-General, R. W. Mitchell, Democrat; 

 Railroad Commissioners; H. B. Compson, I. A. 

 Macrum, James B. Eddy ; Pilot Commissioners, 

 John F. Brown, B. F. Packard, and John Fox, 

 Republicans; Chief Justice of the Supreme 

 Court, William P. Lord ; Associates, Robert S. 

 Bean and Frank A. Moore, all Republicans. 



Finances. The total valuation of taxable 

 property was $168,088,905. A surplus of $13, 

 448.32 remained from the tax levy of 1893. The 

 whole amount to be raised for 1894 is $722,782.- 

 29. which amounts to a levy of 4fV mills, and 

 gives, with the surplus of 1893, $736,230.61 for 

 expenses of the coming year. Unexpended 

 balances of the appropriation for 1891-'92 

 amount to $47,624.50, of which $42,478.53 was 

 used for expenses of 1893, leaving $5,145.97 that 

 may be used for the expenses of this year. 



Mortgage Indebtedness. The Government 

 bulletin on statistics of farms and homes gives 

 the indebtedness of Oregon as averaging $73 per 

 head of population, and the ratio to assessed 

 value as 8' 11 per cent. The existing mortgage 

 debt of Oregon Jan. 1, 1890, was $22,928,437, of 

 which $15,983,361, or 69'71 per cent., is on acres, 

 and $6,945.076, or 30-29 per cent., is on lots. Of 

 the 22,553 mortgages jn force, 16,250, or 72-05 

 per cent., are on acres, and 6,303, or 27-95 per 

 cent., are on lots. Mortgages in force cover 

 2,528,820 acres and 15,360 lots. The average 

 rate of interest on the existing mortgage debt is 

 9-46 per cent. ; on acres, 9-39 per cent. ; on lots, 

 9-59 per cent. There was no legal limit to the 

 rate of interest in Oregon until 1863, when all 

 rates above 12 per cent, became usurious, and 

 since 1880 the highest legal rate of interest was 

 10 per cent. The debt of over $61,000,000 in- 

 curred in this State during the ten-year period 

 bore 24 different rates of interest, and besides 

 this, $104,260 was not subject to any interest. 

 The highest rate discovered was 36 per cent. 



Banks. From official data, it appears that 

 16 banks in the State suspended between Jan. 1 

 and Sept. 1, and none had resumed at the latter 

 date. The Oregon National Bank was reopened 

 soon afterward. 



Militia. The Adjutant-General's enrollment 

 of men liable to military duty amounts to 44,- 

 444. The United States census of 1890 gives 

 88,000 in round members as the force of men in 

 Oregon available for military duty. This differ- 

 ence is accounted for by the State exemptions 

 for military duty. The State enrollment in- 

 cludes men from twenty-one to forty-five years 

 of age, while that of the Government includes 

 men from eighteen to forty-five, and allows no 

 exemptions. The organized militia at the close 

 of 1893 amounted to 1,406 men, with 175 officers. 

 There are 3 regiments of infantry, 2 troops of 

 cavalry, 1 battery of artillery, and 1 independ- 

 ent battalion of 2 companies. During the past 

 year the National Guard has been equipped in a 

 more complete manner than in any period of 

 its history. 



State Institutions. The whole number of 

 patients in the Insane Asylum at the end of the 

 year was 920, of whom 635 were men and 285 

 women. The Legislature provided for a branch 

 asylum in eastern Oregon. The bill appropriates 

 $165,000. A single building is called for by the 

 bill, to be planned with a view to future addi- 

 tions. 



The Legislature made provision for the estab- 

 lishment of a soldiers' home. The trustees de- 

 cided to place it at Roseburg. This was con- 

 trary to the letter of the State Constitution, 

 which requires that all public institutions pro- 

 vided for by the Legislative Assembly shall be 

 at the seat of government, and Salem appealed 

 to the courts to have the constitutional provi- 

 sion enforced. An injunction was granted, and 

 an appeal was taken by the trustees to the Su- 

 preme Court. 



The State Prison had 366 inmates at the close 

 of 1893. The whole number of years of service, 

 aside from life sentences, was 1,352-J. Of the 

 convicts, 31 were sentenced for murder. The 

 earnings for the quarter ending June 30 were 

 $3,093.39, of which $2,523.04 was for convict 



