CANADA, DOMINION OF. 



75 



and the colonies would greatly stimulate increased 

 production in and commerce between these coun- 

 tries, and would thus promote and maintain the 

 unity of the empire; and that nothing which falls 

 short of the complete realization of such a policy 

 should be considered as final or satisfactory." 



Militia and Defense. The record of this de- 

 partment's work was necessarily largely connected 

 with the war. The minister came in for some 

 very severe criticism, but his dispatch of nearly 

 3,000 officers and men to South Africa, and of 

 another thousand to Halifax, with the details of 

 their equipment and transport, entailed much 

 work and responsibility, and was upon the whole 

 well done. Dr. Borden, speaking in the Commons 

 on June 26, pointed out what he had done and 

 what he intended to do in the following words: 



" Since he had been in office annual drill had 

 been adopted ; a limit was placed upon the period 

 of command for corps ; an age limit had been estab- 

 lished for officers; cadet corps in connection with 

 high schools and the regiments of militia had been 

 formed; steps taken to form an engineers corps 

 in connection with the universities of Montreal 

 and Toronto; a completed scheme of defense for 

 the Dominion; and an army medical service upon 

 the British model, modified to meet the require- 

 ments of the Canadian service, has been formed, 

 and will be increased until a complete medical 

 service for an army corps of 36,000 has been pro- 

 vided. Mounted infantry was to be inaugurated. 

 An experiment will be made in the Northwest and 

 Manitoba, and the cavalry and infantry converted 

 into mounted infantry." 



One scandal did undoubtedly disgrace his ad- 

 ministration of affairs, and the purchase of some 

 " emergency food " for the troops, at a high rate, 

 which was found to be practically useless, created 

 much discussion in Parliament and the press, and 

 was investigated by a parliamentary commission 

 which on June 28 issued majority and minority 

 reports, in which the Liberals practically cleared 

 the minister of responsibility, while the Conserva- 

 tives proclaimed him inefficient and corrupt. 



The expenditure of the Militia Department for 

 1899 was $2,489,551. That for 1900 would include 

 the whole of the South African war expenses, and 

 be at least double this sum. 



Finances. Mr. W. S. Fielding, as Finance Min- 

 ister, presented his budget to Parliament on March 

 23. It was stamped with the evidences of good 

 times and redundant revenues, and its programme 

 included free trade between Canada and the island 

 of Trinidad an arrangement which subsequently 

 fell through ; the free admission of machinery used 

 in the manufacture of beet-root sugar; an increase 

 from 25 to 33 per cent, in the tariff; preference 

 given to Britsh goods; the statement that the 

 Imperial Government had at last consented to the 

 listing of Canadian Government securities as an 

 investment for trust funds ; and the announcement 

 of a surplus of more than $4,800,000. In his speech 

 Mr. Fielding declared that the past fiscal year had 

 been the most prosperous in Canadian history; 

 that the revenue had been $46,741,249, the expendi- 

 ture $41,903,500, and the surplus $4,837,749. The 

 minister then continued as follows: "The capital 

 expenditure for the year amounted to $9,137,562, 

 and, deducting surplus, sinking fund, and like 

 charges, the net increase of the debt last year was 

 $2.317,047. The average increase in the public 

 debt from 1878 to 1896 was $6.503,075, and in the 

 last three years $2,502,000 a considerable diminu- 

 tion under the present Government. Of the ex- 

 penditure of the last three years, $2,500,000 was 

 for obligations entered into by the last Govern- 

 ment, and if this amount were deducted the aver- 



age annual increase under this administration was 

 about $1,700,000. What had the country got for 

 all this? Taking the four classes of expenditure 

 for canals, public works, the Intercolonial rail- 

 way, and the railway subsidies the expenditure 

 for the three years ending with July 1, 1899, was 

 $16,667,500, compared with $14,351,433 for the 

 three years before that. As to the present fiscal 

 year, of which eight months had elapsed, he 

 estimated that the total revenue would pass 

 $50,000,000." 



On June 26 the supplementary estimates were 

 brought down to the House, consisting of grants 

 to harbors and rivers, public buildings, railways, 

 and canals, and sundry Yukon expenditures. The 

 total was $7,244,135. The figures of revenue, as 

 finally announced, for the fiscal year ending June 

 30, 1900, included $28,102,751 from customs, 

 $9,817,121 from excise, $3,098,410 from the post 

 office, $5,173,544 from public works, and $2,842,770 

 from miscellaneous sources a total of $49,034,597. 

 In the matter of the expenditures on capital ac- 

 count, there was an increased outlay of $629,216 

 upon public works, railways, and canals, from 

 $4,699,692 in 1898-'99 to $5,328,908 in 1899-1900. 

 There was an increase in the outlay upon Do- 

 minion lands from $140,126 in 1898-'99 to $191,469 

 in 1899-1900. These, together with an item of 

 $1,372,707 for the South African contingent, were 

 the only items of increase in capital expenditures 

 as compared with the previous year. Over against 

 these increases there was in the outlay for railway 

 subsidies from $3,194,302 in 1898-'99 to $724,388.73 

 in 1899-1900 a decrease of $2,469,914. This de- 

 crease, together with several minor items, made a 

 total reduction in the expenditure on capital ac- 

 count of $518,714 from $8,318,181.86 in 1898-'99 

 to $7,799,467.11 in 1899-1900. 



Agriculture. The crops of 1900 were generally 

 good and prices fair. The production and export 

 of butter largely increased in 1899, and the total 

 was 20,000,000 pounds, an increase of 100 per cent, 

 over the preceding year. The exports of cheese 

 fell off a little, and amounted to 189,827,000 

 pounds. In his annual report, the Minister of 

 Agriculture stated that Canadian eggs were gain- 

 ing favor rapidly in England, and referred to ex- 

 periments which were going on for the growth of 

 apples in the Northwest. Considerable advance 

 was made in the fattening and export of poultry. 

 The value of the total export of butter in 1899 was 

 $3,700,873; of cheese, $16,776,765. Nearly all this 

 went to Great Britain. The export of cattle to 

 Great Britain was $7,129,430, and to the United 

 States $1,298,170. The total export of horses 

 showed a decrease and was only $898,063 in value, 

 but sheep increased slightly and were valued at 

 $1,540,857, the bulk of which went to the United 

 States. The total export of provisions was $32,- 

 460,844, nearly all of which went to Great Britain. 



An interesting appendix to the minister's annual 

 report was a statement by Prof. McEachran re- 

 garding disease in animals. He declared that 

 tuberculosis was rapidly decreasing: "Hog chol- 

 era, although it occasionally breaks out, is also on 

 the decrease, and has disappeared almost entirely 

 in several of the hitherto most infected centers. 

 Scab in sheep is unknown in the maritime prov- 

 inces, and exists to but a limited extent in On- 

 tario. One outbreak near McLeod, in Alberta, was 

 stamped out by the voluntary destruction of the 

 flock by the owner. Another flock was similarly 

 dealt with in a district northeast of Calgary. No 

 scab was discovered in the 62.308 sheep inspected 

 prior to export from Canada to England, and only 

 2 of the aTiimals were reported affected by the 

 disease on their arrival in England. Mange exists 



