76 



CANADA, DOMINION OF. 



to considerable extent among the range cattle of 

 Alberta and Assiniboiue." 



Banks. This year was marked by the decen- 

 nial consideration of the bank act. The changes 

 were not many and the revision of the charters 

 was largely formal. On May 22 Mr. Fielding in- 

 troduced the subject in the House, and declared 

 that the present act had been found reasonably 

 satisfactory. " The present bank charters expired 

 in 1901, and they proposed by this bill to extend 

 them for ten years, or until 1911. There were 

 new provisions in regard to bank notes, designed 

 to prevent the issue of notes by a bank after its 

 suspension. It was desirable, in the light of the 

 experience of recent years, that a better super- 

 vision of the affairs of the banks, when the bank 

 suspended, than now existed should be provided. 

 They believed that the best medium for doing this 

 was'by using the services of the Canadian Bankers' 

 Association, and for that purpose they had asked 

 the association to become incorporated." 



The bank circulation on Dec. 31, 1899, was 

 si! i. 7)88,236, and the circulation of Dominion notes 

 $27,076,309 a joint increase of $10,000,000 over the 

 same date in 1898. The bank clearings in Toronto, 

 .Montreal, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Halifax, and St. 

 John were $1,549,906,696, showing an increase of 

 .*^.")0,000,000 in the year. The discounts in char- 

 tered banks on Jan. 31, 1900, were $301,000,000, or 

 $18,000,000 more than in June, 1899. The deposits 

 in chartered and savings banks had increased in 

 the same period from $308,000,000 to $321,000,000. 



Trade and Commerce. The figures -for the 

 year ending June 30, 1900, showed a phenomenal 

 increase in trade. The total exports amounted to 

 $175,656,947, an increase over 1896 of $46,440,165. 

 The items included products of the mine, $14,- 

 106,764; products of the fisheries, $11,303,028; 

 products of the forest, $30,050,018; animals and 

 their products, $55,897,800; agricultural products, 

 $27,429,121; manufactures, $13,692,773; miscella- 

 neous, $339,413. 



The goods entered for consumption were valued 

 at $183,209,273, compared with $154,051,593 for the 

 previous year. In the fiscal year 1899 the total 

 trade was $308,388,968; in 1900*it was $358,866,220. 



Labor Matters. The approach of the general 

 elections naturally brought labor interests into 

 prominence, and especially as the Government 

 made strenuous efforts to conciliate this particular 

 class in the community. A commission was ap- 

 pointed in September, composed of Messrs. R. C. 

 Clute, Q. C., Daniel J. Munn, and Ralph Smith, to 

 investigate and report upon the Chinese immigra- 

 tion trouble in British Columbia. Legislation was 

 passed forming a Department of Labor at Ottawa, 

 under the administration of Mr. Mulock, Post- 

 master-General, and a paper was established under 

 its auspices entitled the Labor Gazette. A con- 

 ciliation act was passed, dealing with the settle- 

 ment and prevention of trade disputes by concilia- 

 tion and arbitration. On March 22 Mr. Mulock 

 introduced, and the House passed, the following 

 resolution, which the Opposition designated as a 

 piece of buncombe, but did not otherwise oppose: 



" That it be resolved that all Government con- 

 tracts should contain such conditions as will pre- 

 vent abuses which may arise from the subletting 

 of such contracts, and that every effort should be 

 made to secure the payment of such wages as are 

 generally accepted as current in each trade for 

 competent workmen in the district where the work 

 is carried out, and that this House cordially con- 

 curs in such policy and deems it the duty of the 

 Government to take immediate steps to give effect 

 i hereto. It is hereby declared that the work to 

 which the foregoing policy shall apply includes not 



only work undertaken by the Government itself, 

 but also all works aided by the grant of Dominion 

 public funds." 



The Conservatives declared, on the other hand, 

 that the alien labor law was not enforced; and 

 that while Americans were working at will in this 

 country, Canadians were still excluded from em- 

 ployment on the other side of the border. 



Several strikes occurred during the year, the 

 chief ones being that of the Fraser salmon fisheries 

 in July, the machinists on the western division of 

 the Canadian Pacific Railroad in August, and the 

 troubles at the Valleyfield cotton mills in Quebec 

 in August. 



Mining. The steady increase of mineral pro- 

 duction in Canada has been one of the chief inci- 

 dents in its recent development. The output of 

 1890 was $16,000,000; that of 1896, $22,000,000; 

 1897, $28,000,000; 1898, $38,000,000; and for the 

 year ending Dec. 31, 1899, it was as follows: Cop- 

 per, $2,655,319; gold (Yukon District, $16,000,000; 

 all other, $5,049,730), $21,049,730; iron ore, $248,- 

 372; lead, $977,250; nickel, $2,067,840; platinum, 

 '$835; silver, $1,834,371 total metallic, $28,833,- 

 717; total nonmetallic, $18,141,795; total mineral 

 output for 1899, $47,275,512. 



With exception of a slight falling off in the 

 value of asbestos, the chief minerals showed con- 

 siderable advances, both in amount and value. 



Fisheries. In 1900 changes in fishing regula- 

 tions were made necessary by the decision of the 

 Judicial Committee of the Imperial Privy Council, 

 Avhich handed the control of inland water fisheries 

 over to the provincial governments. The system 

 of administration was not greatly altered, and the 

 chief change was in the appointment of officials by 

 the provincial authorities. The fishery statistics 

 of the Dominion are always behind in publication ; 

 the latest figures, those for 1898, show a catch 

 valued at $19,667,126, a decrease of $3,000,000 from 

 the unprecedented figures of 1897 and an approxi- 

 mation to the usual average. 



The chief commercial fishes were lobster, with 

 a valued production of $3,887,939; salmon, $3,159.- 

 306; cod, $2,996,583; herring. $1,987,454; and 

 mackerel, trout, haddock, whitefish, sardines, 

 smelts, hake, halibut, pickerel, oysters, etc. The 

 Canadian sealing catch in Bering Sea for 1899 

 showed an increase on the two preceding years, 

 and amounted to 34,454 seals. The Dominion Gov- 

 ernment expenditures for 1899 upon the fisheries 

 was $417,610, which included $34,522 spent upon 

 fish culture, $105,133 upon the protective service, 

 and $159,459 as fishing bounties. In 1898, 80,000 

 men were engaged in the fisheries, with boats, nets, 

 etc., valued at $9,860,000. There were 1,150 schoon- 

 ers, manned by 8,657 sailors, and 72,877 fishermen 

 using 38,675 boats. 



Prohibition. The year opened with a general 

 feeling of disappointment among prohibitionists, 

 throughout the Dominion regarding the Laurier 

 Government's refusal to act upon the small major- 

 ity given to the proposal in the plebiscite of 1898. 

 In March the Dominion Council of the Royal Tem- 

 plars of Temperance accepted a report which spoke 

 of this fact in no uncertain terms. " The Govern- 

 ment." declared this document, "with shameful 

 violation of their pledges, have refused to give us 

 the law for which the majority voted, and have 

 utterly ignored the expressed will of the people, 

 clearly showing, as most of us believed at the time 

 the scheme was first proposed, that the whole 

 thing was a subterfuge and a farce, and once 

 again we find ourselves mere trickster's tools and 

 tools." On April 23 the House of Commons de- 

 bated the question, and Mr. T. B. Flint moved 

 a resolution in favor of a prohibitory law to take 



