c. 



CANADA, DOMINION OF. 



effect " in at least those provinces and territories 

 which have voted in favor of such prohibition." 

 Mr. C. H. Parmalee (Liberal) moved an amend- 

 ment to the effect that, in view of the state of 

 public opinion revealed by the plebiscite, it would 

 be unwise to enact a prohibitory law at present, 

 and this was carried by 98 to 41 votes. 



The Post Office. This department made 

 marked strides in efficiency during the year under 

 the administration of the Hon. William Mulock. 

 Imperial penny postage proved a great success. In 

 South Africa the Canadian postal corps came in for 

 warm praise at the hands of the army officials, and 

 Capt. Ecclestone's services in its supervision were 

 so much appreciated that he was transferred to the 

 imperial postal department in that country. The 

 Canadian statistics for 1899 show 9,420 post offices, 

 838 savings-bank offices, 2,640 postal-note offices, 

 142,141 new savings-bank accounts opened, 471,407 

 postal notes sold, 1,779 money-order offices; $14,- 

 467,997 as the value of the money orders issued, 

 31,989,778 as the number of miles the mails were 

 carried, 228,024,900 articles carried, a net revenue 

 of $3,182,930, and expenditure of $3,581,848. 



Railways. In 1899 Canada had 165 railways, 

 17,358 miles of track, $964,699,784 capital in- 

 vested in railways, and a train mileage of 52,- 

 215,207. Its railways carried 19,133,365 passen- 

 gers and 31,211,753 tons of freight; earned $62,- 

 243,784, and had working expenses of $40,706,217. 

 There were 2,217 locomotives in use and 286 sleep- 

 ing and parlor cars. The Canadian Pacific is the 

 great railway of Canada. At the close of 1899 it 

 had 6,681 miles in operation, a capital of $340,- 

 714,110, a passenger record of 3,483,843, a freight 

 of 5,971,205 tons, a train mileage of 16,873,771, 

 receipts amounting to $26,745,971, and expenses 

 totaling $95,454,173. All these items showed a 

 marked increase over the preceding year. 



The Grand Trunk Railway, during the same pe- 

 riod, had 3,147 miles in Canadian operation, $343,- 

 722,162 of a paid-up capital, a passenger record 

 of 6,178,315, a freight of 8,880,000 tons, a train 

 mileage of 17,007.740, receipts amounting to $18,- 

 471,159, and expenses to $11,603,335. The Gov- 

 ernment railways, comprising principally the In- 

 tercolonial, showed 1,511 miles in operation, $61,- 

 943,900 of paid-up capital, 1,732,762 passengers car- 

 ried, a train mileage of 5,139,970, receipts amount- 

 ing to $3,903,343, and expenses to $3,893,739. 



An important controversy occurred between the 

 Minister of Railways and the Canadian Pacific, 

 arising out of the latter's demand for a special 

 subsidy to carry on its winter port business at St. 

 John, N". B., under threat of going to a Maine 

 port if its desire was not acceded to. Mr. Blair 

 refused to grant the subsidy, and matters were 

 complicated by a further discussion as to the 

 Canadian Pacific Railroad receiving and han- 

 dling a portion of the IntercoloniaPs business be- 

 low Montreal. Upon this issue generally Mr. 

 Blair and the Hon. G. E. Foster fought the battle 

 at St. John during the general elections, and upon 

 it Mr. Blair won. 



Canals. Upon the canals of Canada, up to 

 June 30, 1899. $92.036.524 had been expended. 

 The expenditure in 1899 for construction, repairs, 

 and staff maintenance was $4,533,193 an in- 

 crease of $700.000 over the preceding year. The 

 revenue derived by the Government from these 

 canals was $369.044, against $407,663 in 1898. 

 The number of Canadian vessels passing through 

 the canals in 1898 was 23,320, with a tonnage of 

 4,201,916, and the number of American vessels 

 was 6,128, with a tonnage of 3.624,463. 



Miscellaneous. The governments of the Do- 

 minion, Ontario, and Quebec were advised of three 



CHEMISTRY. (CHEMICAL THEORY.) 7Y 



awards issued by the arbitrators Sir John Boyd, 

 Chancellor of Ontario; Sir L. E. N. Casault, Chief 

 Justice of Quebec; and Mr. Justice Burbidge, of 

 the Dominion Exchequer Court appointed to 

 settle the long-standing disputed accounts be- 

 tween the federal authority and the old prov- 

 inces of Upper and Lower Canada. Under the 

 awards Ontario lost about $2,000,000. One 

 award dealt with the claim of the Dominion in 

 behalf of the Ojibway Indians of Lakes Huron 

 and Superior. The claim had been stubbornly 

 contested, not only before the arbitrators, but 

 in the Supreme Court and the Privy Council in 

 England. The arbitrators found that the Do- 

 minion was entitled to receive, in behalf of these 

 Indians, from the provinces of Ontario and Que- 

 bec jointly, the sum of $313,000. The second 

 award dealt with what is known as the province 

 of Canada account, and decreed that two prov- 

 inces owed to the Dominion, Dec. 31, 1892, on 

 this account, the sum of $212,904, of which $112,- 

 350 is chargeable to Ontario and $100,553 to Que- 

 bec. The third award had reference to the prov- 

 ince of Canada account as between the Dominion 

 and the province of Ontario only. The submis- 

 sion to arbitration required that the accounts be 

 brought down to Dec. 31, 1892, on which date the 

 commissioners found the province of Ontario was 

 indebted to the Dominion in the sum of $1,815,848. 



On April 25 the Dominion Government advised 

 that of British Columbia that it had disallowed 

 four statutes passed by the province in 1899. 

 The reason in each case was that restrictive legis- 

 lation against the Japanese had been included, 

 despite warnings previously given that the royal 

 assent would be refused. 



In September the first of a line of 7 vessels 

 which are to ply between British Columbia and 

 South Africa arrived at Victoria, B. C. The at- 

 tempt of dynamiters to -blow up the Welland 

 Canal in April occasioned some excitement. The 

 Fenians who made the crazy attempt were cap- 

 tured and tried, and on May 25 three men were 

 found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for 

 life. The Ottawa fire was a disaster that will be 

 long remembered. Thousands of people were ren- 

 dered homeless in Hull and Ottawa on the night 

 of April 27, 15,000,000 feet of lumber were burned, 

 and property in buildings, etc., to the value of 

 many millions was destroyed. The relief fund at 

 Ottawa soon grew to more than $300,000. The 

 Dominion Government gave $25,000, as did the 

 cities of Ottawa and Toronto. Cape Town, in the 

 midst of war, raised $10,000, and the New Zealand 

 Government cabled $25,000, while the Lord May- 

 or's fund in London soon amounted to $60.000. 



CHEMISTRY. Chemical Theory. Discuss- 

 ing in the British Association The Influence of 

 Pressure on the Formation of Ocean Salt De- 

 posits Dr. H. M. Dawson said that in the upper- 

 most layers of the large salt deposits at Strass- 

 furt a double salt containing magnesium and 

 calcium chlorides was found, to which the name 

 of tachhydrite had been given. Experiments 

 showed that this double salt could separate 

 only from solutions the temperature of which 

 was higher than 22.4 C. If the temperature was 

 lower than this limit a mechanical mixture of the 

 simple chlorides separated from the solution. 

 Experiments on the influence of high pressure on 

 the value of this limiting temperature showed 

 that by the application of 100 atmospheres the 

 temperature was raised by only 1.5 C. In com- 

 parison with the influence of temperature, that 

 of pressure was small. Thermodynamical con- 

 siderations indicated that the temperature dis- 

 placement by the application of high pressures in 



