MANITOBA, PROVINCE OF. 



MARYLAND. 



347 



$30,000, a federal subsidy of $240,000 used to re- 

 place trust funds, and railway bonds of $300,000 

 unsecured owing to the release of lands held as 

 M-riirity. Early in the session of the new Legis- 

 lature Messrs. G. H. Halse, C. A. Kennedy, and 

 Campbell Bartlett were appointed a commission 

 to inquire into the state of affairs. Their report, 

 as presented on May 9, somewhat diminished the 

 unpleasant character of these charges, but left 

 much that was not capable of adequate explana- 

 tion. They reported that they found the amount 

 of the bank overdraft on general account to be 

 $70,086, the amount of trust funds used for general 

 purposes to be $15,485, and the amount of unpaid 

 liabilities to be $156,613. The commissioners said 

 they found that the employees of the Government 

 intrusted with the handling of public funds had 

 not been required to furnish bonds, and the securi- 

 ties for investments made by the Government had 

 not been kept in joint custody. In connection 

 with the management of the Treasury Department, 

 they reported that certain transactions appeared 

 ;o have been irregular. 



School Lands and Education. For many 

 pears a much discussed question had been the 

 ight to direct provincial control of certain school 

 inds valued at about $300,000 and held in trust 

 the Dominion Government. In the Dominion 



sion of 1899 a measure had passed the Commons 

 inding this amount of money over to the province 

 jut the act was rejected by the Senate, mainly 

 on the ground that it would go into the hands 

 af a Liberal ministry in Manitoba and be used as 



part of its general funds rather tlfan utilized 

 ir the benefit of education. In June, however, 

 [r. Macdonald took up the old issue in behalf 

 if the province, and a resolution was passed by 

 "tie House of Assembly which, after reference to 



previous memorial addressed to the Dominion 

 'arliament on April 10, 1899, declared that, " in 

 ~ie opinion of this House, the time has arrived 

 irhen the lands held by the Federal Government 

 school purposes in this province and the funds 

 lerived from the sale or other disposition of any 



the same should be handed over, for the future 

 administration thereof for such school purposes in 

 mnner as to the said province may seem advis- 

 able." No action has yet been taken by the fed- 

 oral authorities. 



An interesting point came up about this time 

 i connection with the school regulations of the 

 province as they affected the Roman Catholic min- 

 stry, and the compromise of the famous Manitoba 

 ichool question between the Laurier Government 

 it Ottawa and the Greenway Government at Win- 

 nipeg in 1897. It was really an effort to reopen 

 the controversy, and early in June a deputation 



the Catholic schools committee waited on the 

 remier with a strong protest against the existing 

 sndition of affairs. Mr. Macdonald replied by 

 etter as follows : 



" I have given careful thought and attention to 

 the question, and I am sorry to say that I fear 

 it will be impossible to meet the wishes of the 

 lelegation which waited upon me. The public have 

 '>een informed, both by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the 

 'remier of the Dominion of Canada, and the Hon. 

 Thomas Greenway, who at the same time was 

 "remier of the Province of Manitoba, that this 

 i r excd question was settled, and that the settle- 

 ment had been reduced to w r riting and made law 

 in the amendment to the school act which was 

 passed in 1897." 



An effort was then made to obtain relief from 

 alleged disabilities at Ottawa, but Sir Wilfrid 

 Laurier refused to take further action. The latest 

 available statistics of education in Manitoba are 





for 1898, and show the existence of 1,250 schools, 

 1,301 teachers, a school population of 57,431, an 

 average school attendance of 24,958, and pupils 

 numbering 44,070. 



Agriculture. For several years the farmers of 

 Manitoba have complained of what was called the 

 elevator monopoly a practical protection accorded 

 by the Canadian Pacific Railway to elevator own- 

 ers, by which encouragement was given to the 

 building and maintaining of these elevators in such 

 a way as to place the shipping of grain at im- 

 portant points almost entirely in their hands. No 

 one could ship grain in bulk, on cars, except 

 through the elevators, and the capacity of the 

 latter had to be at least 25,000 bushels, thus 

 doing away with small warehouses. The system 

 destroyed competition in buying, and the farmers 

 complained of various charges and exactions which 

 they deemed unfair. A commission of inquiry 

 was appointed, and on April 4 it reported to this 

 effect : " We consider that proper relief from the 

 possibility of being compelled to sell under value 

 and being unduly docked for clearing is only to 

 be had by giving the fullest obtainable freedom 

 in the way of shipping and selling grain. The law 

 should require railways to furnish cars to farmers 

 for the shipping of their own grain, and should 

 allow the establishment at shipping points, if re- 

 quired, of flat warehouses, under proper regula- 

 tions, by means of which a farmer who can not 

 conveniently load on cars direct can, for a com- 

 paratively small sum, obtain for a limited num- 

 ber of days the use of a bin of the capacity of 

 a car load. Though the furnishing of cars to 

 farmers has been given as a privilege, they should 

 with proper restrictions enjoy it as a legal right." 



The crops of 1899 in this province exceeded all 

 previous production. Wheat yielded 27,922,230 

 bushels; oats, 22,318,378 bushels; barley, 5,379,156 

 bushels; potatoes, 3,226,395 bushels; and various 

 kinds of roots, 2,670,108 bushels, with a scatter- 

 ing production of flax, rye, and peas. The total 

 was, jn round figures, 62,000,000 bushels, against 

 53,000,000 in 1898. The number of horses in Mani- 

 toba in 1899 was 102,655; of cattle, 220,248; of 

 sheep, 33,092; of swine, 66,011. The beef cattle 

 exported were 12,000 in number, the stockers 3,500, 

 and the total value of dairy products was $470,559. 

 In 1900 the crops were good, but exact figures were 

 not available at the time of writing. 



MARYLAND, a Middle Atlantic State, one 

 of the original thirteen, ratified the Constitution 

 April 28, 1788; area, 12,210 square miles. The 

 population, according to each decennial census, 

 was 317,728 in 1790; 341.548 in 1800; 380.546 in 

 1810; 407,350 in 1820; 447,040 in 1830; 470,019 in 

 1840; 583,034 in 1850; 687,049 in 1860; 780,894 in 

 1870; 934,945 in 1880; 1,042,390 in 1890; and 

 1,190,050 in 1900. Capital, Annapolis. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year: Governor, J. Walter 

 Smith; Secretary of State, Wilfred Bateman; 

 Comptroller, Joshua W. Hering; Treasurer, Mur- 

 ray Vandiver; Adjutant General, John S. Saun- 

 ders; Attorney-General. Isidor Rayner; Superin- 

 tendent of Education, M. Bates Stephens; Com- 

 missioner of Insurance, Lloyd Wilkinson; Com- 

 missioner of Public Lands, E. Stanley Toadvin 

 all Democrats; Chief Judge of the Court of Ap- 

 peals, James McSherry; Associate Judges, David 

 Fowler, A. Hunter Boyd, Henry Page, I. Thomas 

 Jones, John B. Briscoe. Samuel D. Schmucker, 

 and James A. Pearce; Clerk, Allan Rutherford 

 all Democrats except Schmucker and Rutherford, 

 Republicans. 



Population. The following table exhibits the 

 population of the State by counties, as deter- 



