Miscellaneous.-On October 27 the Irish home rulers of Toronto, Ont., enthusiastically welcomed home the Canadian delegates to the Irish Race Convention held in Dublin the first week in September (p. 672). Archbishop Walsh of Toronto presided over the gathering.

A fever of mining excitement is now evidenced in the flocking of miners and prospectors to the Kootenay and Trail Creek districts of British Columbia, and the numerous attempts being made at flotation of mining stocks. The proposal to build a railroad to run from the line of the Canadian Pacific, through the Crow's Nest pass, into the new mining districts, is being much discussed at the close of the year. There is a wide feeling in favor of the construction of the road as necessary to development of Rossland and other mining districts, the current trade of which is now southward to the United States; but much opposition would be aroused against a heavy Dominion subsidy. The road would be 300 to 400 miles long, and would cost, as estimated, $6,000,000 to $8,000,000. West of the Rockies, public opinion regards as even of greater importance than a railway through the Crow's Nest pass, one connecting the Columbia river region with the Pacific coast. The boards of trade of Vancouver, New Westminster, Victoria, and Nanaimo, have formally recommended the immediate construction of such a railway.

It was announced in November that Canada was to have a representative on the judicial committee of the privy council, and that Chief Justice Sir Samuel H. Strong of the supreme court had been selected for the honor. portrait of the chief justice appears on page 786 of Vol

ume 3.

Α

Through the representations of agents from Brazil, about 400 Canadians were induced to emigrate to that country during the fall. They are now in dire distress, being unfitted for the climatic and other conditions prevailing in the republic; and the Canadian government has, on appeal, consented to bear the expense of bringing back those in greatest need of help.

On October 30, for a second time, Michael J. Brennan was convicted and sentenced to be hanged for the murder of John A. Strathy in Barrie, Ont., February 18, 1896 (p. 172).

On the night of October 31 burglars succeeded in blowing open the vault in the office of Mr. J. E. Berkeley Smith, bursar of the University of Toronto, and carrying

away cash and other valuables to the amount of about $3,000.

On December 3 a fire which broke out in a confectionery store on Sparks street, Ottawa, Ont., destroyed property to the value of about $400,000.

On December 8 a fire beginning in the Barron block on St. James' street, Montreal, Que., involved a total property loss of about

$500,000.

Last year we recorded the organization of a party committed to the policy of independence for Canada (Vol. 5, p. 923), the outgrowth of a club formed in Essex county in western Ontario. A similar club is said to have been organized in Montreal, Que., its membership in December being reported as about 200. Its objects are said to be:

1. The study of the Canadian people and of the resources of the country.

2. The encouragement of a true national spirit among the population.

3. To obtain the liberty and independence of Canada by legitimate and pacific means.

NEWFOUNDLAND.

Under the auspices of the colonial office in London, Eng., investigations of the mineral resources of Newfoundland have been made.

There are extensive deposits of iron ore on Bell island, which lies from three to five miles off the southern shore of Conception bay and has an area of about twelve square miles. The eastern portion of the island is now the scene of operations of a Canadian company, and the remaining portion is held under licenses to search for min erals by several different parties. The iron ore on Bell island is found under such favorable conditions for transportation-so near the surface and in such close proximity to deep water-that it may prove a serious competitor with Spanish and other ores in Europear

AFFAIRS IN AMERICA.

markets. It is said that there are four well-defined beds, covering 4th Qr., 1896. about six and three-quarters miles, and probably averaging between three and four feet of good mineral throughout, yielding from fifty per cent to sixty per cent of iron. The chief value of the ore to the Canadian company consists in its ready fusibility and the fact that it is well adapted to mix with the Nova Scotia ores in the blast furnace. There seems to be an abundance of coal in Newfoundland, but the cost of transportation is at present too high to make it profitable to build blast furnaces at or near the iron-ore beds.

Copper mines have been worked successfully in Newfoundland for years, notably that at Tilt Cove, which is owned by the Cape Copper Company.

There are two distinct coal areas, one on St. George's bay, and the other in the Grand Lake district, on both sides of the railroad, which, from local tests, are reported to produce better coal than the Cape Breton mines, with which it will have to compete. But, as the latter coal is run straight from the mine into the ship, the former is handicapped by the cost of railroad transport.

Among the other deposits in Newfoundland may be mentioned an extensive formation of fine molding sand, and one of clay well adapted for the manufacture of terra cotta, tiles, and similar work. Chrome ore is also found, and some has been shipped to the United States.

Through a recent purchase, by the government, of all the rights of the Newfoundland Railway Company, it has been made possible for all the railway systems of the colony to be embraced under government management.

MEXICO.

October 8 was set for the driving of the first spike on the Rio Grande, Sierra Madre & Pacific railroad. This new road, known as the Corralitos road, is to run from Juarez, through Corralitos, and across the Sierra Madre to Topolobampo on the Pacific coast. a plan for a "ship-railway" which matured in the mind It is an outgrowth of of the late Hon. William Windom, secretary of the treasury under President Harrison.

A dispatch appearing December 7 announced the annulment by the Mexican government of the concession granted about ten years ago to the Topolobampo socialist colony in Sinaloa. The concession gave a large tract of land on the Rio Fuerte to A. K. Owen and his colony for a nominal sum, with the proviso that they should build a railroad and certain irrigating canals. The experiment of communism failed, and soon the colonists were in hard financial straits. Only a small remnant of the original number and they in almost abject poverty-still remain at Topolobampo.

A disease diagnosed by some physicians as yellow fever is reported to have caused over 800 deaths in the state of Guerrero during October.

THE WEST INDIES.

The Sugar Trade.-For several years the condition of the sugar industry in the British West Indies has been one of increasing depression. This has now reached such a point that estates are going out of cultivation in some of the leading colonies. Very serious consequences are anticipated both to the public and to the private prosperity of the colonists, and urgent appeals for some measure of relief have been made to the imperial authorities.

The cause of the distress is not found in lessened demand for sugar in the markets of the world, nor in diminished power of production, for, between 1880 and 1895, the total production of the world increased from 3,830,000 tons to 7,879,000 tons. The immediate source of the trouble is the enormous development within recent years of the beet-sugar industry under the system of bounties maintained by various countries. The only kind of sugar produced in the West Indies is cane sugar, and this has been largely driven out, even from the markets of the United Kingdom, by the subsidized product of the beet.

In 1880 the world produced 2,200,000 tons of cane sugar and 1,630, 000 of beet sugar; and in 1895 the figures were 2,904,000 of the former and 4,975,000 of the latter. Beet sugar costs $45 a ton to produce, and sells for $43.75 a ton-an apparent loss of $1.25 a ton. But the governments of the producing countries pay a bounty of $5 a ton, which enables the growers and refiners to realize a profit, and to undersell British colonial cane sugar. The result is that while England consumes two or three times as much sugar as any other European country, her supply comes from France, Germany, the Low Countries, Austria, and even Russia, while her own colonies in tropical America are on the verge of ruin.

The prosperity of the sugar industry is essential to the general prosperity of the British West Indies, for, with scarcely a single exception, sugar is their chief export. In British Guiana, sugar and its accompanying products contribute about ninety-two per cent of the total exports; in Barbados, ninety-four per cent. St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and other smaller islands are in a very similar position. In Jamaica, notwithstanding the development of other industries, sugar still forms over sixty per cent of the total export; and in Trinidad, although the export of asphalt is of much importance, sugar is still looked upon as the staple production. In all the colonies depression in the sugar trade means private financial embarrassment, diminution of public revenue, and general popular discontent. The price of sugar has fallen within recent years almost one-half.

With a view to remedy the distress, the British government has appointed an imperial commission to proceed to the West Indies and inquire into the conditions of the sugar industry. Several proposals in the way of remedy have been discussed. One is to grant to sugar producers in the colonies a bounty similar to that paid by continental governments on beet sugar. Another is to impose a tariff on beet sugar entering the United Kingdom, to offset the bounties paid in the land of production. A third proposal

is to call a conference of the powers with a view to international agreement for the abolition of bounties, and possibly also a reduction or abolition of duties in importing countries, so that both production and demand may graduate to their normal level, and the evils resulting from legislative interference with natural economic law be thus removed.

In the meantime the distress of the colonists is great. and much unrest prevails, serious riots having broken out, notably in Demerara. There is some talk of the appearance of a sentiment in favor of annexation of the colonies to the United States.

Porto Rico.-In view of the burdens laid upon the Spanish government through the serious rebellions now waged in Cuba and the Philippine islands, it is not surprising to learn that certain elements in the island of Porto Rico are contemplating a possible uprising against the sovereignty of Spain. However, the Madrid government has taken extensive precautions to prevent surprises in the island and to cope with any emergency that may arise.

At the end of the year comes a report of a scheme of reforms for Porto Rico, which Spain proposes to extend also to Cuba as soon as the insurrection there shall have been brought under the proper degree of control.

Their effect, as described in the dispatches, will be "to create three series of administrative bodies in the island, independent of the representatives in the Spanish cortes. The voters, under a system of limited suffrage, are already permitted to choose the boards of aldermen of municipalities, and the mayors are to be chosen from these boards by vote of their members. The next body in rank is the provincial assembly, of which there is only one in Porto Rico, but one for each of the six provinces of Cuba. The functions of the provincial assembly are largely united with those of the proposed council of administration in the case of Porto Rico, because there is but one body. The council of administration will be an independent body in Cuba, and will for the first time give the Cubans a large share of control over their internal domestic concerns. The home government will retain control of the laws levying taxation, and will reserve the right to review the budget of appropriations, but the appropriations will be made by the council of administration, subject to the approval of the ministry at Madrid."

The Spanish government does not propose at present to widen the limits of the suffrage, which extends to persons paying a combined tax of $5 and to several of the learned professions. The reforms in contemplation for Cuba are said to be similar to those embodied in the home-rule bill submitted in the cortes two years ago (Vol. 4, p. 867.) San Domingo.-On November 1 General Ulysses Heureaux was elected president of San Domingo for a fourth term.