statistics]
CANADA
In every province there are denominational colleges and institutions for higher education, and there are universities, most of which have degree-conferring powers. Some of them are of old standing. With the exception of St Joseph’s College University, New Brunswick, and the University of Ottawa, all are endowed either with money or land in amounts varying from $50,000 to $2,750,000. There are also a number of so-called classical colleges in Quebec, educating both boys and men, and most of these are affiliated with Laval University. As an adjunct to education may be mentioned the libraries (mechanics’ institutes are now “public libraries ”), of which there are law, 21; legislatures, 9 ; public, 325; collegiate, 62 ; medical and historical, 29 ; special, 2 ; Y.M.C.A., 32. Finance.—The revenue is derived mainly from customs and excise duties, with subsidiary amounts from mining licenses, timber dues, post office, &c. Both the revenue and expenditure fluctuate considerably, the revenue for the decade 1890-99 ranging from 35 to nearly 47 millions. The receipts on consolidated fund account for 1899 amounted to $46,743,249 against an expenditure chargeable to consolidated fund of $41,903,500, showing an apparent surplus of $4,839,749. In 1899 the expenditure chargeable to capital, with railway and other charges, brought up the total disbursements to $51,542,635. The revenue of 1899 was derived from customs, $25,178,785; excise, $9,641,227 ; post office (gross), $4,336,278 ; public works, railways, and canals, $369,044 ; weights and measures, $91,059; interest on investments, $1,590,447 ; fisheries, $85,502; miscellaneous, $5,450,907. The expenditure of the consolidated fund covers payments peculiar to Canada, including payments to Indian tribes and subsidies to provinces. The debt of the Dominion in 1879, 1889, and 1899 was Gross debt Assets Net debt .
1879. $179,483,871 $287,722,062 $345,160,902 36,493,654 50,192,021 78,887,456 142,990,217 237,530,041 266,273,446
A large part of the debt arises from the assumption of certain debts of the provinces as they entered the confederation, other debts subsequently assumed, and expenditure on canals and assistance given to railways. This debt does not include the debts of the provinces since confederation, a matter which concerns each province only. The canals, including the deepening of the channel of the St Lawrence, represent an amount of $75,000,000 ; the railways, including the building of the Intercolonial and Prince Edward Island railway, $941,297,037, of which amount the Dominion Government contributed in money $151,509,812. The money circulation consists of Dominion notes (legal tender) and the notes of the chartered banks, together with gold, silver, and copper coin. Gold, however, is little used in daily business. The Dominion notes are of the following denominations: $1, $2, $4, $500, $1000, the two last being exclusively used by the banks. English bank-notes, gold, and silver are subject to a variable rate of exchange, but United States notes are usually received at par in the larger cities, though subject to a discount when received in Government institutions. The average monthly circulation of Dominion notes of all denominations in 1899 was $23,229,779, against which the Treasury held specie, guaranteed sterling debentures, and unguaranteed $32,441,074. The only direct taxation is that imposed by the several cities, towns, and municipalities on their own inhabitants, and this taxation necessarily varies according to the needs and circumstances of each locality. Defence.—The naval forces, which at present consist of a fishery protection service, are under the minister of marine and fisheries ; the militia is managed by the minister and department of militia, and is always commanded by a general who is an imperial officer. There are three small bodies of permanent troops, called schools, designed to serve as an educational source for the militia. They number 161 dragoons, 430 artillery, and 395 infantry, but can be increased as occasion warrants. The active militia numbers 36,650, comprising all branches of the regular army. At Kingston, Ontario, there is a military college, to the successful graduates of which a variable number of commissions in the British army is annually awarded. Though not strictly belonging to the militia, the NorthWest Mounted Police is a body of highly efficient cavalry, about 700 strong. There are always some imperial troops at Halifax under the command of a general, who on the absence from Canada of the Governor-General becomes administrator of the Dominion. The harbours of Halifax in Nova Scotia, and Esquimalt in Vancouver Island, British Columbia, are fortified by the imperial Government. Production.—Agriculture is the chief industry. Ontario, Manitoba, and sections of the Territories are the principal wheat-growing provinces, but though cattle, sheep, and horses are successfully raised in all the provinces, the districts in which the stock ranches are found are in Western Assiniboia, Southern Alberta, and some parts of British Columbia. All kinds of grain are raised in Canada, but not uniformly throughout the several provinces. In the
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Maritime Provinces, Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia, much of the grain is sown in autumn, and comprises different varieties of wheat and of oats. The agricultural returns will necessarily increase year by year as immigration continues and new lands are opened up. The largest amount in value of agricultural produce exported in 1900 was wheat, $11,995,488, to which should properly be added wheaten flour, $2,791,885 ; cheese, $19,856,324 ; bacon, $12,803,034; cattle, $9,080,776; oats, $2,143,179 ; butter, $5,122,156; sheep, $1,894,012; pease, $2,145,471; horses, $898,063; apples, $2,789,125; eggs, $1,457,902; and other animal produce, $2,527,805. These are the only products of the farm that realized over one million dollars each, but their value, with that of other agricultural produce exported in 1900, amounted to $77,810,532, exclusive of horses. (See also under Agriculture below.) Mining.-—The mineral districts occur from Nova Scotia to the islands in the Pacific, British Columbia and the Yukon being the chief producers of 1898. The following statement shows the value oi all the minerals, metallic and non-metallic, produced in Canada during 1898 Metallic. Non-metallic. Antimony $20,000 Asbestos $491,197 2,134,980 Chromite 24,252 13,775,420 Coal 8,222,878 Iron ore 152,788 Grindstones 44,775 Lead 1,206,399 Gypsum . 232,515 Nickel . 1,820,838 Natural gas 322,123 Platinum 1,500 Petroleum 1,061,749 2,593,929 Silver . Pyrites . 128,872 All others 6,426,797 $21,705,854 $16,955,158 The mineral fields of Southern British Columbia and the Yukon territory are only in the infancy of production, and the coal-fields opened up by the Canadian Pacific railway in the eastern part of British Columbia are of very great extent. The nickel mines are on the north shores of Lake Superior, and there are indications of a large undeveloped area in the neighbourhood of Sudbury, where the mines at present at work are situated. Manufactures.—In 1898 Canada exported $31,179,113 worth of manufactures, a great proportion of this being the produce of the mine, the forest, the sea, and the farm, but since the adoption of the national policy the manufacture of goods for home consumption has very largely increased, such as cotton and woollen goods, boots and shoes, agricultural implements, and a variety of miscellaneous articles previously imported, and the countries sending the largest amounts, are, in their order, United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, and Holland. The principal classes of goods imported for home consumption are bread-stuffs, carriages, articles of cotton, articles of flax, hemp and jute, iron and steel, oils, leather, paper, provisions, silk and woollen goods. Bread-stuffs comprise rice, sago, tapioca, and other articles not of wheat product. Fisheries.—The principal fisheries are those on the Atlantic coast carried on by the inhabitants of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and to some extent by the people of the eastern section of Quebec. Cod, herring, mackerel, and lobsters are the chief product of the fisheries, though halibut, salmon, anchovies, and so-called sardines are also exported. In British Columbian waters the main catch is of salmon, in addition to which are halibut, oolachan, herring, sturgeon, cod, shell-fish, and fish taken for their oil value—namely, the dog-fish and basking shark and the rat-fish. Ontario and Manitoba produce white fish, sturgeon, and other freshwater fish. In 1897 there were 78,959 persons engaged in the fishing industry, though only 27,079 were permanently so employed. The total production of fish in 1897 was in value $22,783,546, of which $10,841,661 was exported and the balance consumed at home, this being augmented (for bait and other purposes) by importations to the amount of $784,323. The business of fur-seal catching is carried on to some extent in the North Pacific by sealers from Victoria, but the returns of the last few years show it to be a decreasing industry, as well as one causing some friction with the United States. In 1895 the catch by Canadian pelagic sealers was 73,614 seals; in 1896, 55,677 ; in 1897, 30,410; and in 1898, 28,552. Owing to the seizure of Canadian sealing vessels on the high seas, the contention that the United States were justified in making such seizures, and the repudiation of such claim by Great Britain, the question was submitted to an international commission sitting in Paris, with the result that a certain area (60 miles from shore) was prescribed round the sealing islands of Alaska in which pelagic sealing was forbidden, and damages to be settled by arbitration were awarded to the owners of vessels that had been unlawfully seized. This money was paid in 1899. Commerce.—Since 1875 commerce has greatly expanded. The opening up of the fertile lands in the north-west, the increase of population, the discovery of new mineral fields, and the construction of railways have changed the conditions, methods, and channels
