Shipbuilding Act of 1916 which would have bonused the construction of ships, it was hardly necessary with such competition in orders from other Governments which wanted ships and needed them badly. In August it was estimated that the combined employees in Provincial ship-building plants-including metal workers, wood-workers and allied trades-was over 10,000; that the number of employees in other industrial plants had been increased 25 per cent., and the output of products by about 50 per cent.; that the estimated industrial output for the Province, including ships, was over $125,000,000, as compared with $72,000,000 in 1915. The number of employees in all plants was 45,000 and the pay-roll about $25,000,000 compared with $15,000,000 in 1915. Wood and steel ship-building were equally prosperous and Vancouver and Victoria benefitted greatly-when the workers were not on strike-while Prince Rupert hoped to follow suit in the new year.

As to Fisheries there were lights and shadows. The final Report of the Fishery Commission of 1917-W. Sanford Evans, H. B. Thomson and F. T. James-was made public in March and dealt at length with the difficult Salmon question. In the opinion of the Commissioners, all the conditions surrounding this industry should be stabilized, and the inefficient use of capital and labour obviated or prevented. The salmon industry should contribute to the public treasury through graduated license fees such proportion of its profits as were in excess of a reasonable return for capital and enterprise. Government administration should be in more direct and intimate touch with the Fisheries and all appointments to the Inspection staff should be placed under the Civil Service Commission. Beginning with 1919 the Commissioners recommended that only one form of gill-net license be issued without reference to any Cannery, and that competence as fisherman be established as a qualification for the license. British citizenship should be insisted on. Continued efforts were made to obtain United States co-operation in protecting the Fisheries on the Fraser River with the subject under discussion at gatherings of American and Canadian cannerymen and trap-owners, purse-seiners and gill-net fishermen and a general Conference of Washington and British Columbia representatives was held at Seattle on Apr. 26th. No definite policy was developed.

The International Fisheries Commission was at Vancouver on May 6 and was told by Hon. William Sloan, B. C. Commissioner of Fisheries, that: "The run of sockeye to the Fraser is perilously near extermination. They will be exterminated if conditions remain as they are, and in so short a period as to wipe out all interests of both fishermen and canners. In view of the evidence there is, in my judgment, but one thing to do. The total prohibition of sockeye fishing in the waters frequented by those produced in the Fraser River, until such time as they have recovered from their depleted condition. The watershed of the Fraser will, when adequately protected, produce more sockeye salmon than any known watershed. It produced in 1913 2,300,000 cases. In the three following years it produced an average of but 267,000 cases per year." J. P. Babcock,

Assistant Commissioner, urged four years' closure as essential. The latter spent four weeks in August inspecting the spawning grounds of the Fraser River basin and he reported on his return that there were literally no sockeye salmon in many of the northern sections of the watershed and too few in all sections to produce even a small run four years hence. "The Fraser is fished out," he said. “Conditions this year are even worse than they have been." But neither discussions, Commissions nor reports could solve the complexities of international and business rivalry and competition and nothing was done. The 1918 Salmon pack was large with a total of 1,616,157 cases but the sockeye portion was only 276,457 cases as against 339,848 cases in 1917 while the once mighty Fraser only gave 206,003 cases. As a whole the product for the year had been purchased by the British Government in August at a cost of about $8,000,000.

Industrial progress in 1918 was marked-aside from shipbuilding. War orders came but they had to be pressed for by the B. C. Manufacturers' Association whose President, J. A. Cunningham, claimed on Jan. 15 that: "Outside of our shipbuilding contracts $20,000,000 would cover the allotment to British Columbia in four years of war." There followed the increasing development of the ship industry, and the legislation as to steel and iron bounties-the latter being preceded by a mass-meeting at Victoria (Feb. 20) which urged (1) the Dominion Government to take immediate action for the establishment on Vancouver Island of a plant or plants to handle the Island's iron ore deposits and for the conversion of the same into finished iron and steel products and (2) the Provincial Government to co-operate with Ottawa to that end and to secure qualified mining engineers to examine and report upon iron deposits and the necessary elements required for the production of pig-iron." Estimates as to iron deposits on Vancouver Island varied from 4,500,000 tons to 20,000,000; W. M. Brewer, M.E., appointed by the Provincial Government in 1916 to investigate the matter put it at 12,888,000 tons. In June the Government appointed Dr. Alfred Stansfield, Professor of Metallurgy at McGill University, to inquire into the commercial possibilities of electrical smelting methods in treatment of the iron ores of the Province. Late in February Mr. Cunningham stated that, despite the lack of war orders, 58 new general industries had been established in 1917 and that the business of that year had totalled $217,000,000. Some orders came from different war sources in 1918, and, apart from Labour troubles, it proved a prosperous year-especially in pulp and paper. The leading organizations in this connection were the B. C. Manufacturers, of which G. G. Bushby, Vancouver, was the 1918 President; the Vancouver Board of Trade with P. G. Shallcross as President and W. A. Blair Secretary; the Victoria Board of Trade with Joshua Kingham as President and F. Elworthy, Secretary for his 29th year.

Mining continued to progress with a total production in 1915 valued at $29,447,508, in 1916 $42,290,462, in 1917 $37,010,392, in 1918, estimated at $41,083,093. Quantities, however, did not ad

vance as rapidly as values; there was an actual falling off between 1915 and 1917 in gold, silver, lead and coke with increases in copper, zinc and coal. The mining dividends paid in 1917 were $3,165,351. Incidents of 1918 included the acquisition of the Curle Manganese deposit near Kaslo by Seattle financiers; the raising of smelting rates by the Consolidated Company and the protests of Slocan and Nelson mine-owners; the announced discovery of Magnesite by C. A. Cartwright, of Vancouver, on the P. G. E. Railway near Clinton; the statement of Mr. Sloan, Minister of Mines, in addressing an International Mining Congress at Revelstoke on July 10, that the mining wealth of California was only $37 per capita while that of British Columbia was $115; the decision of Mr. Justice Archer Martin in the famous 5-year-old Hopp vs. Ward case, involving ownership of the Cariboo Gold Mining Company's claims-the largest hydraulic gold workings in North America-against the Hopp interests with an appeal to the Privy Council.

Prohibition continued to be discussed in various forms. On Feb. 4th the People's Prohibition Association-Jonathan Rogers, President-presented to the Government a Memorial against compensation to the liquor interests; the 3rd annual Convention of this vigourous body was held at Vancouver on Mch 19 with a Report showing great improvement in all the centres as to arrests for drunkenness, etc., during the last three months of 1917 and urging support to W. C. Findlay who had been appointed to aid in enforcing the As to the future the organization proposed going in other lines of social improvement and John Nelson of Vancouver was elected President. It was claimed by the Vancouver World in October, after a year of Prohibition, that its effects had been marvelous; to prove this all the varied war-time prosperity and effects of high wages and demand for labour were credited to this source. Enforcement, however, was difficult in such a country of vast distances and nearness to the sea and proximity to the United States; various protests were made to those in authority, Provincial or municipal, as to failures in this respect. On Dec. 13 W. C. Findlay, the Prohibition Commissioner, was arraigned in the Vancouver Police Court on a charge of importing and selling whisky. On the 16th he pleaded guilty of bringing in about 700 cases and was fined $1,000 or 6 months' imprisonment; the Executive of his late Association passed a Resolution deploring "the gross fraud and breach of trust" involved in this matter; much controversy ensued and on Dec. 22nd Mr. Justice Clement was appointed by the Government to investigate the whole affair-including the alleged importation of 10 carloads of liquor between June and October, 1918.

Incidents of the year included the appointment of Hon. J. A. Macdonald, Chief Justice, to be Administrator in the absence of the Lieut.-Governor-January, 1918; the organization, on Oct. 22, of the B. C. Fire Prevention League with the active co-operation of the Hon. Mr. Farris and H. G. Garrett, Superintendent of Insurance; the disallowance at Ottawa on June 4 of a Provincial Act

passed in May, 1917, "to amend the Vancouver Island Settlers' Right Act of 1904," and which involved large railway and mineral interests, because of a Privy Council decision under which the new Act affected lands transferred to the Dominion Government and by it to the N. and E. Railway Co.; the increase in the rate of interest on Loans under the Land Settlement Board from 6 to 71⁄2 per cent. while the 1st annual Report of this Board in March showed applications from farmers for $675,486 of Loans made, accepted and the money advanced; the declaration by Hon. W. J. Bowser, Opposition Leader, at Penticton on Jan. 15th in favour of a Union Government in the Province; the final loss by Mrs. W. R. Arnold, in the Dominion Trust liquidation matter, of her appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada for recovery of her late husband's $75,000 Insurance; a decision of the B. C. Court of Appeal in the Kitsilano Reserve Arbitration matter which was favourable to the Dominion Government and rendered a long series of proceedings nugatory; the inauguration on June 11th by the Lieut.-Governor of the imposing Astro-physical Observatory and gigantic Telescope at Saanich; the appointment (Aug. 14) of Frederick Coate Wade, K.C., of Vancouver, writer, publicist, politician, Yukon official and prominent resident of Vancouver since 1904, as Agent General for the Province in London; the increase of Divorces in the Supreme Court of the Province with 42 cases dealt with in the first 6 months of 1918; the opening for settlement of 50,000 acres of new lands in the Bulkley and Nechaco valleys, along the G. T. P. Railway in the Northern interior with a special view to returned soldiers; the Report, in September, of the Special Commissioners-F. A. McDiarmid and R. M. Baird as to various suggested changes in Municipal law with the proposed appointment of a Local Government Board.

Other incidents included the statement of Vihjalmur Stefansson, the explorer, in the press of Sept. 29th, that "the elimination of wolf packs and the proper conservation of the Province's big game -moose, reindeer, caribou and mountain sheep-would result in an annual possible production of meat totalling 10,000,000 tons"; a Convention at Vancouver on Oct. 15 of B. C. Boards of Trade and the decision to hold semi-annual meetings; the spread of Spanish Influenza in October and the closing of all public institutions in Victoria and Vancouver; the decision by the Privy Council in the much-disputed case of W. R. Arnold and the Dominion Trust Co. that the late Manager had really committed suicide; the appointment of E. E. Leason as B. C. Surveyor of Taxes with V. C. Martin as Assistant; of Dr. A. R. Baker, Vancouver, Frank Moberley, Atlin, and F. Kermode, Victoria, as a Provincial Game Commission; of J. L. White as Deputy Provincial Secretary. The Dominion Trust Company proceedings continued during the year with chaotic conditions which neither Liquidator nor creditors meetings, nor the efforts of Mr. Justice Murphy, could adjust and in October Andrew Stewart, obtained permission to resign his post of Liquidator.

Conditions in the Yukon. The lessening of population in this Territory, the elimination of all but costly hydraulic mining, the restriction of business opportunities and financial resources, caused special Dominion legislation in April amending the Yukon Act. This measure authorized the Government to abolish the Yukon Council and other offices and transfer to any official of the Crown any or all of the duties or functions of the offices abolished. The duties were eventually delegated to the Gold Commissioner-George P. Mackenzie-and the saving in costs of administration was put at $150,000. After June 1st the Territory came under practical Prohibition-the sale by license-holders of liquor within its bounds were still permitted, but no more liquor could be manufactured or imported. Dr. Alfred Thompson was seated finally as M.P. for the Yukon over his 1917 opponent F. T. Congdon, after various proceedings had been gone through; he urged the Government in September to remove the royalty on gold produced in this region so as to encourage investment. As to conditions in general Mr. Mackenzie, Gold Commissioner, stated in Vancouver on Sept. 18 that only Government assistance could enable gold mining to continue there: "The cost of supplies has increased tremendously. The Territory, too, has been drained of its ordinary supply of labour by the demands of war. Thus, with production costs at what seems to be the maximum possible and a depleted labour. market, the mining industry is in a condition which no amount of optimism can make other than precarious. The largest mining operations have been low-grade gravels, and to produce under present conditions of high costs and a standard price means production at a loss." Meantime the Dominion Government had its geologists in the Yukon field and there were statements as to promising silver possibilities.