two Canadian companies, the larger of which, the Montreal Telegraph Company, was the first to introduce into America the system of a uniform rate irrespective of distance, and was also the first telegraph company organised in Canada. It commenced operations in 1847 with 540 miles of wire and $60,000 capital. It has now 21,568 miles of wire, 1674 offices for the transmission of messages, and a capital of $2,000,000.

The Dominion Telegraph Company has 13,051 miles of wire, and 600 offices for the transmission of messages. The Western Union and Anglo-American own respectively 5100 and 200 miles of wire, and 147 and 25 offices. The telegraph system in British Columbia is now owned and worked by the Dominion Government. It embraces 676 miles of wire, 25 stations, and 26 miles of cable. The cost of maintaining this system is nearly $10,000 in excess of the revenue derived from it. In Manitoba and the North-West there are about 1200 miles of wire and 30 offices, and the line is being rapidly built westward to connect with the British Columbia system. 45,000 miles of wire and 2550 offices are given as the totals of the telegraph systems in operation in Canada.

The progress of telegraphy in Canada has thus been rapid. With it is associated the telephone, which is used in the larger cities.

The connection of the submarine, with the overland telegraph systems may be considered complete, and the highly perfected Gulf of St. Lawrence telegraph and electric light stations recently constructed will make this main gate of the Atlantic as easy to traverse as an inland canal. The indefatigable friend of the sailor, the Hon. Pierre Fortin, is also urging on the Government the use of the heaviest guns as substitutes for fog-signals. There can be no doubt that the danger which has hitherto attended

the navigation of the Gulf and River St. Lawrence will be in large measure averted by the telegraphic system which now connects the islands with the mainland.

"It has been estimated that $1,500,000 are paid annually as premiums for insurance on vessels and their cargoes entering and leaving the St. Lawrence. With the improved submarine telegraphic system it will be safe to say that the rate of insurance will be reduced at least 25 per cent. Such being the case, a saving of $375,000 will in one year be effected, to say nothing of the many other advantages which will follow. Although the cost of construction and the future maintenance of the system must be borne by the Dominion Government, the benefits will be shared by the shipping of the world.

"Another and very important feature of Dr. Fortin's telegraphic system is its application to the interests of the fisheries. Along the southern shore of the St. Lawrence, between Cap de Chatte and Paspebiac, there will be thirty fishing stations established, each being connected with the coast telegraph line of the Montreal Telegraph Company. It will be the duty of the officer in charge of the station to collect each day information regarding the state of the fisheries, whether there appears to be any fish in the neighbourhood of his station, whether the supply of bait is good or poor, the state of the weather, and in fact all information that would be of service to those employed in the fisheries. This information he telegraphs at ten the next morning to the other twenty-nine stations." 1

1 Montreal Gazette.

CHAPTER X.

MANUFACTURES.

Trade, Commerce, etc.

THE manufactures of Canada are but in their infancy, and are limited by the comparatively small population of the country. Nevertheless, as shown by the census returns of 1871, they then gave employment to 187,942 people, and represented a gross value of manufactured articles of $221,617,773.

The population is increasing rapidly; foreign markets are being opened in the West Indies and Brazil, and a healthy and rapid progress is being made in several important branches.

A large business is being established in the manufacture of beetroot sugar and in the preparation of fertilisers from native apatite. These industries are being fostered chiefly in the Province of Quebec by French capital, and it is anticipated that trade with France will follow in the export of these products.

Our manufactures may be classed as products from cereals, timber, fish, oils, minerals, metals, coal, clays, building stone, phosphates, gypsum, petroleum, woollen fabrics, cotton goods, hemp and flax products, hides and leather, dairy products, as butter and cheese, prepared meats of cattle, sheep, and pigs, preserved and canned fish, lobsters, oysters, and fruits, not omitting ship

building and agricultural implements, carriages, sleighs, fur goods, hats, caps, boots and shoes, as well as explosive materials for blasting, and all railway and telegraph materials; the whole constituting a list which comprises all the manufactures of older countries, and promises to grow to vast proportions under the energy and ingenuity of the people, encouraged by the prosperity of the country and the fostering care of the Government.

Theorists discuss the question of free trade and protection, but the national policy of Canada is to raise a revenue to maintain the credit of the country, to prosecute its public works, to encourage manufactures and the employment of the industrial classes, and to levy the taxes in a manner which will be as generally and evenly distributed as possible over the entire population.

Under this system Canadian manufactures are daily and rapidly increasing, and capital and population are being attracted to the country. In this prosperity of the industrial classes the agriculturist in common with other classes shares; and the free trade theory, however true when applied to the whole world, is apparently inapplicable when applied to sections of it isolated by nature and not admitted into a general partnership.

Fisheries. From the banks of Newfoundland and the Atlantic provinces over the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, along the coasts of Labrador and Hudson Bay, around the shores of the three great oceans down to Vancouver, through innumerable straits, seas, and inlets, thickly studded with islands and archipelagoes on the grandest scale, Canada possesses thousands of miles of sea-coast swarming with fishes. Her inland fisheries too are of great value. Apart from the lakes on the United States

boundary, all the larger lakes of the continent are in Canadian territory, as well as innumerable rivers abounding in salmon.

By the treaty of 1818 the United States has the right to take fish on some 380 miles of the south and west coasts of Newfoundland, from the Rameau Islands on the south to Quirpon Islands on the north; on the shores of the Magdalen Islands (in the Gulf of St. Lawrence), which have 100 geographical miles of coast, and indefinitely along the shores of Labrador. But the treaty gives her no such rights on the shores of Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Cape Breton, or Prince Edward. Island. The cession to the United States of the right to fish on these coasts also for ten years, from 1st June 1874, is made in the Treaty of Washington, July 1871.1 This treaty allows Canadians, down to latitude 39° on the coast of the United States, the same rights as Canada grants to the fishermen of the States; and to compensate us for the superiority of the privileges ceded, $5,000,000 has been awarded to Canada.

The total value of the exports of fish and oils from the Dominion in the year 1879 amounted to $7,072,203.

A supplementary report issued by the Department of Marine and Fisheries contains some interesting statistics. of the shipping of Canada. From it we learn that the total number of vessels remaining on the registry books of the Dominion on the 31st of December 1880, including old and new vessels, sailing vessels, steamers, and barges, was 7377, measuring 1,311,218 tons register tonnage, being a decrease of 94 vessels and 20,876 tons register as compared with 1879. on the registry books on the same date was 918, with a gross tonnage of 190,159 tons and a net tonnage of

The number of steamers

1 Should either party desire to terminate this agreement, two years' notice must be given after the expiry of the ten years.