JOUR CANADIAN LETTER

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14400, 6 July 1912, Page 15

JOUR CANADIAN LETTER

(rnon ocr. own- cortnEsroxPES'rtTORONTO, May 25. LIBERALS AY IN IN QUEBEC. The Government of Sir Loroer Gouin carried the province of Quebec in a general election on the 15th May, by

the triumphant majority of -15 in !V House of SI. the figures showing '-il Literals, 17 Conservatives, and 1 " i{l * boiirite, with two deferred elections, which it is said the Liberals are sine to win. In tiie last House of 71 members tho Conservatives hold 16 scats. All

.; the members of the Cabinet were r<?----j turned with good majorities, except one. Hon. Mr Caron, Minister of Agriculture, who was defeated by uvo votes. j A number <>F new and prominent Liberals were elected, the Liberals gaining seven seats, while the Conservatives grilled live seats, which they had net held in the 1-ist Legislature. The I strength 0 f the English vote of tho j province, shown in the eastern tewn- ! ships, went solid for Sir i.omer Gouin, ! the Conservatives winning, however, three English-speaking seals ou the Island of Montreal. The result ol the election will likely l>o the break-up of the alliance between the Conservatives and the Nationalists and I'liramcntanes. The latter were aided l:-y ample funds and Ministerial campaigners from the Federal forces. The record of the Government was admittedly good, there having been little to excite the antagonism of the people, who therefore gave it credit, and returned it with an increased majority. One of the notable incidents was the defeat of Charles Bruchesi, brother of Archbishop Bruehesi, by Gordon Lunglois, a young Liberal educational reformer. LIBERALS CARRY FIVE ELECTIONS. Five by-elections for the Alberta Legislature on Monday, 27th May, resulted in a clean sweep for the Liberals. Four wore for new Cabinet Ministers in tho Sifton Government, and the fifth to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of a member. The elected are :—Attor-ney-General, C. W. Cross; Minister oi' Education, J. R. Boyle: Hon. Ohas. Stewart, Minister without portfolio; Provincial Treasurer, Malcolm McKenzie, and Martin Woolf. NEW G.T.R. PRESIDENT. Mr Edson Jos.eph Chumbcrlin, vicepresident and general manager of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company, has been appointed pioskient of tlie Grand Trunk and Grand Trunk Pacific Com panics, in succession to the late Charles M. Hay's, wlu> lost his life- in tho Titanic He has also been elected" a member of tho Grand Trunk Board of Directors in the place .of .Mr Hays. Mr AYillium Waiinviight, second vice-president of the G.T.P. Railway, has been elected first vicepresident oi that company, and Mi- .Vi. M. Reynolds has been elected a director and second vico-ju-esick-nt of tno Grand Trunk Pacific. Chairman Alfred . VV. Smithcrs announced, at tho same time as these appointments, that tbo rails would be laid on the G.T.P. (National Transcontinental) Irom M oneton, N. 8., to* Princo Rupert, 8.C., by the fall of 191 T. Mr AVaiiiwright who, at the chairman's request, handled the company's a/fairs in the circumstances arising from the death of Air Hays, has just completed fifty years' connection with the company," and has irmn congratulated officially. Mr C'lumhcrlin has been in railway business since 1872. Previous to taking the vice-presidency and general managership of the G.T.P.. iw was head of the Canada Central Railway, and before that had been connected with the Canada Atlantic, which was built from Parry Sound to Lake Champlain by him at,.. a cost much less than the'estimates of rival companies, and was sold a Jew years ago to the Grand Trunk. Mr Cbamborlin then went, to Mexico to supervise some large railway contracts, returning to take charge of the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific. He was born in New Hampshire. U.S.A., nnd for a while held the position of superintendent of tho Ogdonsburg and Lake Champlain Railway, and the Central Vermont line of steamers. VANCOUVER A WORLD PORT. With the object of preparing Vancouver for the Panama Canal trade, and so make the coast city a great world port, a scheme is now*being promulgated having in view the construction of adequate harbour and dockage facilities for tho attraction of trade through the new canal to British Columbia. Vancouver will then, it is hoped, be ablo to successfully challenge Seattle's present claim as chief port on that portion of the Pacific coast. A terminal elevator of large capacity is one necessary feature of the harbour improvements. A million dollars is to bo spent this year in such works. DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRIC LINES. The Canadian Northern Railway states that by the end of this year an electric railway will have been constructed connecting Toronto with Guolph, and another between Toronto and Bowmanville, these two new lines being only the beginning of a steam and electric railway system to link the centres of population in Western Ontario and connect them with the C.N.R. fiteani lines east and west. The year's programme may include lines to Gait, Berlin, Stratford, and other points in tho western peninsula. UNPRECEDENTED TRADE INCREASE. Tho total trade of Canada for the past fiscal year, ondimr. 31st March, was 862.029,732 dollars, which exceeded that of the preceding year by 103,605,34-3 dollars. Tho increases in imports and exports respectively were nearly 86,000.000 dollars and 18.000.000 dollars," the totals Ix-ing 547,382.582 dollars, and 315,317,250 dollars. The year's i increase of about It per cent, is one of tho largest, if not the very largest, in the history of Canada. ' Tho Dominion's trade for the current year will run close to tho billion mark. * Thc increase in agricultural exports were approximately 2-1.500,000 dollars, in manufactures about half a million, in fisheries a little moro than a million. There were decreases in the exports of animals and animal produce amounting to a little more than four millions, in tho exports of the forest of nearly five millions, and in mineral exports of a million and a half. The importation of coin and bullion amounted during the year to more than 2-6.C00.000 dollars, as compared with about 10,200,000 dollars tho previous year. LATEST DISCOVERY IN WIRELESS. Mr F. W. Prentice, of this city, has made some discoveries which threaten the death blow to the old theory of tho conservation of energy, as well as promising remarkable developments in the application of wireless electrical waves. ' His invention, briefly, is a device to supply power to automobiles, motor trucks, and flying machines, from wires stretched along the ground, receiving harps or antennae being fixed to thc side or bottom of the car and attuned to resonance. Years ago 3lr Prentice, a young and poor but ambitious telegraph operator at Sudbury, became much interested in experiments being made by Marconi at the time with wireless waves, and in a few years came te Toronto, where he continued his own experiments and lectured in a college. He constructed a complete small wireless telegraph, the first., it is claimed, ' m Canada. Afterwards moving to tho United States he became train dispatcher on a large Pennsylvania railroad, and the night following a terrible calamity m a tunnoU tho culmination

of a series of mishaps on his road, a dream combined the thought 'of the disaster with that of his wireless apparatus, and working out this itiea he finally evolved bis system of wireless train control, which was recently given an exacting but 'thoroughly satisfying test on the Canadian Pacific Railway lino between Toronto and Parkdalo*. Later • •xporiments have demonstrated conclusively, he clr.inis. that-electricity transmitted for power or commercial purposes by wireless really increases in velocity and power tl» farther it ::cos from the point oi origin. It was m a discussion oi the application of this principle to the commercial use of v. ire. less before the Central Hail-.vav Club in Buffalo, that Mr Prentice disclos-nl his idea for drawing cuer-iy through tho air- from wires stretched along tin.around to operate antes aml motortrucks, lie nh-o maim.'iiii'-d tli.it an aeroplane with a small Inch fr-'queiiev motor onld fly ar a leVu-ht of .'WJO feet, and d-\iw sufficient power from a wave wire alou:; the ground. A similar dovi.-e, ho believes, could >>> invented hi operate trains, nt ;i grer<r, savin-j; on present cost. His latest discovery was made when |.„ w:is working on'souy w'res />'i the C'P.R. tracks in Toronto, when he t'cmivl that an 'ir-rmdoscetit limp r-mi'd ho lighted nt a distance 0 1 throe inches from the v.-ir-s. WIRELESS FIIOM LAKES TO ATLANTIC. It is announced by Mr C. P. Edwauls. general _ superintendent of the Government wireless, that Canada will in the I wry near future have in operation a 'wireless telegraph system liy winch through coiniii'iuicrtion will he established t'.ll tlie way irom Port Arthur. , at the head of the Great Lakes, to! Belle Is!-- or Cape Race, on the Atlantic coast. The system, will include a chain of stations, approximately J> t j miles apart, from rort Arthur to Kingston, with ;i .station at that point cf sufficient range to communicate- with Montreal, 170 miles distant, linking up with the east coast system, and completing or.-> of the longest .systems ot Government wireless in the world. . At three points east of Port Arthur the buildings are already, erected, and the masts and apparatus aro- being installed. Tlie Port. Arthur station has been in operation since 1910. and the other places are Sault Sle. .Mario, Midland, and Tobermory, then- range covering tl» expanse of Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Georgian Bay. They will be completed in a week or two. Stations will also probably ho installed this vcar nt Point Edward, at the foot of Lake Huron, and Port Stanley on Luke Erie-. Port Collorne, at the upper end of the AYelland Canal, which joins Lake Erie with LaleV Ontario. Toronto and Kingston will Jater i be linked up. On the west coast, during the year ending with March, 73.000 messages were received, as against 48.000 tho year previous. COLONISATION SCHEME. Under the auspices of the Duke of Sutherland, one of the wealthiest landowners of Great Britain, whose estates aro amongst the most extensive there, and who owns large, tracts-.of land m AVestern Canada, there is about to lx» ! formed an influential corporation ior tho further extension of his ideas in promoting the settlement of British settlors under improved conditions i» Canada. Tbo object is to promote t colonisation throughout the Dominion, and more than one Province, or even one section, is likely to benefit. Tho enterprise is to bo conducted on a sound business basis, and those investing will jbe restricted as to profits, the intention. Jof those interested in furthering tho scheme h>iug to utilise capital only lor I tho benefit of British settlers. So all I profits above a small interest will bedej voted to enlarging the sphere* of the j movement. The corporation . will be I under the presidency of Sir AVilliam ! AVhyto, of the Canadian Pacific Rail- | way. who knows the West as probably jno othor man does. AVith the Duke of .Sutherland will bo associated also some of tho most prominent business men m Canada, including Sir William .Mackenzie, of tho Canadian Northern Railway, Sir Edmund AA'alker, president of tho Canadian Bank of Comnv-reo, Sir Henry TVliatt, president of the Electrical Development Company, Mr J. A.M. Aikins, M.P.. of Winnipeg. Mr J. S. Dennis, the Hon. AA'allaco Nesbitt, ami Mr A. M. Nanton. HUGE WATER. SCHEME FOR THE WEST. The biggest water supply scheme ever projected in Canada has boon planned in a compact between tho Government of Saskatchewan, the Canadian Pacific, tho Canadian Northern, and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railways, to divert to South Saskatchewan river in order to supply drinking water to Regina, Moose Jaw, AVoyburn, and other towns and cities in Saskatchewan. The cost of tho work will approximate twenty million dollars. Mr T. Aird Murray, C.E., of Toronto, is the consulting engineer, and a member of tho Commission, the other members being Mr A. J. McPherson, Commissioner of Highways for Saskatchewan, who is to bo the business manager, Dr. M. M. Seymour, Commissioner of Public Health for the province, who is to look after the health interests, and a representative of each of tho three railways. Three hundred million gallons of potable water per day will be available v.'ithoutl greatly lessening the flow of the river, and about thirty thousand horse-power will bo developed. A huge dam is to be constructed across tho Saskatchewan, and a largo distributing system will bo built to supply the cities and towns. The railways' interest in the scheme arises partly from their difficulties in securing water for their locomotives, and also from their knowledge that the development of the country means increased revenue for them. * It is understood that they are going to contribute moro than half tho money to be expended on the work. JOTTINGS. Mr C. Hamilton AVickcs has been appointed by tho British Government to succeed Mr Richard Grigg as British Trade Commissioner in Canada. Ho at present holds a similar position ■vr l A ,lstrau ' a > with headquarters at Melbourne. About threo years ago Mr AVickes prepared for the British Government an exhaustive report on trade conditions in this Dominion- Ho enters upon his duties here, with hcad'!"te"'s ar in Montreal, this autumn. Ihero are nine correspondents for the Commission in various "parts of tho Dominion.

Carrying out his plan for the development of Imperial trade, Hon. Geo. E. Foster, Minister of Trade and Commerce, with tho backing of the Government, is negotiating for preferential arrangements with Now Zealand and Australia, and expects to have such an arrangement effected with the West Indies by next January. Efforts aro to be made to secure more active co-operation between tho Canadian trade agents and tho British Consular service, and Boards of Trade throughout tho country are asked to appoint Commissioners *to look after foreign and interprovincial trade, collaborating with the Department, in securing statistics and sugicostine* new lines or operation.

All the immigration agents of the v . a r iOUs colonial dominions of the British. Empire report an extraordinary demand ior passeages from prospective emigrants, and it is said that tho present steamship lines will not be able to handle much more than half the rramc offering in that line during the s.fason._ During the past week more !!f- n S * 3C thousand agriculturists and artisans from Scotland, tho pick of >i* c " r 1 classes, have embarked for Canada.

. , number of inaniiiacttirors have °:incled themselves tot-ether untlor the name 0 f tho Canadian Home Market with an educative purposa, an( j j n ort - er to carr y OU j; this

purpose they have prepared and sent out a -.Alade-in-Canada" exhibition train, consisting of ten cars, loaded with fifty thousand dollars' worth of products "of the factories of about fifty linns, duplicates being found among tho samples. The train, which was built- at the C.P.R- shops at Angus, is going as an object-lesson to the *>eople of the AVestern provinces, to show that goods made in Eastern Canada are in quality and price equal, if not superior, to American-made goods, and to suircost to the AA'esterners the vast. po*-ibilities for development of their own towns and cities when they add busy workshops and factories to their industries- Tho entire train, as well as 'the exhibits, was made in Canada.