OUR CANADIAN LETTER.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14686, 7 June 1913, Page 2

OUR CANADIAN LETTER.

(raoit oite offs corkrspo?.t>ej.-t.) TORONTO, May 8. BIG STEAMSHIP MERGERS. One of the biggest mergers of great lake steamship companies since tho for- ■ mation of the Pittsburg Steamship Company, took place at Cleveland, Ohio, on April 2oth, in the completion of tie organisation of tho Interlake Steamship Company. Thirty-nine freighters owned by the Mesaba S.S. Company, the Lackawanna S.S. Co., the Huron Barge Co., tho Provident S-S. Co., the Acme S.S. Co., and the Standard S.S. Co., were combined with seventeen vessels belonging to the old Gilchrist Company, which was under a receivership until lately, when its vessels were sold and tho receivership dissolved. The new company is capitallised at six and a half million dollars, with bonds of three millions. The freight fleet representing Canadian interests on the great lakes is also likely to come undor control of the Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Co., which has lately absorbed tho Niagara Navigation Co., tho Hamilton Steamboat Co., and tho Turbinia Steamship _ Co.. three passenger lines running out of Toronto, while tho R. and 0. itself had steamers plying between this port and Kingston and Montreal. The R. and 0. is, it is understood, negotiating for tho acquisition of the steamers conj trolled by the St. Lawrence and i Chicago Navigation Company, the ! Merchants' Mutual Line, and the Canadian Interlake Line- The R. and 10. recently absorbed also tho Thousand ; Islands Steamboat Co.'s excursion and tourist lines, and tho Inland Lakes Line, a freight line with seventeen steamers. Including the fleet of tho Inland Lines, tho Canadian Interlake Line the St. Lawrcnco and Chicago Navigation Co., and the Merchants Mutual, the R. and 0. control in the ; I new merger forty-two freighters, and i j in what marine interests now consider i tho Canadian Ship Trust will have < : almost absolute control of tho CanaI dian freight fleet on the great lakes. j j The purchase price for tho three lines ! about to be taken over is said tobe i placed at Jwtwcen five and six million dollars. Tho Inland Lines' fleet reI cently taken over is worth three Tnil- | ; lions. If this deal is put through !'• there will ho only some fifteen mdonenident freight steamers on tho lakes, ! ; most of them controlled by the McKay i Fbinpind interests, with headquarters at Hamilton. I TRADE WITH NEW ZEALAND. Trade between Canada and New Zealand is increasing. The tonnage from eastern Canadian ports alone showed an increase for the fiscal year ending 31st March. 1913, of 3695 tons, the total being 28,179 tons. The chief articles imported were newspapers and motor cars. In addition to nearly 100,000 cases of butter exported from New Zealand to Canada, heavy shipments have been made of beef, equal to 2600 head of cattle; also 2000 carcases of veal have been imported into Canada from there. The fact that New Zealand has found a profitable market for her apples in Argentina, having shipped 30,000 cases to Buenos Ayres during March alone, ■ suggest to Canadians a probable share ! for them also in that market for their | ' abundant and choice products of apple j orchards. ' NEW ZEALAND BUTTER \ COMPETITION. I Interesting light was thrown upon the reason for tho large importations of ! Now Zealand butter and eggs into I Alberta and British Columbia, at the ; Alberta Dairymen's Convention at Olds, Alta~, -last week. It was shown that this was due, not as many people have | supposed, to lack of supplies from the farms of the Priirie Provinces, but to inferiority in quality to the output of New Zealand and also to Eastern Canada. The New Zealand butter at ( . this time of the year is fresh grass ; butter, as that country is now in the : midst of summer. Tho Alberta, butter now on tho market is a part of last year's make, which has been kept in cold storage, and of course has lost a great deal of its flavour. As a result of the heavy imports of butter from tho oast and from New Zealand, it was shown that Alberta and Saskatchewan, while turning out last year some four million pounds of butter, as compared with only in 1910, had imported eleven million pounds from east of tho great lakes, and 5,600,0001bs from New Zealand. In order to meet the competition from the antipodes, it was felt that the farmers should as quickly as possible go into winter dairying, and take more care in summer time to improve the quality for the trade they have. JOTTINGS. Canada stands ninth in world shipping, acooruiug to the records of vessels ana tonnage tor last your. The total number oi vessels registered was 8«~U, measuring 83ti,is78 tons, an increase for - the year of 2H2 vessels and 65,632 tons. The number of steamers was 3607, and the tonnage 6i1,T20 (gross), tho. value i: of net tonnage at the end or TJI2 being i estimated at more than, twenty-live million dollars; 42,490 men and boys were , employed on ships registered in Canada in 1912. Great Britain and her colonies stand first in world shipping, Germany' second, and the United States third. Ontario leads in new shipping among the provinces of Canada, with 11,170 tons, British Columbia standing a close second with 10,647. There were nineteen wrecks and ten strandings, total losses numbering nineteen. All the natural gas and oil companies in Southern Ontario appear to be now consolidated by the incorporation during tho past week of the Southern Onte.no Gas Company, Ltd., with fifteen million dollars capital. It is to bo a holding company as well aa an operating concern, but municipal franchises are not to be secured without 6upplementary letters patent. Thirty-one thousand families moved m Montreal on May Day. Tho custom of landlords is to make all leases terminable on that date, hence there is an exceedingly extensive change of habitation on that day, even if the move is only round the corner. It puts a tremendous tax on the waterworks department, the electric light, telephone, and gas companies, and moving men charge five dollars an hour. All sorts of conveyances are pressed into requisition, including hand-carts and ! cabs. Ninety bars were closed in Ontario on the Ist of May, owing to the carrying of local option or license reduction by-laws in municipalities. The Mendelssohn Choir, of Toronto, Dr. A. S. Vogt conductor, is to be sent to Europe in 1915. The 70,vj00 dollars necessary will be available, according to the assurance .of prominent financiers and music-lovers of tho city who are backing the project. An instance of the rato at which im- ! ; migration flows into Canada:—During ; the twenty-four hours beginning Tues- j i day evening, eight steamers brought to ' the port of Quebec ten thousand nine ; hundred and one passengers. Of tho j j 6901 brought by five steamers between j ] 7 p.m. and 4 a.m., 95 per cent, were i destined for the Canadian West. Eighty per cent, of these are British, and twenty per cent, foreign. '< King George may open the Canadian - National Exhibition in aoronto in £ : August next year. Word has \ been received that his Majesty 1 I will visit Canada in 1914, un- t •; less prevented by some unexpected ( : event such as a family bereavement t ■or a European war involving Britain, j t , His Majesty has intimated his willing- v ness to open the Exhibition here, and i: already there are preparations making f 1 k in Court circles for this event. 'j a