OUR CANADIAN LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2695, 8 November 1905, Page 11

OUR CANADIAN LETTER.

(Frou Ous Own Coeeesi'ondent.)

OTTAWA, August 21

Some notion of the volume and value of the agricultural products of the Western Provinces may be gathered from the fact that 16,000 men are required this year from the East to gather the harvest. They are paid good wages. Kecently in one of the States adoining New Brunswick 10s per day was bejing offered by farmers for harvest help, and the supply was wholly inadequate. Of course, this demand covers a limited period of tim«; but it illustrates the needs of the situation. Just what the yield of grain will bs this year in Western Canada cannot at this moment be foretold, but it will be the largest in our history beyond all doubt. At the same time, the development of the fruit industry in tlvo favoured valleys of British Columbia is proceeding in a most promising manner. Very soon a lanje export trade will commence, the proportions of which may be regarded as practically unlimited. No fruifc whatever is produced in the great prairie Provinces. Some question has arisen in Canada with respect to the advantages of the British preference. It is admitted that our exports to Great Britain have increased under this system, and also that our Imports from Great Britain have more than doubled; but it is also pointed out that at the same time our purchases from the United States have grown in even a larger ratio. What is, perhaps, of greater importance is the fact that year after year, before the preference was introduced, our import trade had gone steadily downward. When the new policy was brought in both brandies of our commerce with the Mother Country began to improve. From £6,000,000 our import 6 have risen to over £12,000,000; so that, from the narrowly -Imperial standpoint, the Oa-nadian policy has be^n a success. The Department of Inland Revenue is determined to carry out rigidly the Foods Adulteration Act. Under this measure samples of all kinds of foods are collected and submitted to chemical analysis. The vendors of spurious articles are sometimes prose.cuted ; but of late years the act has not had the Influence on the side of purity that it was intended to exercise. It is therefore intended to institute a new crusade.

(- A young artisan, 21 years of age. has '■ just died in Montreal as the result of '-cigarette-smoking. He consumed 50 per ! day, until his heart gave out and the ' coroner stepped in. This incident may ' possibly give a new impetus to the efforts iof the Women's Christian Temperance Onion to have the manufacture and importation of cigarettes stopped. They all but accomplished this result two years ago. In the Klondike much gold is being wrung from the frozen soil, while the producers spend muoh of the fruits of their toil in gambling. The latest reports from the goldfields indicate this to be the result.^

Cerebro spinal meningitis is making serious ravages in parts of Canada. In the Lurenburg district, in Nova Scotia, the disease has just been stamped out after a hard struggle and many deaths. Parts of Ontario have also suffered severely.

Scotch experts are teaching our fishermen how t 0 cure herring. They have brought over the best methods, and an important and valuable improvement in the market value of the Canadian catch is looked for.

The Hon. David Wark, at the age of nearly 102 years, has just died. He was a member of the Canadian Senate, and was at the time of his death the oldest legislator in the British Empire. He had been a parliamentarian since Confederation, and was hale and bright until his recent illness. Tho -Doukhobors have recently been on a pilgrimage in search of the Messiah. They came over here from Russia several years ago, and among theni are a few hundred fanatics, principally of the female sex. who appear to think that absolute nudity is the proof of a pure and deeply religious condition of mind. The ridingwhips of tho Mounted Police, applied on the right spot, have changed the convictions of most of these zealots.

The Tariff Commission starts out in tho course of a couple of weeks on a tour of inquiry, but it is not expected that any important changes in the scale of duties will be brought about A revenue tariff is the policy of the present Government.

The weather has been fine during the past month, and the certainty of a larpe snd satisfactory harvest over the whole Dominion is assured. The temperature has ranged between 40 and 92. The month, between July 15 and August 15. was unbrokenly warm, with occasional heavy rainfalls.

Women bailiffs are being largely employed as " men in possession "' in caees where the i^erson levied is a woman or an -elderly person not likely to cause trouble to the bailiff.

Eaiiars of Poultry should use Nimmo anb Blair's Game and Poultry Meal, which is composed of the best ground bones and shells, specially prepared to meet the requirements of the fast-increasing poultry industrj-. It is made up m Klb bags, at Is 9d each. Ask your ■torekeeoer for it.