issued a statement describing a careful and guarded agreement which had been come to with the Power Company and explaining the privileges which had been granted by a preceding Government: "After careful consideration an Order-in-Council has been passed by the Ontario Government permitting the Company to export not more than 6,000 horse-power to the United States. The Order, however, obliges the Company to keep constantly available on the Canadian side at least 1,000 horse-power, and if at any time industries should be established on the Canadian side requiring the whole or any part of the 6,000 horse-power, then, on the demand of the Government the quantity so required shall be restored for use on the Canadian side."

The rates were to be fixed by the Hydro-Electric Commission. Protests were at once made to Ottawa against this decision and on June 6th a Federal Order-in-Council cut down the right of exportation by the Company to 3,500 horse-power. A license was granted to this effect with certain restrictions as to price. The matter did not rest here and when Sir Wilfrid Laurier was on his Western tour the citizens of Fort Frances asked "an equal distribution of power generated at the Albertan Falls and that the licenses to the Company be revoked because the Company has not lived up to its agreement regarding the price of power to users on the Canadian side." The Premier promised that the Town would be heard officially before the license was renewed in March, 1911. Another question of exporting power development as between Windsor and Detroit, U.S., came up in August when the former place advertised for sale the surplus of the Niagara power which it expected to receive, but not to require, for the use of its own people. It counted on getting from the Hydro-Electric Commission 15,000 horse-power but could use no more than 1,000 or 2,000. The rest it expected to sell to the Tunnel Company for international use and to Detroit manufacturers. On Sept. 22 representatives, numbering 58 from 34 municipal patrons of Hydro-Electric power, meeting in London, expressed this desire: "That the City of Windsor should be granted a supply of electrical energy from the Hydro-Electric Commission at whatever rate the power can be equitably supplied, in view of the other service given by the Transmission Line serving Windsor, and that it be affirmed as a principle that any Niagara power which the Commission supplies to be used outside of this Province should be supplied only on condition that such service should be terminable on reasonable notice, and that all profit on such service should be appropriated so as to be equitably advantageous to all Ontario municipalities supplied by the Commission's Niagara Falls Transmission System, and such supply to be entirely under the control of the Commission."

Meanwhile the Province and its Power Commission had been greatly concerned over the Long Sault dam proposition on the

St. Lawrence. If the power derivable from such a source, said to equal 700,000 horse-power, were sold independently of the Hydro-Electric Commission it would seriously affect the latter's plans and operations in Eastern Ontario. Before the International Waterways Commission on Feb. 8th Mr. Adam Beck strongly objected to the scheme. Ontario had not been consulted by the Dominion Government, although New York State had been consulted by the United States authorities. Many other interests opposed the proposal. Parliament discussed it at great length and in the end it was held over.

Government

Public
Affairs

The Whitney Government maintained its pracThe Whitney tically invulnerable position during 1910 without any and Provincial apparent change in public opinion or in the degree of public support. In matters of policy it was progressive. On Apl. 13 the Hon. Frank Cochrane, Minister of Lands and Mines, announced that the Government had decided, in view of the fact that there had been no increase in certain dues for 23 years, to raise those on pine sawlogs from $1.00 to $1.50 per 1,000 feet (board measure); on square timber from $20 to $50 per 1,000 cubic feet; and on hemlock by 25 cents per 1,000 feet (board measure). Ground rent which was raised from $2.00 to $3.00 per mile, 23 years before, was to be advanced to $5.00. The transfer fee was to be raised from $1.00 to $5.00 a mile. The rates were fixed for ten years and the licensees would have to pay the whole cost of fire-ranging instead of half, while the Government retained authority over the men engaged.

In connection with this Department the improvement of Rondeau Park, a Forest reserve near Chatham, was the object of Liberal criticism in the early part of the year. To it Mr. Cochrane replied on May 28: "The question of improving this Park by the removal of some of the over-matured and decaying timber was urged upon the Department by expert Foresters and was carefully considered. The trees were marked by Prof. Zavitz of the Agricultural College, the right to cut timber was advertised in the press, while circulars inviting tenders were sent out to all lumber firms. In the final contract, and in order to have a remedy should the forest prove in danger of being injured by the removal of too many trees, a clause was inserted reserving the right to withdraw any tree marked for removal." On June 30th the Premier announced that the Government had appointed Chief Justice Sir W. R. Meredith a Commissioner (1) to inquire and report as to the laws relating to the liability of employers to make compensation to their employees for injuries received in the course of their employment; (2) to make such recommendations as he may deem expedient for enactment in this Province; (3) to cause to be prepared and to report a Bill embodying such changes in the law as in his opinion should be adopted."

In accordance with a decision come to by Hon. W. J. Hanna, Provincial Secretary, in 1907, steps had been taken toward altering, reforming and completing the Provincial Prison system by the establishment of a Reformatory and farm-site for criminal labour at Guelph. Agents were sent out by the Government and six farms were purchased, 800 acres in all, at an average price of $80 per acre. On Apl. 11th, 1910, the Government took possession of the property and prisoners were sent to the Farm until, in July, over 100 were working there. These men surveyed the land, opened up quarries, cut thousands of fence posts and cleared and under-drained marsh land, laid the foundation for new roads, strung wire-fencing and put up temporary buildings. During the year ending Sept. 30, 1909, there were 13,535 commitments to the 45 gaols and 8 lock-ups of the Province at an expense of $184,576 and with sentences passed upon 8,161. Mr. Hanna also had within his Department control over vital statistics as to which the Provincial Report for 1908 showed 57,155 births, 21,058 marriages and 32,714 deaths. Of the latter total, 6,895 were infants under one year while typhoid was responsible for 662 and tuberculosis for 2,505 and for 92,921 since 1870. Diphtheria carried off 450 and cancer 1,348. The Report of the Hospitals and Charities also under this Department (Sept. 30, 1910) showed 78 Hospitals, 36 Refuges, 33 Orphanages and 36 other institutions receiving $159,198 from the Government, and $1,304,673 from other sources, with a capital expenditure by the Government of $423,432. Hospitals for the Insane (Oct. 31. 1909) showed 5,531 persons maintained at a Provincial cost (ten months) of $140,048 and a Municipal expense of $100,168.

Mr. Hanna was also Minister in charge of the Provincial Board of Health which, in July, lost the services of Dr. C. A. Hodgetts as Secretary--his successor being Dr. J. W. S. McCullough and in January had to face, with the Dominion authorities, an outbreak of Hydrophobia caused by the roaming of hundreds of dogs through the Province. Drastic action was taken to stamp out the disease and meet the danger; many Counties were placed under quarantine in Western Ontario and 100 persons had to take the Pasteur treatment. By August, however, the end had come and the quarantine was lifted. Under instructions from this Department Dr. Helen MacMurchy submitted an elaborate report on Apl. 25th dealing with Infant mortality in the Province, which had reached 20 per cent. of the yearly deaths or, in the City of Toronto, one out of every five. She summed up much of the trouble in these words: "Where the Mother works the baby dies." Artificial foods and poor milk were vital causes. A further Report on the Feeble-minded class in the population was also submitted; while J. J. Kelso, on Feb. 26, reviewed at length his work for the neglected and dependent children of the poor and wretched. Another important work of a different nature, under

the Provincial Secretary's supervision, was that of the Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park Commission. Its members in 1910 were: J. W. Langmuir (Chairman), G. H. Wilkes, P. W. Ellis, Col. L. C. Raymond, K.C., W. L. Doran and L. H. Clarke. Their Report of March 3rd showed receipts for 1909 of $208,038 and continued expenditures upon the beautifying and popularizing of this great Provincial property.

The Department of Game and Fisheries made public in June an interim Report from A. Kelly Evans, the special Commissioner appointed in 1909 to study the resources of the Province in this respect and various questions connected with their present condition or future improvement. Mr. Evans' opinions upon certain points were strongly expressed as, for instance, in the following statement: "Your Commissioner is of the opinion that most of the harm done to the fish, game and fur-bearing animals of the Province is the work of a comparatively small number of utterly unscrupulous and lawless individuals, for the most part well known in the districts in which they operate, and especially so in the more sparsely settled regions. These persons often terrorize the community to such an extent that information as to their depredations is difficult to obtain; and to expect officers, paid the paltry sums at present given as wages to a large number of the officials of the outside service, to run the risk of bodily injury at the hands of these persons, is ridiculous." His chief recommendations and suggestions were summarized in this paragraph: "Your Commissioner would, therefore, strongly urge the advisability of placing the Department under the control of a small, working Commission, somewhat after the model of the T. & N. O. Railway Commission, but with its membership reduced to the smallest number and, while this interim Report will be found to contain recommendations for an increased expenditure of moneys by the Departmentespecially in the establishment of Provincial fish hatcheries, an adequate equipment for the Patrol Service, and higher salaries for Wardens-your Commissioner would not recommend these expenditures or improvements unless his recommendation of placing the Department of Game and Fisheries under a Commission is acted upon by your Government."

Mr. Evans also detailed recommendations as to close seasons for deer, pheasants, partridge, etc., with specified penalties; regarding the management of the Provincial Forest Reserves; as to the better protection of birds and popular education in their economic values, etc. The annual Report of this Department as submitted by Hon. J. O. Reaume, on Dec. 15, 1910, especially denounced an act of the Dominion Department of Fisheries in abolishing the close season for whitefish in a portion of Lake Erie as an "act of vandalism" to the Province. The value of the Fisheries for 1909 was stated at $2,237,544-a total value since 1870 of $49,239,999; the fry distributed under Federal

authority (1908) at 139,565,000. Mr. Reaume, as Minister of Public Works, also had charge of Highways, and the 1910 Report showed continuous improvement in roads. The township or local expenditure in this respect had totalled $19,015,343 in the 20 years, 1889-1908, and the statute labour, estimated at $1.00 a day, would make it $30,435,103 more. The policy of the Department and of recent legislation was to (1) encourage business-like management of roads; (2) build a system of mainroads; (3) create an object lesson in management and construction; (4) to more equitably distribute cost between Province, cities and towns, and rural districts. The general Report of this Department showed an expenditure in the first ten months of 1909, on public buildings and works, colonization and mining roads, aid to Railways, etc., of $1,159,538 and a total from July 1, 1867, to Oct. 31, 1909, of $29,063,426.

The Attorney-General (Hon. J. J. Foy) was fortunate in winning for the Province two cases before the Privy Council during the summer. The decision of the Privy Council in sustaining Ontario's defence against the Dominion Government's claim for large sums in connection with Indian Treaty No. 3, in the Rainy River District, relieved the Province of a liability which was estimated at from a million to a million and a half dollars. The Dominion Government made the claim in 1902 and, at the trial, the late Mr. Justice Burbidge of the Exchequer Court decided against Ontario. The Supreme Court reversed this Judgment and the Privy Council confirmed this action. Ontario was also relieved by the Privy Council of a liability of $300,000 claimed by Quebec as part of the old Common School Fund. This claim, with interest, dated from 1873. The Provincial Police (under Mr. Foy's Department) was re-organized early in the year with J. E. Rogers as Superintendent and up to the close of 1910 had 1,377 cases in hand with 1,069 convictions.

Early in the year the appointment of N. B. Colcock as AgentGeneral in London was made permanent, and in succeeding months the business of the Office grew greatly; inquiries in matters such as immigration, industry, agriculture, trade and finance, increased; and $17,000 was voted at the 1910 Session with a view to improving the buildings and extending the operations of the Agency. Speaking in London to the Canadian Gazette of Sept. 1 Sir James Whitney said regarding this Office and its work with other Departments at Toronto: "I am perfectly satisfied. Up to the time when I left home about 1,600 farm labourers and 500 domestic servants, had been distributed in the Province by the Bureau of Colonization. These men were all obtained through the efforts of the London Office, in addition to those sent out through the Salvation Army and other Agencies." During this visit to London he was interviewed by various journals,