They were private members' bills.

One was

of Ontario. introduced by Mr. Cowan, a supporter of the Laurier Government; the other by Mr. Taylor, a member of the Conservative party, who in the preceding Parliament had made two or three ineffectual attempts to secure the passage of a measure in retaliation for the American Alien Contract Labor Laws. For many years, Canadians in Ontario had complained of the harsh way in which the Labor Acts of 1885 and 1887 were enforced against Canadian labourers and artisans at Buffalo and Detroit. In the last Parliament, these complaints led to an inquiry by a committee of the House of Commons; and the inquiry established the fact that much hardship resulted from the Alien Contract Labor Laws to Canadians who crossed the border to seek work in the States of New York and Michigan. The complaints came chiefly, if not entirely, from the Province of Ontario. From the Province of Quebec, there were no complaints; a fact which suggests that in the New England States there are no regular and systematic endeavours to enforce the Alien Contract Labor Laws against Canadians.

It was not pracsession of 1896.

After this Parliamentary inquiry, the Ottawa Government undertook to appeal to Washington. Nothing, however, seems to have been done; and as soon as the new Parliament met in the autumn of 1896, the subject was again introduced. This time it was raised on both sides of the House of Commons; and in and out of Parliament, the Ontario demand for retaliatory legislation was now supported by Sir Charles Tupper, the leader of the Opposition. With evident reluctance, Mr. Laurier then promised the support of the Government to Labour Legislation of a retaliatory character. ticable to deal with the question in the short Between then and the second session, the Corliss bill was carried through Congress, and, although it was vetoed by Mr. Cleveland, the fact of its passage intensified the demand for retaliation. On the first day of the session of the Canadian Parliament both Mr. Cowan and Mr. Taylor were ready with their bills. Mr. Cowan's measure was first introduced. It consequently got precedence over that of Mr. Taylor, and it was to Mr. Cowan's measure that the Government gave its support.

The support that the Government gave to the Cowan bill cannot be described as whole-hearted; and while the measure was passing its several stages, expressions were occasionally dropped by members on the Treasury Bench which warrant the statement that to several of them the Alien Labour Act, now on the Dominion Statute books, is as objectionable as it would have been to English Liberals of the Manchester School. The Government did not make the measure its own. It went through Parliament, as it was introduced, a private member's bill; but amendments introduced by the Government altered its character, and made it in the end a much less aggressive measure than the American law, of which at the outset it was a copy, with only a few changes in phraseology to suit Canadian conditions.

The Act, as it now stands, is of nine clauses. Six of themthose dealing with the scope and objects of the measure; with the penalties to be imposed; with the list of exemptions and with the mode of returning Alien Contract Labourers-are copied nearly word for word from the American Acts. But instead of it being made the duty of a State Department to appoint Labour Law Inspectors to enforce the Act, the Canadian law leaves this duty to the common informer, whom the Receiver General of the Dominion may reward, as he deems reasonable and just, out of penalties received from employers who contravene the law. The Act further provides that no proceedings under it shall be instituted without the consent of the Attorney General of Canada, or some person duly authorized by him; and that it shall apply "only to such foreign countries as have enacted and retain in force, or as enact and retain in force, laws or ordinances applying to Canada of a character similar to this Act."

The first order for the enforcement of the Act was made on July 12th, and applied to Manitoba, the Northwest and British Columbia. The intention of the order was to exclude American contractors and workmen from any share in the construction of the Crow's Nest Pass Railway. In such cases as this, the law may be used to harass Americans seeking work in Canadian territory; but in general application, the law is no

match for the United States laws of which the people of Ontario have so long complained.

In respect to Government works, the session of 1897 was one of the most interesting in the recent history of the Dominion. Four important transportation schemes obtained the approval of Parliament. One of these, the extension of the Intercolonial Railway from Levis to Montreal, was rejected by the Senate in its original form, and owing to that fact, the extension is to be tried over existing and partly existing lines for nine months as an experiment. The other three schemes were fully approved by Parliament. One of these provides for the establishment of a fast line of steamers between Canadian ports and Liverpool; the second establishes a system of transporting Canadian produce in cold storage to England; and the third provides for the construction of a new branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway from Lethbridge, Alberta, through Crow's Nest Pass, to Nelson in British Columbia. The new line is 330 miles long. It is to be subsidized by the Government to the amount of $11,000 a mile. In return for the subsidy, the Railway Committee of the Privy Council is to have the right to give other railways running powers over the line through the Pass. The Canadian Pacific Company also undertakes to make permanent reductions in freight rates over certain large sections of its line, and to convey to the Crown, in the interests of Canada, 50,000 acres of coal land in British Columbia.

The schemes for ocean transportation are the most noteworthy because each involves a new departure on the part of the Dominion Government. Railway subsidies are an old story in Canada; but not until the late session of Parliament had any Canadian Government embarked in ocean transportation schemes of the novelty and magnitude of those which have now been sanctioned.

The new fast mail line is to be subsidized by both the Dominion and the Imperial Government. The total subsidy is to be £154,500 a year. Of this sum £51,500 is to come from the Imperial Treasury, and £103,000 from the Dominion Government. For this subsidy, which is to be paid for a period of ten years, Messrs. Petersen, Tate and Company, of Newcastle-on

Tyne, are to build and equip, for the Canadian service, four steamers. Two are to be ready by the end of May, 1899; the other two by the first of May, 1900. As soon as the first two vessels are ready, a fortnightly service will be established; and the owners will receive half the subsidies. After May, 1900, there is to be a weekly service. Montreal and Quebec are to be the ports for the new line during the summer months. In the winter and spring, when the St. Lawrence is closed by ice, the steamers are to sail either from Halifax or St. John, at the option of the owners. The line is to be chiefly a mail and passenger service. It is as a mail line that it is to receive the Imperial subsidy; and it is to form the Atlantic link in the all British route to the Orient.

The steamers are to be of ten thousand tons gross register, and capable of a speed of 21 knots. The contract with the Government calls for an average speed from port to port of 500 knots a day. Each steamer is to have accommodation for 300 first class passengers; 200 second class; and 800 steerage. The steamers are to be equal in every particular to the "Lucania" or the "Campania" of the Cunard Line. As is usual with British steamers, which are of the mail service, the four Canadian vessels are to be built under the supervision of the Admiralty; and are to be at the call of the Admiralty for use as auxiliary cruisers. The new fleet is to be under the superintendence and control of the Department of Trade and Commerce at Ottawa. The Imperial Government accepts no responsibility for the undertaking beyond the subsidy which is to cover the cost of carrying the English mails. The scheme, which has now been perfected, had its origin at the Colonial Conference at Ottawa in 1894. It was not carried through without opposition. It was urged against it that Canada had no need for a Trans-Atlantic service of the luxurious character to be furnished by the new line; and that a slower and less. expensive service, affording cheaper freight rates, would meet the needs of the Dominion. The Imperial Government, however, would give its subsidy only to a fast line; and the Laurier Government, like its predecessor, took the ground that, with a really first class service of fast steamers, it would be practicable

for the new line to receive a large share of the Trans-Atlantic mail and passenger trade which now goes to New York.

The cold storage system is exclusively a Canadian undertaking, and is designed to create a larger and a better market in England for Canadian farm products. Under this system, for the establishment and maintenance of which the government obtained a vote of $100,000 in the recent session, there are to be weekly services from Canadian ports to the English markets. Eighteen steamers have been fitted up for the requirements of the new trade, and the new Petersen steamers are to be so constructed as to take part in it. On each of the steamers there are large cold storage chambers, with the necessary plant for keeping the produce at a suitable temperature, while it is being carried from the Canadian to the English and Scotch ports.

The cost of this plant has been on an average $10,000 for each steamer. Half of this capital outlay is in each case to be paid by the Canadian Government in installments extending over three years. In return for this subsidy, the owners of the steamers undertake not to charge more than ten shillings a ton, plus current freight rates, for carrying produce in cold storage. The steamers are to take the produce as it offers, in large or small quantities; and the Government has been careful to provide that the cold storage chambers shall not be monopolized by a few large farms.

To ensure the produce arriving at the Canadian ports in good condition, the Government has organized a service of cold storage cars on all the railways of the Dominion. Every farmer, within reach of a railway, will have an opportunity of shipping his produce to the nearest sea-port from which steamers leave for Great Britain. On each of the railway lines, at least once a week, a train with cold storage cars will start from the inland terminus for tide-water. The cars will receive the produce awaiting them at each station; and to secure a regular and permanent service, the Government guarantees twothirds of a car load for each run. At the ports there are cold storage warehouses under the management of the Government, in which the produce is housed until it can be placed on shipboard.