Speaking in the Legislature on March 5th, the Premier declared that New Brunswick coal was of most excellent quality. There was no question in his mind that it would soon be in a position to compete with that of the neighbouring Province. To this end railways were being constructed, arrangements made with the Intercolonial to use New Brunswick coal, and contracts of a similar nature entered into with other roads. Later on the legislation connected with a railway in the Counties of Queen's and Sunbury was enacted and an effort made to promote the development of the rich deposits of that region -calculated to contain over a hundred million chaldrons of coal. Speaking to the Montreal Gazette on March 17th, the Hon. H. A. McKeown, of New Brunswick, referred to this coal area. "These deposits have been examined by geologists, and the statement has been made to the effect that there are 150,000,000 tons in sight, the surface veins running all over the interior of the two counties named at a thickness of from two to four feet." He considered it the best coal "for steam purposes" of any found in the Maritime Provinces. If equal to the test, the Dominion Minister of Railways had already promised to take 100,000 tons annually for the Intercolonial, and it was expected that the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canada Eastern would each take 50,000 tons.

To the other minerals some encouragement was given during the Session. A Company in Albert County had spent $30,000 in development work in connection with shale and now offered to expend at least half a million more upon plant, tunnel and railway if certain concessions were granted. These the Legislature authorized the Government to give. On March 11th the subject of oil and natural gas came up and the Hon. Mr. Dunn stated that various experiments and operations had been carried out by the New Brunswick Petroleum Company at an expenditure of $20,000 to date. It was stated by Mr. N. Lodge, Secretary of the Company, in the St. John Telegraph of August 31, 1901, that all reports indicated the presence of oil in paying quantities in the Counties of Westmoreland, Albert, Kent, Restigouche, Northumberland, York, King's, Queen's, Sudbury, and Gloucester. "At present," said the above mentioned paper, "there is a very general opinion in Westmoreland and Albert Counties that the mining of oil is likely to become one of our great industries." Iron, manganese and albertite were, it may be said, at one time developed in the Province but production has now practically ceased. There is, however, a wide general distribution of minerals in New Brunswick-iron ores, copper, manganese, bituminous coal, gypsum, graphite, granite and limestone being the largest in estimated quantity.

Minerals in the Territories

The Mineral fields of the North-West Territories possess great possibilities of development and have a considerable present value. The lignite coals of Souris and Western Alberta, the bituminous coal of the Rocky Mountain foot-hills, the steam coal and anthracite of Canmore and Banff are now well known. In the Souris country there is said to be 7,000,000 tons of lignite coal underlying the surface and it has been

estimated that the easily available fuel contained in the seam worked at Lethbridge, and running between the Belly and Bow Rivers, amounts to 350,000,000 tons. The coal-bearing region of the Territories up to the 56th degree of Latitude is placed at 65,000 square miles in area. Away to the north are further extensive resources of coal, unknown in quantity and inaccessible for present use. There is also in the northern part of Alberta and in Athabasca every evidence of the existence of a great petroleum field. Natural gas has also been found over a wide area and under convenient and payable conditions. Gold has been found and worked in North Saskatchewan and other rivers, while copper and lead ores are known to exist in immense quantities to the far north.

In 1900 Manitoba and the Territories, together, produced $351,950 worth of coal as against $128,953 worth ten years before. The coal exports of the Territories were $31,888 in 1900 and a total since 1891, when the trade commenced, of $363,729. The production of coal had meanwhile really increased, although the export had diminished. In his annual Report to the Lieut.-Governor, Mr. J. H. Ross declared under date of February 26, 1901, that the output of 22 mines was 303,730 tons of bituminous coal and 17,549 tons of anthracite. "Coal mining is destined within a few years to become a very important industry in the Territories. It already provides occupation for some 800 men and the annual output at nearly all the mines is rapidly increasing. The demand for coal for domestic purposes will reach large proportions during the near future." priced coal would, he thought, be an encouragement to immigrants, and the increasing number of the latter would promote in turn the production of coal.

Mines and

British

Low

This Province of Canada is one of the great mining Mining in regions of the world; with resources which are practically illimitable in variety and extent. DevelopColumbia ment has, for many reasons, hardly touched the actual quantity of coal and gold, silver and copper and lead which its mountains and valleys contain. Yet the total production over a term of years has been sufficient to indicate the great possibilities of the future. The total output of the Province up to and including 1900 has been $152,155,208. Of this sum placer gold is to be credited with $62,584,443; lode gold with $12,812,860; silver with $13,649,809; lead with $7,619,956; copper with $4,362,583; coal and coke with $49,140,917; and miscellaneous minerals with $1,904,640. annual production of all minerals increased from $3,521,102 in 1891 to $7,507,956 in 1896. In 1898 it was $10,906,861; in the next year it was $12,393,131; and in 1900 the total was $16,344,751 distributed as follows:

:

The

Addressing the annual meeting of the Crow's Nest Pass Coal

Company in Toronto on March 1st, Senator George A. Cox, the President, dealt with the immense coal resources of this Province. Fears of any shortage in the supply of coal or coke to local smelters in order to benefit the American interests of the Company were, he maintained, groundless for many reasons. "In the Geological Reports it appears that there are 550,000 acres of coal lands in the Crow's Nest country containing a supply of coal which is conceded by all authorities to be practically exhaustless; it being estimated that there is in that area 20,000,000,000 tons of coal. This would admit an output of 10,000 tons per day-allowing 300 working days a year -for over 6,000 years."

If they could obtain entrance and transportation to the United States market he expected a demand for 4,500 tons of coal per day. A large portion of this would be converted into coke in the local ovens and within five years they would have three industrial centres established in this region with a pay-roll of $10,000 a day. This would, however, not be possible without direct railway entrance to the American markets. Hence their request to Parliament for a charter. "There is hardly any industry so universally beneficial to a country as coal mining and coke making for export trade. The coal and coke are both brought to the last stage of perfection before being shipped out. All labour is expended on them in the country and there is nothing further to be done with them except to consume them."

On June 29, 1901, the Report of the Provincial Minister of Mines the Hon. Richard McBride was made public. It was an exhaustive document and amongst other facts indicated the distribution of minerals in the Province. Placer gold was apparently produced chiefly in the Cariboo, Cassiar (including Atlin), East Kootenay, Lillooet and Yale districts; lode gold in West Kootenay Lillooet, Yale (Camp McKinney) and the Coast districts; silver in East and West Kootenay-Nelson Slocan and Rossland-and the Coast; lead in East and West Kootenay Nelson and Slocan; coal in East Kootenay (Crow's Nest Pass) and on Vancouver Island.

The mines most extensively developed and equipped were stated to be the Consolidated Hydraulic Company's mine at Quesnelle Forks; Le Roi, Centre Star and War Eagle at Rossland; Athabasca, Silver King, Yellowstone and Ymir near Nelson; Mother Lode and Old Ironsides near Greenwood; Cariboo at Camp McKinney; Van Anda on Texada Island; the Crow's Nest Pass coal mines near Fernie; and the coal mines on Vancouver Island. Smelters had been established at Pilot Bay, Nelson and Trail in the Kootenays; at Grand Forks, Greenwood and Boundary Falls in the Boundary district; and at Van Anda on Texada Island. The Northport smelter and others near the boundary, on American soil, also treated quantities of British Columbia ore.

According to the British Columbia Mining Record of August, 1901, a large amount of American, and considerable British capital have been going into these mining interests. Many of the mines had paid dividends during the preceding year ranging from $10,000 to

*

$50,000, and this paper named sixteen companies which had paid various sums totalling $6,242,337. The Report of the Minister of Mines stated in this connection that the mines of the Province had, as a whole, paid back in principal and interest to the lenders of the money for their development, amounts ranging from $6,529,420, in 1898, and $6,751,664, in 1899, to $10,069,757, in 1900—an increase of 49 per cent. over 1899 and 54 per cent. over 1898.

The production of the chief mining divisions of the Province in 1900 was $510,000 in Quesnel, as against $193,300 in the preceding year; $467,479 in Cassiar, against $819,380 in 1899; $2,855,851 in East Kootenay, compared with $523,666; $787,082 in Nelson, as against $879,185; $2,063,908 in Slocan, compared with $1,740,372; $2,739,300 in Trail, as against $3,229,086; $1,358,383 in Osoyoos, as against $234,167; $4,805,153 in the Coast region, as compared with $4,094,903 in 1899. The Minister's Report gave the following data as to the relative progress and position of the mining industry in the three years, 1898, 1899, 1900:

"Placer gold in 1900 shows a 5 per cent. decrease from 1899, and 99 per cent. increase over 1898. Lode gold in 1900 shows a 21 per cent. increase over 1899, and 57 per cent. increase over 1898. Combined gold in 1900 shows a 12 per cent. increase over 1899, and 66 per cent. increase over 1898. Silver in 1900 shows a 39 per cent. increase over 1899, and a 3 per cent. decrease from 1898. Copper in 1900 shows a 19 per cent. increase over 1899, and 85 per cent. increase over 1898. Lode in 1900 shows a 206 per cent. increase over 1899, and 150 per cent. increase over 1898. Coal in 1900 shows a 10 per cent. increase over 1899, and 27 per cent. increase over 1898. Coke in 1900 shows a 148 per cent. increase over 1899, and 143 per cent. increase over 1898. Other materials in 1900 show a 22 per cent. increase over 1899, and 66 per cent. increase over 1898. Total output in 1900 shows a 32 per cent. decrease over 1899, and 50 per cent. increase over 1898"

As to the future; it was officially declared that "every accessible section of the Province is being prospected, more or less thoroughly, and many sections are being developed with good prospects of success, while still others, which are known to contain valuable minerals, must necessarily lie dormant until the growth of the country provides sufficiently good transportation facilities to enable them to be opened up." During 1901, according to later statements by Mr. W. F. Robertson, Provincial Mineralogist, progress has been considerable. The new placer fields in Atlin, the Cassiar region and in Cariboo, near the Horsefly River, promise an important revival of that formerly great industry. Hydraulic mining plants costing large sums of money were being installed in Atlin, Cassiar, Omenica and Cariboo; dredging for gold was being carried on actively in the Fraser, Thompson, Quesnel and other rivers; lode gold mining at Ymir, Cariboo, McKinney and elsewhere, together with gold and copper ores at Rossland, and silver and lead in East Kootenay, were being largely developed.

Rossland, during 1900 and 1901, maintained its position despite

financial troubles and labour complications. The product of the Camp increased from 1,856 tons, valued at $75,000, in 1894, to 111,282 tons in 1898, worth $2,470,811. In 1900 the output was placed at 221,902 tons, valued at $3,500,000, while that of 1901 was estimated in the British Columbia Mining Record at 295,700 tons. In the beginning of the latter year something like 400,000 tons had been expected, but difficulties intervened. Elsewhere constant mineral discoveries were being announced in the press-great coal deposits near the Crow's Nest Pass mines, placer gold in large quantities in the Cariboo regions and extensive mica deposits near Vancouver.

When the official figures of the production of the Province for the year ending December 31, 1901, were made public, it was found that the increase was 25 per cent. over the preceding year, and in every line except placer gold and lead. In copper the gross value of production had increased 206 per cent., chiefly owing to the development on Vancouver Island. The total for placer gold was $892,500; lode gold, $4,704,200; silver, $2,624,002; lead, $1,970,641; coal, $4,587,630; coke, $673,800; miscellaneous, $309,030. The total production was therefore, $20,713,501, as against $16,344,751 in 1900.

Lead

British

A very active agitation for Government assistance in Mining in the development of lead mining and smelting commenced in this Province early in 1901. A statement regarding Columbia the matter was submitted to the Dominion Government on February 16th by Mr. T. G. Blackstock, of Toronto, in which he made an urgent plea for a bounty on lead refining, to be limited in. amount, duration and as to tonnage, and claimed that much incidental benefit would accrue to other mining interests from such a policy. On March 14th the Nelson Board of Trade passed a long Resolution declaring that lead mining had already grown into a most important industry, giving employment to a large number of men at high wages, and supporting the population in an extensive area of the Kootenay district; that further development depended on the miners getting their ore smelted at a reasonable charge for freight and treatment; that the demand for these lead ores by smelters in the United States had almost ceased, and that the existing capacity of British Columbia smelters was utterly inadequate to treat the output of the lead mines; that the establishment of a lead refinery, readily accessible to the smelters in the lead producing districts, would lead to the erection of more furnaces. For these reasons the Board considered that "the establishment of a lead refinery in an accessible position in Canada is the surest and best means of fostering the lead mining industry in British Columbia," and asked the Dominion Government to assist such an industry, until fully established, with a bounty granted for five years, of five dollars per ton of pig lead-product from ores mined, smelted and refined in Canada.

Steps were at once taken by this Board of Trade, and those of Kaslo and Sandon, to send delegates to Ottawa to press the matter upon the Government. On March 21st the citizens of Silverton met and passed a Resolution similar to that of Nelson. Other mining