companies were meanwhile securing legislation at Victoria under the names of the First Narrows Bridge Company, Limited, and the Lion's Gate Bridge Company, Limited. Numerous protests were made to Ottawa by business and shipping interests against proceeding with the project, but no action was taken in that quarter. The inter-municipal committee proceeded to call for tenders and eventually on May 27 awarded a franchise to the Lion's Gate Bridge Company, and proceeded to draft an agreement. It became necessary, however, to submit certain by-laws to the people. In the case of Vancouver, the question at issue was the building of a road through Stanley Park to serve as an approach to the bridge. When this was submitted on June 25, it was decisively beaten by a vote of 4,724 to 2,099. The Department of Labour. The total industrial pay-roll of British Columbia in 1926 was approximately $175,000,000, which compares with a total of $160,000,000 for 1925. The Department of Labour received returns from 4,521 firms, with a pay-roll of $129,420,599.55, as against 4,138 firms and a payroll of $115,943,238 for 1925, and 3,566 firms and a pay-roll of $107,798,771 for 1924. These figures did not include wages paid to railway employees, civil servants, workers employed by wholesale and retail firms, and several other lines of activity, aggregating upwards of $45,000,000. Miscellaneous Incidents. An important conference on forestry was held in Victoria, Dec. 6-9, 1926, by the Western Forestry and Conservation Association of the Canadian and American Pacific Coast. It was attended by representatives of the United States and Canadian Governments, the Province of British Columbia, the Pacific Coast States and private organizations, who discussed many problems of importance to the conservation of forest resources. Legislative authority was secured by the city of Victoria at the 1927 Session of the Legislature to confer the freedom of the city on distinguished personages, and it was claimed that this was the first Canadian city to acquire this privilege. During his visit to Victoria on Mar. 28, 1927, the Rt. Hon. Viscount Willingdon, Governor-General of Canada, was made the first freeman of the city, and on Mar. 31 exercised his franchise as a citizen by voting on a property by-law. The Executive Council of British Columbia Premier, President of the Executive Council..... Commissioner of Fisheries.... Attorney-General and Minister of Labour. Minister of Agriculture. Minister of Public Works and Minister of Railways. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly...... .Hon. John Oliver.* Hon. William Sloan. Hon. Alexander Malcolm Manson, K.C. Hon. John Duncan MacLean, M.D., C.M. *NOTE: It is announced, as The Review goes to press, Aug. 20, 1927, that Hon. J. D. MacLean has been offered and has accepted the Premiership; the other members of the Government are to retain their portfolios. STATISTICAL SURVEY OF THE YEAR IN CANADA, 1926 By R.H. Coats, F.S.S. (Hon.), F.R.S.C. The year 1926, economically considered, closed on a definitely higher "note" than any of its predecessors since the period of post-war liquidation set in. A chief contributing factor was, without doubt, the favourable agriculture situation. The 1925 and 1926 crops, measured especially by wheat, were the second and third largest in the history of Canada; moreover, the prices at which they were marketed attained a level, in terms of current index numbers, roughly equivalent to that of commodities which the farmer must buy. This improvement in agriculture was succeeded by a steady expansion in industry, trade and transportation. General employment reached the highest point in October, 1926, since 1920. Industrial production was similarly greater, while railway traffic, as shown by car-loadings, was heavier during the Autumn of 1926 than at any previous period in our history. The immigration movement about doubled in 1926. Meanwhile the financial situation showed increasing strength in the features (notably bank deposits) upon which development in prosperity depends. The final return of Canada to the gold basis of exchange in July 1926 was a significant gesture. Foreign trade was very buoyant, the "favourable" trade balance, representing the satisfactory meeting of Canadian obligations abroad, continuing unprecedentedly high; its declining tendency towards the end of the year doubtless represented the increased flow of capital into Canada for investment in basic industries, especially in the power, pulp and paper industries. The decline in wholesale prices was in sympathy with world conditions; it was unattended by depression. Summing up: The year represented the continuance on a gradually mounting scale of the turn in the tide noted in the second half of 1925, presaging the emergence of the country from the economic set-back of the war, and the recommencement of a process of development. The statistics in the following pages are arranged to illustrate the more important features of social and economic progress during 1926. They are presented in two tables, the first of which reviews the year as a whole in immediate comparison with the two preceding years, whilst the second enables tendencies to be followed from month to month in 1926. The data included are by no means exhaustive, but are thought to represent the most typical trends for purposes of record and reference. Fundamental Economic Conditions in Canada, 1926 LEGEND Common Stocks Notice Deposits OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB. MAR. APR. MAY JUNE JULY AUG SEPT. OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB. MAR. APR. MAY 1926 NOTE. The above chart illustrates the trend of speculative (stocks), general business, (prices), and banking and currency (notice deposits) conditions since October, 1925. The lines are expressed in multiples of a standard deviation from a common average, so that the degree of variation from month to month in each line is strictly comparable. Employment in Canada, 1921-1926 77 JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUNE JULY AUG SEPT OCT NOV DEC JAN77 NOTE. The curve is based on the number of employees at work on the first day of each month, in comparison with the number of employees reported in January, 1920, as 100. |