OUR CANADIAN LETTER

Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 87

OUR CANADIAN LETTER

(FISOIC OUB OWH CoBBESPOHDBNT.) OTTAWA, July 1. Dr Coulter,' Deputy Postmastergeneral, has returned from an extended official trip to New- Zealand and Australia. He. speaks in warm terms of the hospitality extended to him, and seems "to nave formed exceedingly favourable opinions of- the Antipodes. How far he may have been successful in bis mission with respect to the " All Red " Line has not yet been disclosed. Coincident with Dr Coulter's return comes the announcement that the Bubsidy for the steamship service between Canada and New Zealand has been discontinued. The reasons for this action are most regrettable. The thing did not pay — at all events, it was not immediately profitable. It may be that such methods* of encouraging trade are too expensive at the outset, but there ought to be sufficient business to warrant a fair measure of assistance to an ade-_ quate steamship service. The ".All Red"" proposition may. meet the case. Quartz gold has been discovered at a. point north \of_ Prince Albert, in the Western province of Saskatchewan, and the •usual' state of excitement, under such, circjimsfences prevails. Rich veins are re- • ported, and astounding ' assays have been announced. What it will 'all amount to remains to be seen. Gold has been washed out of the graved of the Saskatchewan River for a hundred years; but its source has never been revealed. Meanwhile, operations in the Yukon country are being carried on without the feverish conditions which obtained 10 or 12 years ago. The quantity of gold produced is being steadily increased as better mining -facilities are brought into use. In the Cobalt country, which now includes the new field »■ of Gowganda, silver mining is yielding large profits. Speculation in 'shares also .goes on merrily, although one no longer ' hears of fortunes being made in a day. The camp has got on a practical and ■ business basis. The experiment has been tried this year in Canada on abolishing the canteen in connection with military training camp?. These annual periods of drill take place in June and Juiy. For years there has been an . agitation* against the sale of liquor on the camp grounds, and at last the Government yielded to the pressure of public sentiment in that regard. Tha result appears to have been favourable on the whole. General Cotton, who has made j the inspections, unhesitatingly declares 1 that the abolition of the canteen has made j for sobriety and good order among the ' men under training. On the/ other hand. it is asserted in some localities that the absence of the canteen on the camp grounds has led to much smuggling of liquor into the tents, and to a good deal of intoxication out of limits. A careful weighing of all the testimony rather show.that the experiment has been' a success. Whatever may have occurred outside the camp, it is certain that an improvement has_ been brought about inside. A serious accident happened the other day at the big canal lock at Sault Sta Maiie. While tw< steamers were locking • clown a third ran into the upper gates, and smashed them down. The rush of water carried everything before it and did enormous damage to the canal. One % of the vessels, . with |many passengers aboard, narrowly escaped turning turtle. The water was checked after two days of hard work, #nd repairs to the lock are under way. v The loss will be £100,000. . Meanwhile traffic is being carried en through the Amercan k-ck on the other side of the river. In the- preceding letter an account was given of tfhe stopping of a train in &*-« Brunswick by cave, pillars. That is getting to be an annual event down there. But | .now Ontario comes forward with the .-ur- j prising experience of a train held up by flies. This occurred on fh>- Grand Trunk Railway, between Cornwall and Napar^e. a week ago. The insects appeared to form a huge clond, and when the looomotiv£ ran into them, the bearings and wheels ' became so clogged that the machinery refused to work. Another locomotive had to be provided. Such an incident is, to say the least, most unusual in Canada. , - We ,ai>e accustomed to the blocking of \ railway traffic by snow, but not by" in- ' sects. s I A brave miner- has just been honoured \ at Cobalt. He was given a public ban- j quet, three months' vacation with pay, • and the means to take a trip to Ireland. I his native land. On May 11 Thomas R'ley | and his partner were sinking a winze some 75ft in depth from the main drift at tEe Nova Scotia. Having loaded the round of the holes, a 7ft fuse was used, and ordinarily this would have allowed the men to reach the next- level in safety,requiring as it would about seven minutes before the_ explosion. Evidently the fuse was defective and haste became necessary. ' When the men had been hoisted about 10 feet, Daniel Sullivan, Riley's partner, in some waj' fell from the bucket down to the bottom \>f the winzle. where the explosion would shortly take place. Riley did not hesitate a second, though life and safety were above and a ferrible dei'th was probable below. He rang to the engineer to send the bucket down a^nui. • and, reaching the bottom grappled -with his dazed companion, even using his teeth on Sullivan's clothes to get him into the bucket. He finaly succeeded in landing him safely at the next station. Both men , were badly injured, Sullivan being hurt . about the head, while Riley sustained an injury to his right arm that will require three months' rest. i Mrs Lajoie, a French-Canadian, living i at Ayhner, near here, was recently seii- j tenced to seven years' imprisonment tor shocking and sustained cruelty to her 11-yoar-old daughter. She is the mother of nine children; but upon this particular girl she had fixed an unaccountable hatred The little tHing .had 70 wounds on her j head and body when the trial took placo. I Tke last case of this nature in Ottawa

was tjjat of i grandmother, whp, for torture, inflicted upon the two children of her daughter left to hex care, was given a E£e sentence. Her husband, who was inspector of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, was given two years for being a passive participant. An epidemic of dog cases has come upon the Dominiin. Every day shocking cases of injury to children arise. In Toronto 59 such cases were heard in the Police- Court in one week. v A motor-man in Winnipeg tried to run his electric car through a regiment of militiamen on the line of march. He was arrested and fined. When the case came to teial it was made clear that military authority supersedes the civil.