Evening star., 1934-12-16

the world. Forty years ago 1t produced
only 81 900 900 worth Of gold. Last year
with more than $60, ,OOO, 900, it stood Sec
ond in the worlds production. Soon it
will stand first Three quarters Of the
gold is in Ontario. With 1t is silver. The
government of Ontario building rail-
way to the northern sea as sort Of dem
onstration, found itself using rocks full
of silver as ballast On this rose all the
sudden glory of Cobalt and Porcupine
and International Nickel
\A/ITH these economic changes came
wv the great utility corporations and
municipal franchise companies, all pay
ing toll to the province. In Canada, un-
like the United States, all municipal
governments and institutions are under
the control of the province. Ontario
itself, through its Hydro Electric Com
mission, generates and sells power.
Quebec takes toll from those who do.
Enormous sources of taxation are thus
opened to- the provincial treasury.
Through it's power over licenses it ham
dies the whole of the liquor business,
the complacent Dominion having for
hidden private import. The Dominion
still levies its customs and excises, but
the provinces, with their commission
stores and hotel licenses, add what the
traffic will bear
Prince Edward Island, where the peo-
pie prefer good liquor at moderate prices,
alone keeps prohibition.
To liquor is added gasoline. The un-
of
it to gather a harvest from motor
licenses and a gasoline tax; its obvious
duty compels it to build vast highways.
The province, not the Dominion, is be-
coming the great traffic manager; the
province has the truck and the crowded
bus; the Dominion the freight car, the
half-empty coach and the lonely Pull
man.
With all this has come-or came until
the slump-great individual wealth.
Even the rich die, and the provinces,
not the Dominion, sweep in the in
heritance taxes The Dominion has the
power, but not the WILL to use it; it is
understood that death Is a provincial
matter. provincial register counts the
dead. A provincial assessor values be-
longings.
All of this means that the Canadian
provinces have turned into economic
empires. Look at Ontario. It spreads
1000 miles from east to west and LOTS
miles from north to south. In the north
its coast runs along the mournful shores
of the James and Hudson bays-a will
derness lashed by the Northern sea and
hnr iod hn
peach trees of Niagara bloom in the
latitude of Northern Spain. 1t has an
area of $4,000 square miles-greater
than France and Germany combined.
It has it's ports and harbors along
all the Great Lakes except Michigan
1t has gold and silver, huge deposits Of
copper and more nickel than all the
rest of the world. 1t has quarter of
a million square miles of forest; water
power to nearly 1000, 900 available horse
power. of which more than 2,000,0O is
developed by turbine installation. Be-
fore the slump it's revenue had gone
beyond $60,000000 year, of which only
about $2,500,00O represented its subsidy
dole. Contrast this with the humble
budget of 1869, with a revenue of
$2,2coG. GOO, of which the chief source was
subsidy.
AS ONTARIO, so with Quebec, a giant
of equal and similar resources In
the West, beyond the middle wilderness,
the three provinceS-ManitOba, Alberta,
Saskatchewan-count as one, a vast
grain empire, with mineral hinterland.
Beyond the Rockies British Columbia.
with the best climate and resources of