The Live-stock industry in Alberta has been large and, despite the decline of the ranching interests owing to the advance of wheat and other field crops it has steadily increased. On June 30, 1911, according to Federal statistics, there were 317,000 horses in the Province, 1,100,000 cattle, 179,200 sheep and 149,400 swine, or a total of 1,735,900, as compared with 1,569,353 in 1908. For this industry official statements described the conditions as very favourable abundance of grasses for pasturage and hay, a dry climate in the cold season which permits animals to be wintered without the cost of stabling, fodder straws with a higher food value than anywhere in the world, and cheap, abundant production of rough grains and roots for feeding. All the Prairie Provinces and British Columbia in 1911 wanted more and more food supplies, dairy products, and everything which Alberta could raise. The shipments of cattle in this year totalled 154,000, horses 25,000, sheep 60,000, hogs 50,000 or a total of 289,000 as compared with 125,000 in 1905. During the year the home market of the Canadian West took most of these shipments. The Peace River region, to the north of Edmonton, was a fruitful source of speculation and discussion during the year. Grouard on Lesser Slave Lake, Athabasca Landing, Grande Prairie, Spirit River, Dunvegan, Fort Vermilion, became wellknown names. The world had learned to some extent what the Peace River country offered in farm and timber lands, natural gas, coal and oil, and the big Railway companies and Banks had commenced to take an interest in these points. The soil of this section of Alberta was a rich black loam with clay sub-soil which agricultural and chemical tests demonstrated to be very productive. The whole country was well watered with a number of small creeks and rivers fed during the summer months by innumerable springs of pure water. Farming was most successful and· the High Prairie, Heart River and Big Prairie settlements won at least a Provincial reputation with their crops of wheat, oats, barley and rye. According to Arthur Stringer in Hampton's Magazine early in the year: "The Peace River valley is made up of 65 million acres of first class agricultural land, with a wheatgrowing capacity approximately estimated at 500,000,000 bushels a year. Not only can these northland plains and valleys grow wheat but they can grow wheat of the finest and hardest variety. They have done it and they are doing it now." Transportation was, of course, the great requirement and J. D. McArthur and his associates acquired a charter for Railway extension from Edmonton to Fort George, B.C., where they would connect with the Grand Trunk Pacific; the Alberta Government promised to build or aid a Line to the north and the Canadian Northern Railway wanted to do so and was already constructing in that direction. A great resource of this region was said at the close of this year to have been all staked out-the vast tarsand deposits in the Fort McMurray and McKay districts estimated to contain the largest supply of asphalt in the world. Very extensive salt fields existed and great unburned pulp-wood areas extended 300 miles along the Athabasca River while mineral possibilities and prospecting were favourable and agricultural lands along the Lower Peace and Slave Rivers large and productive. J. K. Cornwall, M.L.A., told the Canadian Club, Montreal, on Mch. 28th that hundreds of settlers were trekking into this country, and that there were in it 3,500 miles of navigable water with 750,000 horse-power. "The same geological formation that you people are going crazy about in Cobalt runs through that country. All the streams carry gold and there is plenty of iron-ore, copper and huge lakes full of fish of the highest commercial value; enough asphalt to build a boulevard a mile wide from Halifax to Vancouver and also the greatest oil prospect in the known world." As to minerals the total production of Alberta had increased from $4,657,524 in 1907 to $6,047,447 in 1909, to $8,996,210 in 1910. Coal was almost everywhere in this Province and underlay an area of 16,000 square miles. According to the Federal Department of Mines estimate 8,330,000,000 tons of bituminous and anthracite coal and 81,000,000,000 tons of lignitic coal were available while a Clause of the Dominion Lands Act provided that all coal leases should contain a proviso supplying settlers for $1.75 at the mine. The output of coal in 1910 was 878,011 tons of lignite, 1,896,961 tons of bituminous and 261,785 tons of anthracite. In 1911 the coal strike made a great difference but for the fiscal year ending Mch. 31 the value of the coal production was $3,933,958. The average number of persons engaged in the industry (1910) was 5,818. During 1911 the Northwestern Coal Corporation of Pittsburg, with its huge financial resources, came into Alberta; Dr. H. Ries of Cornell University stated that the only clays in Canada west of Nova Scotia and fitted for the production. of pottery or terra cotta, were to be found in this Province; H. Mortimer-Lamb of the Canadian Mining Institute pointed out (May 29) that this meant the founding of a tremendous industry. "Every kind of pottery and sewer-pipe produced can be made in Alberta. The wide range of terra cotta materials will be dug and baked there. Terra cotta is taking the place of lumber in con struction in the East; it is becoming yearly more popular on the Pacific Coast.” A Geological Survey report in July estimated 6,600,000,000 tons of workable coal in the Bighorn basin (187 square miles in area) about 140 miles from Edmonton. Railway construction made some progress in 1911 but not as much as was expected. The Government guarantees of 1909 covered the construction of 1,886 miles of branch lines during the next two years but the actual increase, according to Federal figures, in the years ending Mch. 31 was from 1,321 miles in 1909 to 1,494 in 1911. There was much mileage under construction, however, and much grading done. Meantime settlers were pouring into the country which in 1901 had 73,022 of a population and in 1911, 374,663. One estimate for the 1911 immigration was 200,000; the actual number booked for this Province in the year ending Mch. 31 was 44,782. During this latter fiscal year 15,964 homestead entries were made. Miscellaneous statistics may be mentioned as follows: Aggregate capitalization of Company Incorporations (1911).. Insurance Companies' Investments on Jan. 1, 1911 New Branches in Year Clearing-House Returns Municipal Bond Sales of the year Lumber cut (feet B. M.) in 1910 Exports for year ending March 31, 1911 Government, and Legisla- $63,088,600 $164,000,000 $8,383,000 207 33 $368,947,851 5,650,759 45,127,000 $365,265 $9,094,726 $18,849,643 There were no changes in the Provincial Government during 1911 though there were many rumours in that connection; but there were certain additions to the work of individual Ministers when Mr. Sifton on Dec. 20th was gazetted Minister of Railways and Telephones and the Hon. A. J. McLean, Minister of Municipal Affairs. The Sifton Ministry had continued political difficulties to meet, within its own party ranks, and the personal differences between Hon. Frank Oliver and Mr. C. W. Cross, lately Attorney-General of the Province, increased local interest in the Federal conflict. The Railway situation remained conspicuous throughout the year and the Waterways Case attracted attention throughout the country. At a meeting of the Liberal Association in Calgary on Jan. 9th a Resolution was passed expressing confidence in the Government, appreciation of "the wisdom shown by Hon. A. L. Sifton in solving the problems which confronted him," and acknowledgment of "the deep debt of gratitude which Liberals throughout the Province owe to the fearless and upright course taken by the Hon. W. H. Cushing in the crisis through which the Province recently passed." Mr. Cushing, like Mr. Cross, had not been included in the Premier's re-organization of the Government in 1910. The United Farmers of Alberta meeting at Calgary on Jan. 18 decided to ask for Provincial incorporation and an increased grant, to stay out of politics as an organization, to ask further Provincial aid to rural Telephones and for a modification in homestead regulations. Mr. Premier Sifton addressed a gathering at Viking on Apl. 10 and summarized his political philosophy as follows: "It is not the Government that counts, it is you. You will pay the taxes, you will build the roads, you will develop the country. Yours is the credit and it is all yours. When the Government have rendered what assistance we can give; when we have aided in supplying the details, in building the roads, putting in telephones, and supplying similar needs; when we have taken away the difficulties which lie in the farmers' way, then we have accomplished all a Government can do." A little before this, on Jan. 23rd, he told the Canadian Club at Toronto that the Dominion Government now spent the revenues provided by the Provinces and the latter, in the West, particularly, did not have enough for their own needs. He drew attention to the fact that manufacturers could find a demand and cheap power sufficient to warrant them in establishing industries in Alberta. "Financial corporations and Banks should realize that the million people who live in the three Provinces have proved the West to be no longer a speculation." During the Summer Mr. Sifton went to England to be present at the Coronation. At this time and on his return there was speculation as to the Premier's attitude in the Reciprocity matter which he disposed of on Aug. 16 by saying: "I am an advocate of Reciprocity chiefly because I think it is going to be a good thing for Alberta. I would stand behind any policy which would be of real benefit to our Province." He spoke at several meetings during the Federal campaign and on Sept. 6 supported Mr. Oliver in an Edmonton gathering. Reciprocity would, he declared, give the farmer larger prices, better markets, encourage immigration and help the coal mines. The other Ministers spoke in various constituencies also. On his return from England another important matter had been dealt with by the Premier. As a result of conversations, and correspondence of an earlier date, with Sir Wilfrid Laurier he was able to announce an apparent change or the probability of one, in Dominion and Provincial policy as to the control of Provincial resources. At Winnipeg on Aug. 10th he said in a press interview: "It has been recognized by Sir Wilfrid that the three Prairie Provinces are entitled to their natural resources, the same as the other Provinces in the Dominion, with the single exception of land fairly fit for homestead purposes without the expenditure of money-which land must be retained for free homesteads in compliance with the immigration policy of the Dominion. The only question of principle left unsettled is how much, if any, of the revenue now allotted the Province in lieu of lands, should be cut off. This settlement will give the Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta all mines, minerals, mineral lands, and royalties, all lumber and timber lands, all lands requiring irrigation, and all water and water-powers now covered by the Irrigation Act." The correspondence was made public in December and showed Mr. Sifton as first writing the Dominion Premier on Mch. 20th with this introduction: "It is felt, even by those who have strongly supported the Federal retention of the public domain in the past, that the time has arrived in the history of Western Canada when the reasons cited no longer apply." The remarkable growth of the country and the need of money for roads, bridges, telephones, schools and railways necessary for successful colonization, were stated as reasons why a fresh source of revenue was required. His Government, therefore, asked that the administration of lands in Alberta belonging to the Crown should be transferred to the Province with certain exceptions-lands reserved by statute or Order-in-Council, held by Indians, or earned by persons and corporations, grazing lands, swamp lands or those requiring irrigation. He also asked that all mines, minerals, timber and royalties belonging to the Crown should be transferred as well as the control of Provincial waters. As to the past Mr. Sifton declared that the Provincial Government had never considered the existing arrangement final. "It is assumed, as the final triumph of the Federal principle in Confederation, that the several Provinces of Canada would be placed on a basis of equality in all respects, and it is respectfully submitted that by the granting of the request herein stated the principle would be complete in its application." Sir Wilfrid Laurier replied on Aug. 7th in terms which modified and changed the Provincial application as follows -concluding with simply a statement that it was a fair subject for discussion without the Dominion Government being committed to "the acceptance of the principle involved": I do not understand you to claim that the Province of Alberta should be given the ownership or the administration of all the public domain in in that Province, but simply of the lands which are not solely agricultural. You must recognize that the Dominion should continue to own and to administer the prairie lands which are immediately available for settlement and which are sought by immigration; but you ask that the Province be entrusted with the ownership and administration of all other lands, and all the resources to be derived therefrom, viz., grazing lands, swamp lands, lands unfit for settlement except by irrigation, all the mines, timber, minerals and royalties belonging to the Crown, and all the waters now included in the Irrigation Act. Meanwhile, the Conservative Opposition had been hopeful in connection with the dissensions in the Liberal ranks and its press did all that was possible to keep alive any feeling which might exist over the 1910 changes in Administration. The opposing elements were said to include Messrs. Sifton and Oliver and the |