the reduced rate of duty provided in the British preferential tariff set forth in Schedule D to this act:

(a) The United Kingdom;

(b) The British colony of Bermuda;

(c) The British colonies commonly called the British West Indies, including the

following:

The Bahamas;

Jamaica;

Turks and Caicos Islands;

The Leeward Islands (Antigua, St. Christopher-Nevis, Dominica, Montserrat, and the Virgin Islands);

The Windward Islands (Grenada, St. Vincent, and St. Lucia);

Barbados;

Trinidad and Tobago;

(d) British Guiana;

(e) Any other British colony or possession the customs tariff of which is, on the whole, as favorable to Canada as the British preferential tariff herein referred to is to such colony or possession.

Provided, however, that manufactured articles to be admitted under such preferential tariff shall be bona fide the manufactures of a country or countries entitled to the benefits of such tariff, and that such benefits shall not extend to the importation of articles into the production of which there has not entered a substantial portion of the labor of such countries. Any question arising as to any article being entitled to such benefits shall be decided by the minister of customs, whose decision shall be final.

"2. Raw sugar, including all sugar described in item 436 of Schedule A, may, when imported direct from any British colony or possession, be entered for duty or taken out of warehouse for consumption in Canada at the reduced rate of duty provided in the British preferential tariff.

"3. The minister of customs, with the approval of the governor in council, shall determine what British colonies or possession or possessions shall be entitled to the benefits of the preferential tariff under paragraph (e) of subsection I of this section.

"The minister of customs may, with the approval of the governor in council, make such regulations as are deemed necessary for carrying out the intention of this section."

3. Item 221 in Schedule A to the said act is hereby repealed and the following substituted therefor:

"221. India rubber boots and shoes; rubber. belting, rubber cement, and all manufactures of india rubber and gutta percha, not otherwise provided, 25 per cent ad valorem."

4. Items 435 and 436 in Schedule A to the said act are hereby repealed and the following are substituted therefor:

"435. All sugar above No. 16 Dutch standard in color, and all refined sugars of whatever kinds, grades, or standards, testing not more than 88° by the polariscope, $1.08 per 100 pounds, and for each additional degree 11⁄2 cents per 100 pounds. Fractions of five-tenths of a degree or less not to be subject to duty, and fractions of more than five-tenths to be dutiable as a degree.

"Sugar, not elsewhere specified not above No. 16 Dutch standard in color, sugar drainings or pumpings drained in transit, melado or concentrated melado, tank bottoms and sugar concrete testing not more than 75° by the polariscope, 40 cents per 100 pounds, and for each additional degree 11⁄2 cents per 100 pounds. Fractions of five-tenths of a degree or less not to be subject to duty, and fractions

of more than five-tenths to be dutiable as a degree. The usual packages in which imported to be free.

5. On and after the 1st day of July, 1898, items 445 and 446 in Schedule A to the said act shall be repealed.

6. On and after the said 1st day of July, the following item shall be inserted in Schedule B to the said act instead of item 616:

"616. Tobacco, unmanufactured, for excise purposes under conditions of the inland revenue act."

7. On and after the 1st day of August, 1898, Schedule D to the said act shall be repealed and the following substituted therefor:

"SCHEDULE D.

"BRITISH PREFERENTIAL TARIFF.

"On articles entitled to the benefit of this preferential tariff under section 17, the duties mentioned in Schedule A shall be reduced as follows: The reduction shall be one-fourth of the duty mentioned in Schedule A, and the duty to be levied, collected, and paid shall be three-fourths of the duty mentioned in Schedule A.

Provided, however, that this reduction shall not apply to any of the following articles and that such articles shall in all cases be subject to the duties mentioned in Schedule A, viz: Wines, malt liquors, spirits, spirituous liquors, liquid medicines and articles containing alcohol; tobacco, cigars, and cigarettes.

Provided, further, that the reduction shall only apply to refined sugar, when evidence satisfactory to the minister of customs is furnished that such refined sugar has been manufactured wholly from raw sugar produced in the British colonies or possessions.

8. Except as herein otherwise provided, this act shall be held to have come into force on the 6th day of April, in the present year, 1898.

CANADIAN CUSTOMS REGULATIONS FOR SPORTING OUTFITS.

The following has been received from Consul-General Turner, dated Ottawa, July 29, 1898:

I inclose memorandum issued by the customs department of Canada regarding the entry of sporting outfits brought into the country by members of Canadian fishing and hunting clubs who are residents of the United States.

The regulations read, in part:

(1) Any organized shooting or fishing club which has duly obtained shooting or fishing privileges in any Province in Canada may deposit, with the department of customs at Ottawa, a guaranty as security for the due exportation or payment of duty on the sporting outfits brought into Canada temporarily, for their own use and not for gain or hire, by members of the club resident outside of Canada.

(2) The "guaranty," if approved by the minister of customs, shall continue in force for the time specified therein, unless otherwise ordered, and “guaranty certificates" indicating such approval may be signed and forwarded to shooting and fishing clubs by the commissioner of customs, to be presented to customs officers (and returned to visiting members after inspection) as evidence of the deposit and approval of the club guaranty.

(3) A special ticket of membership signed by the secretary of the club and dated within one year from the time of its presentation to the customs officer may be accepted by such officer as evidence that the person presenting the ticket is a visiting member of such club resident outside of Canada.

(4) Visiting members (nonresident in Canada) of any shooting or fishing club, which has deposited a "guaranty" approved by the minister of customs as herein provided, may bring with them such guns, fishing rods, and sporting outfit as they require for their own use and not for gain or hire, conditional on exportation within ninety days from time of entrance, upon depositing a ticket of membership signed as before mentioned and furnishing to the customs officer at the port of entry in Canada a report (in duplicate) signed by him and containing a description of the articles comprised in his outfit and giving the value thereof: Provided, however, that duty shall be paid on ammunition and provisions brought in with such outfit. (5) One copy of the report, stamped by the customs officer for identification, shall be handed back to the party presenting the same, so that a certificate as to the exportation of the articles may be indorsed thereon by a customs officer when they are not exported outwards and examined by a customs officer at the port of entry where they have been brought into Canada.

HARBOR AND RAILWAY IMPROVEMENTS IN ONTARIO.

A slip dock has been constructed at Port Stanley by the Lake Erie and Detroit River Railway Company. It will be completed on or shortly after August 1, and a car ferry line put in operation at once. The boats which will run to that port are those now used between Conneaut and Port Dover, and the railroad connection with the United States will be with the Pittsburg, Bessemer, and Lake Erie Railroad, through which connection will be made with the Baltimore and Ohio, Allegheny Valley, and, in fact, all roads running out of Pittsburg. Connections will be made in Canada over the Lake Erie and Detroit River Railroad with the Grand Trunk, Wabash, Michigan Central, and Canadian Pacific at St. Thomas.

The principal traffic at first will be in hard and soft coal for all points in western Ontario. It will be loaded on the cars at the mine's mouth and laid down in the yard of the dealer, thus saving all intermediate handling and consequent expense, which should result in a lowering of price to the consumer. The cost of transferring the coal from vessel to cars at Port Stanley has ranged from 8 to 10 cents per ton for steam power and 15 to 17 cents per ton for horsepower.

The Dominion Government, I am informed, is about to expend from $15,000 to $25,000 in dredging the Port Stanley Harbor and retimbering the piers, in order to give access to the heavy-draft lake vessels. The lack of this improvement has been the cause of diverting much traffic from Port Stanley in recent years. It is probable

also that a larger and more modern passenger boat will be placed in service between Port Stanley and Cleveland, to supplant the steamer Flora now operated by the Lake Erie and Detroit River Railway.

INCREASED RAILROAD TRAFFIC.

Commencing with the month of March of this year, the Wabash Railroad entered into an arrangement with the Grand Trunk to operate over the latter's "loop" line from Detroit to Buffalo, making two through American lines to the Atlantic seaboard, viz, the Michigan Central, connecting with the New York Central at Buffalo, and the Wabash, connecting with the West Shore at the same point. Following is an approximate summary of the daily train service through this city:

The city of St. Thomas heretofore has had practically no street railway accommodations, there being in operation only about 14 miles of 3-foot-gauge horse-car road. A new electric trolley system was completed on June 15. The road is a belt line, 6.1 miles in length, running around the city. With the exception of the overhead joints and fixtures, which were purchased from the Ohio Brass Company, of Mansfield, the line was built and equipped with Canadian material, the total cost being $85,000. The rails were made at Hamilton, Ontario; the engines at Amherst, New Brunswick; dynamos and electrical equipment were purchased of the Canadian General Electric Company, Toronto; and the motors, eight in number, and two trailers were manufactured by the Ottawa Car Company. The motors are the latest pattern double controllers and cost $2,800 each.

It is intended to extend the line to Port Stanley, 9 miles south, and possibly to London, 15 miles north.

The city of St. Thomas has also under construction this summer a new city hall costing $45,000, two new public schools costing $50,000, and is repaving the business district with vitrified brick instead of cedar blocks. There is a marked aspect of prosperity in all directions throughout the district, which is increasing each day as the harvest yield becomes more positively assured.

ST. THOMAS, July 30, 1898.

M. J. BURKE,

Consul.

BICYCLES IN ONTARIO.

I inclose an editorial from an Ontario paper commenting on the proposed changes in the manufacture of bicycles for the 1899 trade. The consensus of opinion of experienced wheelmen and wheelwomen with whom I have talked is that it would detract immeasurably from the popularity of the wheel with pleasure seekers to increase its weight. This is particularly true with reference to women and the more weakly class of men, who ride solely for air and health, and who are not addicted to rough riding or to scorching.

ST. THOMAS, July 30, 1898.

M. J. BURKE,

Consul.

NEXT YEAR'S BICYCLE.

[Extract from the London, Ontario, Free Press, July 27, 1898.]

It is reported that a few makers have arranged to turn out 30-inch wheels next year, and that the price of those machines will probably be somewhat more than is charged for this year's models with wheels of less diameter. Modifications are also promised in bearings, adjustments, sprockets, cranks, and enamel; and the '99 models are likely to be prettier than those of '98. But one thing about the wheels of 1897 and 1898 which has caused much dissatisfaction among a great many bicyclists, women particularly, seems likely to be as objectionable in the coming wheels as in those of the past. It is alleged that the new wheels will be heavier, if anything, than those of the present year. It is not known exactly what the machines of the '99 pattern will weigh; but if accounts are true, they will be I pound, and perhaps 2 pounds, heavier than the wheels of to-day.

At first thought, a difference of 1 or 2 pounds in the weight of a bicycle may seem too trivial a matter for serious consideration; and, indeed, to riders of muscular build it is. But many cyclists are not Sandows. They look upon a 30-pound bicycle to-day as they did seven years ago upon one of almost twice that weight. Light-weight bicycles are admitted by all to be less staunch and rigid for ordinary road use than are those of medium weight; but, nevertheless, the tests withstood by the former have been sufficiently creditable to make light wheels acceptable to a large part of the cycling fraternity.