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ay Wednesday: morning | the. Difice of publication, - Queen. street, Pi : ription $1.00 a year in advance i. 25 if not so Soipaig -- -- ers 7 EMPIRE, As mpire Day approaches] again, it is but natural that our thoughts should be turned upon the relations that exist between. the Dominion and the great' Em: pire to which it proudly belongs. Canada sometimes boasts of being Britain's): greatest ~ Colony." And-"the distinguished honor accorded Premier Laurier at 'the "recent, Colonial . Conference is -in-|; dicative of the place the Dominiof folds in the: estimation 'of the leaders of affairs in. Great Britain. Canada contains'one third of the area of the Empire. It is one third larger than Australia, twice the "size of British * India; 'and' thirty times as large as'the United Kingdon. . Ontario, "which con: tains seven per cent of the area of of the Dominion, is as large as four Englands. Manitoba is as large as England "and 'Scotland "together. Alberta is larger 'than Germany, |, and double the size of Great Bri- tain, Canada has received two hun dred and fifty thousand British im: migrants in the last ten years. Sixty five per cent of the total im- migration during these teti"years| was. English-speaking people. : In 1906 Canada received 152,000 im- migrants from Great Britain and Europe, and '64,000 from: the United States. Lord Strathcona predicts that at the end of the 2oth century Canada will'have a popu lation twice as large as that of the British Isles. . Should this come true. Canada will be "the domin- ating state in the Empire. Commercially our inion occipies. no mean place in the Empire. An American paper recently said that "the business of supplying Great Britain with farm * graducts, which for many years was entirely" in 'American hands, has been captured almost entirely 'by 'the agriculturists- of Canada," One halt' of "Canada's total trade fs now carried on: with- in the: Empire. Great Britain is our 'best 'customer: Nine-tenths of the natural products we 'export go to fareat in. In: 1906 Canada' sold Britain one hundred 'and twenty-seven millions' worth |" of home products. We sell Great Britain annually 96 per cen our export buttér,'and nearly 100} © per cent. of our export cheese and bacon. We sold her" 36 million bushels of wheat in: 1906 worth $30,000,000. In 1gos--6 Canada sold nearly. $2,500,000 worth of}. agricultural Jemplestest outsi e of | other respecting x =| By the former of these it : me that no sale of fre 3 Sorporation; except by ta alicense therefo nga regular business : not to be prohibite ed from selling fresh pork i inany quantity. The proposed bylaw isto protect those who are doping + in theats the year round, and af paying an annual, business tax bil on the premises they sceipy. ; in it. But itis of the second ofonied bylaw that we wish especially, to speak. "By thisit is proposed to} enact that all who" sell butter, eggs; "poultry, or any produce on the market, and are 'paid for the: same by cheque, shall be required to pay to the corporation ove 'per cent. of the value of such cheque, as a market fee. This strikes: us as an extraordinary. piece of legis: lation, : We fail to see any justice in it. Why should. a person. be required to pay a fee which is not exacted of his neighbor?" Why make the payment of a market fee depend upon the acceptance -of a cheque in return for produce ? Ts it proposed 'by: this: by law 'to dissuade the market people from selling to buyers who come .in from outside. the town? We would all like to see our" local merchants handle a larger propor: tion of the produce coming to market week after week, but we fail to see how this by-law, in its present shape, is going to help, fo this end. It 'strikes us that the enbets of the council need: to. exercise great care lest they create a preju- dice 'against our market. The crowd rushing in upon us every | Thursday is not so large that we re- people © do: | ting the benefit 4 per cent of the revenu Vinge derives from then Jago Government bul Thi q i pro ments in the: Dom Are the people of riorthe prepared to assum: rden. 'maiitaining a Lie ¢nantBoyernor,| 50 a Cabinet, a House of and a'whole army of-prov cials? They will 'sirely# fad al' cheaper and more effectual redress for their présent grievances There i is likely to be a scarcit of wheat in Russia this year. = reported that seventy-five pi of the winter wheat'ias b ei'dam. | aged by the cold wea spring, and that the peng been for years. Thes will tend to send the pric adian wheat tp stil quire to do anything to lessen the | { number, "We need not be particu: larly concerned to send the people from outlying districts to. other towns to do their marketing. = It seems to us eminently wise to} make our ir market 'as attractive as shall i lave: some sugges tions to offer in a future issu touching upo he 2 the market. GEORG ~