Great complaint of the manner in which the "gold commissioners" of the Klondike country were manipulating the prestige of their official positions for their private gain, reached the ears of the people at home, and forthwith a law was enacted, declaring that gold commissioners, mining recorders, and clerks and employes under them, connected with the administration of mineral claims, shall not be allowed under any circumstances to take out free miners' certificates, or to acquire directly or indirectly, in their own names or in the name of any person for their benefit, any mineral claims or interests in mineral claims of any kind whatsoever. Every such person shall forthwith make a statement to the department of mines, showing what interest, if any, he has in any mineral claims, and such persons may, under direction of the minister of mines, be allowed to take out free miners' license, for the purpose only of protecting such interests already acquired.

When we consider that the gold commissioners were all Canadian subjects, and the common miners were usually Americans (in the Yukon Country), we cannot fail to make mental comparisons between what Canada did and what the United States would do under similar conditions. Not that the American people are any the less just; but as soon as it became known that the perquisites of capital were to be curtailed, an army of lobbyists would have invested Washington, before whom

Expensive War Scares.

A man may run a sandy;" or, to use more intelligible language, attempt a bluff;" or, to be refined in our words, "convince our adversaries that we will maintain our position," without great expense- unless the aforesaid adversary doubts our ability to do what we say we will do, and then a "scrap" follows. With nations it is different. When a great power sends forth an ultimatum, and follows such act with a military or naval display, it costs the people who are giving the show no small amount. A London newspaper says of the matter:

"We all know that war scares are expensive affairs for the taxpayers; more so, indeed, than most of us imagine. According to the Rival, the Fashoda scare has proved very costly. The fall in Consols has meant a loss of £9,000,000. The public loss due to the rise in the price of bread amounts to £400,000 for ten days. Another loss of £170,000 is due to freights (owing to the war fright) and marine insurance. The coal bill adds up another £120,000. To these, of course, must be added the immense cost of exceptional naval and military preparations. Altogether the writer of the article puts down the grand total at about a million a day. This is the price of Jingoism."

is usually placed in an outer shed or connecting closed alley-way. From this fireplace the flues extend in a more or less curved direction, like the ribs of a round fan, to a trench at the rear of the room, which, in turn, opens into a chimney, which is usually placed some distance from the house. Flat flagstones are then placed carefully over these flues, and the whole is cemented over and finally covered with the thick oil paper for which the country is noted. This paper keeps smoke from entering the room, and a little straw or brushwood, used in the fireplace for cooking the rice, serves to heat the stone floor

EMPEROR FRANCIS JOSEPH OF AUSTRIA. December 2d was the fiftieth anniversary of his accession to the throne, in celebration of which he granted amnesty to all political offenders in Hungary.

and gives an agreeable warmth which lasts till the time of the next meal. Two heatings daily serve to give the people a nice warm floor, upon which they sit in the daytime and sleep at night. By leaving their shoes at the door, the inmates preserve the paper floor, which, from constant polishing, takes on a rich brown color.

Among the poor, these rooms are little cubes of eight feet, but in more pretentious houses there will be a suite of four of these rooms, opening into each other by sliding doors, and capa

ble of being thrown into one large room. A suite of these rooms on either side opens upon a large room with a board floor, which is eighteen by eighteen feet or larger, and unheated. This is used for summer and at all times as an outer hall or reception room. These houses are built around an open court, upon which, at the back, opens this large reception room. A better system of heating, or one more economical, would be difficult to devise for a country where the winters are so severe as in Korea, and where fuel is so scarce and expensive.

A Meat Famine.

The continued plagues

among the cattle of South Africa have nearly resulted in a meat famine in that great region of country. The local butchers are reported to have failed to procure sufficient native cattle to supply the demand, and the usual shipments of refrigerated meat from Australia are quickly consumed. The outlook for a supply of fresh meat in the Transvaal is alarming to those who are not content to become vegetarians. In Kaffraria a sheep is worth $10, while an ordinary cow brings $85. Of course, this scarcity of meat will be quickly removed by great importations from Australia and America of refrigerated and canned meats.

gold coin was rapidly exported and was replaced by the Mexican silver dollar. Gold became so scarce that the Spanish Government took steps to stop the export of the one and the import of the other. In the spring of 1878 an edict was issued prohibiting the import of all silver dollars bearing a date subsequent to 1877. This law was maintained until the control of the Islands passed to the United States. The amount of money needed for the trade and commerce of the Philippine Islands fluctuates in the different seasons. For the ordinary needs of the country little money is used, as the credit system is in vogue, and there is, therefore, no great amount of money used for the payment of wages. The law which prevented the importation of the Mexican dollars of a date subsequent to 1877 proved a great hardship to the business interests and would have been a much greater evil had it not been for the laxity of the officials, who permitted and encouraged smuggling, which became a recognized industry.

"After the occupation of Manila by the American troops, permission was given the banks to import silver freely, and the result has been to keep exchange rates on a more stable basis. The Spanish Government kept no statistics of currency or finance, and the bankers can give only estimates of the most general character. These estimates place the total circulation at from $40,000,000 to $45,000,000, or $5 per capita. These figures are on a silver basis, and figuring on our own standard must be cut in two.

"On the question of the future currency, the best-informed men in Manila are unanimous in their opinion that under present conditions the silver currency is the only one suited to the Islands. A great deal of the trade of the Philippines is with China and Japan,

the Strait Settlements, India and Australia. In China and Japan, and in India, the whole trade is on a silver basis, though Japan had adopted the gold standard, having, however, as the basis of its currency a gold dollar which is, approximately, worth only fifty cents, and its currency, therefore, in effect is on a silver basis. The natives of the Philippine Islands are conservative to a degree in the matter of their currency, and it would be a long and tedious task to educate them to a dollar which would be worth twice that now in circulation. Notwithstanding the large force of Americans in Manila who are paid in gold, the people will have nothing but silver. The soldiers, when paid in gold, exchange it for local currency. There is an issue of $40,000,000 of bonds payable in forty years, which was put out by the Spanish Government in July, 1897, as the first lien upon the customs receipts of the port of Manila." W

which contains among a number of truths painfully vulgar, the following statements:

44

GENTLEMEN : I have noticed in the morning press that one of your members criticises the witnesses who have testified at the request of the committee formed in this city to protect the soldiers, for the reason that, while establishing the fact that much groundless and inexcusable suffering was inflicted on the army, they do not fix the responsibility or show who is to blame. If the views of your Commission are correctly reported, there seems to be a misunderstanding between us. We supposed that all the witnesses were to do was to prove the facts, and that the Commission would fix the responsibility; indeed, was appointed for the express purpose of fixing the responsibility. The heroic boys may forget their sufferings, may even refuse to testify to them, but their mothers will not and their fathers will not; nor will it do to take refuge behind the errors of the civil war.

There was then no intentional cruelty, such as seems to have so often prevailed in this war. The sick men were not starved. Sick men were treated with all possible attention and kindness. Water was not sold to fever-racked sufferers at ten cents a glass; food was not sold to starving men at twenty-five cents for a sandwich, and dainties for the dying men were not eaten by the officers. suppose matters had been a thousand times worse in the civil war, would that be any reason now that our men should be sent with arms out of date; that there should be no ambulances, no pack trains or transportation to carry food to the front; not half sufficient medicines, nor doctors; no proper hos

But

"The witnesses have established monstrous incapacity. That they have not full confidence in the power of your Commission, no matter how good its will, to meet all the requirements the public demands of it, is only echoing your own doubts, but in spite of that they seem to have done their share and it would seem that it only remains for you to do your best, even if that best is not quite satisfactory to yourselves. If done in good faith, it will teach the soldiers that at least there is a power which was honestly endeavoring to do them justice. You can direct your inquiries in the first place, to the food supply. Find out who gets the difference between the liberal rations allowed by the Government and the meagre hard tack, bacon and green coffee served to the soldiers. The witnesses are the books and the rolls in the public departments to which you have full ac

cess.

"We have furnished you the facts, shown you the brutality, cruelty, neglect, indifference, how men, whom the Government was under every obligation to protect, and especially because they had a right to rely on such protection, were starved even in the land of plenty ; were uncared for when sick, left without attention; when wounded were abused, maltreated-in some cases practically murdered. We have shown you an indifference and belittleing of human sufferings, which continue even now. These crimes and blunders must be corrected, and your Commission must correct them. It is not for you to make the feeble excuse that our