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CANADA.

The amount of the various descriptions of the public debt of Canada Proper, exclusive of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the rate of interest, and the amount of interest paid thereon, was as follows, on December 31, 1867 : —

Description of Debt

Amount

Interest

Rates

Amount

Imperial loan Debentures

7} * * *

>1 ' ' '

„, , /Dollars Total \£ sterling

Dollars

7,300,000

14,600

33,979,499

26,589,679

28,630

Per cent. 4

5 6 8

Dollars

292,000

657

1,698,975

1,595,381

2,290

3,589,303 747,771

67,912,408 14,148,418

To the above was added a loan of 2,000,000Z. sterling, at four per cent, raised in London, July 1868, under guarantee of the Imperial government, for railway purposes.

The public debt of Nova Scotia, separate from that of the Dominion amounted in 1868 to 8,230,500 dollars, and the interest thereon to 297,580 dollars; while the debt of New Brunswick was 7,195,200 and the interest thereon 349,283 dollars. Of the other provinces of British North America, the liabilities were, at the same period, — Prince Edward Island, 600,000 dollars ; Newfoundland, 1,350,000 dollars; British Columbia, 1,638,000 dollars, and Vancouver's Island 220,000 dollars.

Army and Navy.

In addition to the troops maintained by the Imperial Govern- ment — the strength of which Avas reduced, in 1869, to 5,000 men, of whom 2,000 for a garrison of the fortress of Halifax, considered an ' Imperial station ' — Canada has a large volunteer force, and a newly- organised militia, brought into existence by a statute of the first Federal Parliament, passed in March, 1868, ' to provide for the defence of the Dominion.' By the terms of the Act, the militia con- sists of all male British subjects between 18 and 60, who are called out to serve in four classes, namely : — 1st class, 18 to 30, unmar- ried ; 2nd, from 30 to 45, unmarried ; 3rd, 18 to 45, married ; 4th, 45 to 60. Widowers without children rank as unmarried, but Avith them, as married. The militia is divided into an active and a reserve force. The active includes the volunteer, the regular, and the marine militia. The regular militia are those who voluntarily enlist