Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/404

 282 THE BRITISH EMPIRE: — NEWFOUNDLAND, ETC.

tlie principal occupation of the population, the value of the fishing products being almost two millions sterling annually.

Production, &C. — The chief agricultural products in 1911 were : oats (8,544 bushels), potatoes (1,532,758 bushels), turnips (231,030 bushels). In 1911 there were in Newfoundland 13,694 horses, 39,472 cattle, 97,597 sheep, and 26,956 swine. Some fine pine forests exist to the north, and large saw mills have been established. The mineral resources of Newfoundland are considerable. Large beds of iron ore have been found and are being worked on Bell Island in Conception Bay, on the east coast, and other rich deposits have been discovered on the west coast. Output 1911, 1,180,633 tons; value, 1,318,992 dollars. Copper ore and pyrites are worked successfully. In 1911, 42,131 tons of ore were mined, valued at 231,693 dollars. Coal is found near St. George's Bay on the west coast, and in the Grand Lake district. In the eastern part of the island gold- bearing quartz rock, and extensive deposits of silver and lead ore have been found. Extensive paper and pulp mills have been erected at Grand Falls. These mills are furnished with the most up-to-date machinery and are making, in a day of 24 hours, 100 tons of paper and 240 tons of pulp. At Grand Falls and Bishop's Falls there have been completed extensive pulp mills, which are now making pulp for exportation, and niachinerv for the manufacture of paper is about to be installed. The paper and pulp is largely exported to England. There is a likelihood that mills will soon also be constructed at Deer Lake and Hawkes Harbour.

Communications, &C.— Railways open 1911 : 723 miles ot Govern- ment line with a gauge ot 3 ft. 6iu., and 47 miles of private line. By acts of the Newfoundland Legislature in 1910 an agreement was made by the Government for the construction and maintenance of five branch lines of railway running to Bonavista, Heart's Content, and Grate's Cove, Trepassey, Fortune Bay, and Bonne Bay. The Government agreed to pay the contractors 15,000 dollars a mile for construction and to give 4,000 acres of land per mile constructed for operation, to do which it raised by loan 3,893,200 dollars. The line to Bonavista was comjdeted in 1911, and the line to Trepassey in 1912. These lines will open up various fertile sections of the island. Communication between various points on the coast and between the island and the continent is maintained by a fleet of 8 first-class steamers, each of which connects with some central point on the railway. There are (1912) 652 post offices. Letters and cards sent in 1911, 3,600,000 ; newspapers, books, &c., 3,300,000 ; parcels, 118,078. Post office revenue, 24,095^.; expenditure, 81,210L Telegraph line open (1911), 4,718 miles; 829 miles of telephone wire.

In December, 1911, the Newfoundland Savings Banks held 3,015,443 dollars standing to the credit of 7,961 depositors ; this is in addition to the amounts held bv the Savings Departments of the three banks doing business

in St. John's.

The legal coin of the colony is the gold dollar, equivalent to 4.s. 1^,^. ot

British monev.

References.

Reiiort on the Mineral Resources of Newfoundland. London, 1896.

Correspondence respecting the Newfonndlcand Fisheries. United States, No. 1 (1900).

London, 190i» ..,„ ,,, ,~»,,.r,. ^^

French Fisheries on the Great Bank of Newfoundland and off Iceland. Foreign Offioe

Reports, Miscellaneous Series, No. 492 1899. London.

Report by the Governor on a visit to the Micinac Indians at Bay d'Espoir. London,

Baedeker' 8 Domxmi^n of Canada with Newfoundland and an Excursion to Alaska. 3rd. et],

'^Bellet (A.), La Grande Peche de la Morue k la Terre-Neuve. Paris, 1902.