. Sealed Packets Only - Never in Bulk Black--Mixed-- ee _----_ c i] i % richness. 6 , er "wilty" in winter, douk n - Natural Green E212 sneenterasmnens en en ne ea naan we Ouse hold Department a That's itt Gene. eat --Free from Dust | The Bride's Name; | Or, The Adventures of Captain. Fraser _ semana CHAPTER XIV.--Cont'd). . } _ "Well, I don't know much about it," said the housekeeper, round .appealingly. "I heard you speaking to somebody at the door ina low voice." s "It wasn't a low voice," interrupt- ed Mrs. Banks, sharply. "Well, I couldn't hear what you were saying, and then when you went out- Useful Hints and General Information for the Busy Housewife Dessert Recipes That Save Eggs. When eggs are soaring in price try the eggless dessert. There are many excellent cakes and other fancy des- serts that can be made without eggs and not suffer a loss in their taste or Here are a few simple re- cipes that require no eggs and that niake delicious cakes: Eggless Spice Loaf.--One cupful of thick sour milk, one-half cupful of but- ter, one cupful of sugar, two cupfuls of flour, one cupful of chopped raisins, one teaspoonful of soda, one teaspoon- ful of cinnamon, one-half teaspoon- ful of cloves, one-half teaspoonful of nutmeg, a pinch of salt. Stir the so@a into-the milk, add the melted butter, sugar, salt, and spices. Rub the rais- ina in the flour and then stir all to- gether. Pour jnto a buttered cake tin in loaf shape, or if preferred, into small gem pans. This quantity makes one loaf or twelve smali cakes. Eggless White Cake.--One cupful of butter, two cupfuls of sugar, one cup- ful of milk, three and one-half cupfuls of flour, one teaspoonful of baking powder, one teaspoonful of vanilla, a pinch of salt. Mix the melted butter, milk and sugar, add salt and mix the baking powder with the flour and add to liquid mixture, finally vanilla. Stir well and bake in a le f in a slow oven. Eggiess Apple Cake.--One cupful of brown sugar, one-half cupful of butter, one cupful of raisins, seedless; one cupful of apple sauce, unsweetened; one cupful of flour, one-fourth tea- spoonful of salt, one teaspoonful cin- namon, one-half teaspoonful of cloves, ore teaspeonful of baking soda, a pinch of nutmeg. Cream the sugar and! the butter together, add the salt and spices and raisins. Mix the baking} soda with the apple sauce. Add the! flour. to the sugar and butter mixture, then add the sauce, and if the mixture is not. thick enough add a trifle more | flour, Mix well and pour into a but-; tered loaf tin, baking about one hour} in a moderate oven. Eggless Plum Cake.---One-half cup- ful of butter, one-half cupful of bread crumbs, two cupfuls of stewed prunes i or cherries, four tablespoonfuls of chopped almonds, four tablespoonfuls of sugar, one-half cupful of milk, a dash of cinnamon and of cloves. Melt the butter in hot milk. Mix the chop-| ped almonds with the bread crumbs, sugar, dash of cinnamon and of cloves. Pour the milk and butter mixture over this, stir well and add the chopped prunes. Pour into a shallow baking | pan and bake in a moderate oven for one hour. 'This can be served with whipped cream if desired. Some Cabbage Dishes. Cabbage is one of the few winter vegetables whose possibilities are only half understood by many housekeep- ers. There are delicious ways of pre- paring this sturdy standby. In salad it can be eaten with benefit every day. | Try cooking an onion with boiled cab-' bage; this prevents the strong cab-; bage odor that some fastidious folks object to. When cabbageSeems rath. it for half an hour in cold water before cooking. Creamed cabbage has a delicate, de- lightful flavor and is more easily dig- ested than boiled cabbage. Cut the cabbage fine and drop it in a stew-pan of boiling water; add a_ pinch of ground cloves and a small onion, Cook The best sugar for "the sugar bow! is : De e { Lantic Sugar Its purity and "fine" granulation give it the highly sweeten- ing power. It dis- solves instantly in your teacup or on your breakfast cercal. 2 and 5-lb Cartons 10 and 20-Ib Bags rir i Tantic Siig MEER. 4 3 r? itime and disposition. it ten minutes; drain and add a table- spoonful of butter, the game of sugar, enough salt and pepper to suit your taste, and three tablespoonfuls of thick cream. Heat well and serve. Baked cabbage is fine. Boil it ten minutes and finish cooking in a cov- ered baki.g-dish in the oven. Season with salt, pepper and fresh meat fry- ings. Next time you cook sauerkraut put in plenty of water, enough pork to season, and add dumpling of rich bis- | cuit dough rolled thin; thus you will have a toothsome dish. Have A Day For Repairs. This is the time of year when the housewife should take a survey of the! many small repairs about the house which should be attended to. It might be well to have a repair day when the handy man takes his time and tools and finishes these numerous odd jobs. Perhaps one or two window-panes are} out, a cupboard door sticks, or a lock! The back steps that! is out of order. are worn out (and have been for some time) and are propped up with a rock or pile of bricks, might be repaired to | lessen the danger of accidents. things out of order are a source of unnecessary worry to the busy house- | wife, and when repaired they mean much in comfort and convenience. The Care Of A Range. The most important thing is to keep! the range well cleaned out--top, sides and underneath--at the cleanout door. | Familiarize yourself thoroughly with the uses and duties of the damper and different drafts, so you can obtain the heat and different temperatures neces- | sary to cook and bake. A chimney that is open to rain and snow permits the moisture to run down the flue, mix with the soot, and get into the back-flue of the range; this! results in a mixture of soot and mois- ture, which forms an acid that eats out the range flue, thus doing away with halft its life. A range is very often condemned be- cause it will not draw well. Asa rule, upon investigation, you will find the flue clogged up with soot; this is a job for the men folks, although the clean- ing up, a not overly pleasant piece of work, generally falls upon the house- wife. In some cases the soot may safely be burned out. Sometimes a tinner can correct the faulty draft, but not often. Another common error in operating a range is the filling up of the fire- box to the top. This means wasting fuel, over-heating the range and burn- ing the plates. This, in time, will warp the lids and make the top un- even. The best way is to use just enough fuel to keep the fire burning brightly--a fire-box about half full. The air is drawn up through the fire, and as it becomes heated it mixes with the fresh fuel-gas, and what would be a black smoke is immediately ignited to a bright flame. This flame! is burned and utilized and gives the oven the best heat the fuel is capable of giving. Thus a little fuel given more frequently affords more heat, with a-saving in many instances of at least one-third in the fuel bill. When you understand the relative value of the damper and each draft, you can keep the temperature of your oven to any degree desired and for an inde- finite period. Try not to poke the fire from the top; shake it with the shaker. See also that the ashes are not permitted to accumulate until they entirely fill the ash chamber, as they choke off the free circulation of air to the bottom of the grate," It is safe to say that two or three minutes of time, now and then, in look- ing to the proper condition of the range, will save many a baking, not to speak of the housekeeper's valuabte . Household Helps. 'Without cleanliness and punctuality good cooking is impossible. If new stockings are washed before wearing they will wear longer. A good way to use up old stockings and woollens is to unrip the wool and use it as a stuffing for cushions, When hanging short curtains it is a good plan to use picture wire. This ean be drawn much tighter and will not break, Rub lamps with cornstarch on the outside, to remove the oily look that so often characterizes them. Croquettes should 'be ina warm place for an hour before frying. They will brown more quickly. The furniture will be improved by being wiped off occasionally with a cloth dipped in linseed oil. Cotton crepe in white and colors is a labor-saver when made up into chil- dren's underwear and dresses. ; When a kettle is badly scorched, do not clean it at once, but fill it with water, after it is cool, put in a hand- ful of washing soda and allow it to boil for an hour or two. ; When making a steamed pudding put a piece of well-greased paper over the top before tying on the cloth. This "The All-Purpose Suga MH } 1 will prevent the cloths from becom- ing greasy, and they are no troubla to wash. ; : , Little | side and I asked you whether you were going home you said 'yes,' didn't you?" "Are you sure she said she was go- ing home?" said Mrs. Banks's broth- er-in-law, in an awful voice, as the old |. lady sank back in her chair. "Yes," said Mrs. Church, with a fine show of reluctance. There was a dead silence, during which they all heard the smelling- salts drop. "If this man said Captain Barber | was ill at Mapleden, why didn't you tell me?" continued Mrs. Church, in \a mildly aggrieved voice. "I think ;if anybody ought to have known, it 1 should have been me." | "Tt?s all a fuss about nothing," said Mr. Green, brazenly. 'out a bit too late, and then put it all on to me," while her scandalised in victim's nose, relatives discussed the situation hurried whispers. proval, and in the disjointed accents peculiar to surprise was heard to make use of the words "friskiness" and "gal- better." Her relatives' remarks, tle pain. Her attention was fully ;taken up by the housekeeper, in whose satisfied smile she saw a_ per- fect recognition of the reasons for: previous evening. | iSbe got up from her chair, and with: which her brother-in-; somewhat misplaced, : her action of the a stateliness law thought took her daughter's arm, and slowly left the room, her departure being the signal for a general break-up. By {twos and threes the company drifted slowly up the road in her wake, while 'Captain Barber, going in the other direction, accompanied Captain Nib- | lett's party as far as the schooner, in unity of saying a few well-chosen precipitancy. : "If it 'adn't been for me tipping 'im line 'e was to go on when I idown, where should I 'ave been?" he demanded of Captain Nibletts. up. CHAPTER XV. The "Blue Posts,' Chelsea, is an old time public-house pleasantly situated | by the river, with an extensive connec- tion amongst gentlemen's servants, '*busmen, and other skilled judges of good beer, the subtle and delicate per- fume of which liquor pervades the place from cellar to garret, and has }more than once taken the police on | duty to the back door, under the im- pression that something wanted look- \ing into. To some men imprisonment in such ; |a place would have been little short of | In the heat of summer they! | would have sat in the cool cellar amid'! | | ecstasy. barrels of honest beer; in winter, they would have led the conversation cosily istry in the cellar. To Captain Fred Flower none of these things appealed. He had visit- ed the cellar certainly--in search of subterranean exits; he had sat in the tap-room--close to the open window; but his rabid desire to get away from the place and never see it again could not have been surpassed by the most bitter teetotaler that ever breathed. His greatest trouble was with. Por- son, whose limpet-like qualities were a seurce of never-failing concern to the unfortunate mariner. Did he ascend to the drawing-room and gaze yearn- ingly from the windows at the broad stream of Father Thames and the craft dropping down on the ebb-tide to | beery romance of the ocean. ire | the premises and gaze from the back {door at the passing life of a Chelsea |by-street. Uncle Porson was look- ing over his shoulder, pointing 'milkmen with histories, and cabmen | with a past. | The second week of his | realised the horror of his position. | His foot, which had been giving him looking | ves : "There's your relations to be sat- isfied, Matilda," said Uncle an important voice. favcred the interrupter with a baleful ing his neck feebly, glanced at Mrs. Tipping for support. "Our relations needn't come to see us," said his niece at length. "He's marrying me, nut my relations." "He's making me his uncle, at any rate," said Mr. Porgon, with a sudden access of dignity. sey asked Miss Tipping, anxiously. "I'd ; . up with more than that for your sake," said Flower. "I needn't tell people." _"That's all very fine," said Mrs. Tip- ping, taking up the cudgels for the speechless and glaring victim of these pleasantries, "but there's no mystery "She stayed | The brother-in-, law eyed her with bewildered disap-! liventing" and "old enough to know. however, | cavsed Mrs. Banks comparatively lit-; order that he might have the opport-| words to Mr. Green on the subject of | And that astonished mariner, with' speak in a lew voice a helpless shake of the head, gave it home. seated around the tap-room fire. For being used by the Germans exercise, profitable employment at the western front. beer-engine in the bar; for intellectual not been used in any heavy attacks, exercise, the study of practical chem-| and for the reason the French officials the sea, Uncle Porson, sallow face and; the Chinese. ; unclean of collar, was there to talkiservice supplies the Did he! daily with fanciful war news, tire to the small yard at the rear of! of this is unintelligible to the Chinese, out ; ,him. He doesn't disappear just as he is;going to get married, and be , brought back in a cab months after- | wards. He isn't full of secrets he {mustn't tell people who ought to know," "Never kep' a secret in my life," wanted to/agreed Uncle Porson, whose head was buzzing under this unaccustomed A good Samaritan picked up the' praise. smelling-salts and held them to the} "T know_quite enough about Fred," said Miss Tipping, tenderly; "when I want your opinion, mar, Ill ask you for it." = Mrs. Tipping's reply was interrupt- ed by the entrance of a young man from the jeweller's with four brooches for Flower to present to the brides- muids. Mrs. Tipping had chosen i them, and it did not take the hapless skipper long to arrive at the conclu- sion that she was far fonder of brides- meids than he was. His stock of racrey was beginning to dwindle, and the purchase of a second wedding suit | within a month was beginning to tell even upon his. soaring spirits. "There's another thing about Fred I don't quite like," said Mrs. Tipping, as she sat with the brooches ranged upon her capacious lap; "he's extrava- gant. I don't like a mean man, but one who flings his money away is al- most as' bad. These 'ere brooches are very pretty, and they do him credit, but I can't say but what some- tning cheaper wouldn't 'ave done as! well." "T-thought you liked them," said the 'indignant Flower. "T like them well enough," said Mrs. | Tipping, solemnly; "there's nothing to dislike in them. Seems to me they the wink, so as to let him know what must have cost a lot of money, that's! thought that, merely by the threat or | came ali--I suppose I may make a remark?" Flower changed the subject, and iturning to Miss Tipping began to of their new Miss Tipping wanted a sort of Eden with bar improvements, and it was rather difficult to find. They had discussed the matter be- fore, and the wily skipper had almost quarrelled with his bride-elect over the part of the country in which they 'were to live, Miss Tipping holding out for the east coast, while Flower hotly championed the south. Mrs. Tipping, 'with some emphasis, had suggested leaving it until after the honeymoon, but a poetic advertisement of an inn in Essex eatching her daughter's eye, it was decided that instant inspection i should be made. (To be continued). a oes New Hun Invisible Gas. A new asphyxiating gas, deadlier than any ever used before, and also having the quality of invisibility, is on the To date the gas has ; believe that it is still in its experi- mental stages. However, small emis- sions of the gas have been tried by the Germans with striking effects, al- though counter-attacks have always 'enabled the French to retake the trenches they evacuated. The new French gas masks are as effective against the invisible gas as against the old gas. German Propaganda in China. The Germans have acquired two scurrilous newspapers in North China which have a little circulation among Their Overseas News Pekin columns Much lbut the service frequently contains lies damaging to the allies. ee ing within a rope circle, to imply a stay was wish to perish as the rope does if the idrawing to a close before he fully witness does not tell the truth. | considerable trouble, was getting much! | better, though it was by no means well | ; enough to give him a chance in a foot-! lrace with Mr Porson or Charles; and jas the family at the "Blue Posts" re- 'aiised the improvement the attentions lof his personal attendants were re- jdoubled. The key of his bedroom idcor was turned every night after he had retired, a discovery he had made the first night, after carefully dressing for flight and spending an hour over the composition ef a farewell note to | Miss Tipping. ) window, and the pavement below of- fored him his choice between a wed- ding and a funeral. And amid all this the fiction was There was no chance, jof reaching the roof from his bedroom ' Porson, in ; Miss Tipping raised her head and| stare, whereupon Mr. Porson, stretch-- ou don't mind, Fred, do you?"}. about your -uncle; everybody knows] In Assam an oath is taken stand-, maintained of preserving him from . 'his lawless foes and his own incon- , sp F 'venient devotion to duty. <A struggle , {for escape was not to be thought of, las the full measure of his deceitful- (ness would transpire in the event of, 'failure, and the wedding drew nearer ; | day by day, while his active brain was' 'still casting about in' vain for any, , means of escape. : { "Next Tuesday," said Mrs. Tipping | to her 'step-daughter, as they sat in' the much-decorated drawing-room one' afternoon, "you'll be Mrs, Robinson." Miss Tipping, who was sitting next | to the skipper, looked at him languish-| ingly, and put her head on his should- | er | | dicament, patted her head tenderly, | / as being easier than replying. | "And I must say," said Mrs. Tip-! rie ping, regarding the pair, "I'm a plain' fill weman, and I speak my mind, that if it was me I should want to know more about him first." See "Pm quite satisfied, mar," ssid Miss "HD can hardly believe coyly. it," she said, t ? . : Flower, who was in the same pre- The only flour'publicly and unreservedly guaranteed not bleached, not blended. Tipping, without raising her head. * tination, NAVAL LESSONS LEARNED IN WAR THE BATTLESHIP MAINTAINS PRE-EMINENT POSITION. ee Controlling Factor in Struggle Lies Ready at Hand in Grand Fleet. An interesting review of the part that sea-power has played in the war and references to the lessons that naval men have learned is given by jhas justified the hopes entertained in {cess the war value of speed has been the naval correspondent of the New York Herald writing from London.) He says that, while the principles of | naval strategy have been the same for a century, their application has been | so altered as to amount almost to a; |revolution. The first and most ob-, vious teaching is that sea-power has} completely justified the confidence | placed in it. The lesson here is an} old one emphasized afresh. Sea-} power has saved the Allied cause. It permits of the time and the creation | :of the means by which victory will be | secured. The use of sea-power is de- | monstrated not only by the way in| which the German merchant ships were swept from the oceans, but also by the manner in which the land and sea forces of the Allies are co-operat- ing in three continents, The Grand Fleet. No one before the war would have | | influence of the Grand Fleet away in! {the northern mists, great armies and | jall that was necessary to maintain} jand supply them could be moved in| | security all over the world. That les- son was enforced at the very begin-| 'ning of the war. It has been main- | tained, even though an important bat- tle has been fought without that com- pletely decisive result in regard to the smashing of the enemy's fleet which was hoped for. The cantrolling factor in the whole of the war is the latent power which lies ready at hand in the jarmored squadrons now commanded iby Admiral Beatty. That is the "sure | shield" which the Central Powers | must break down if they would alter the outcome of the war. Hitherto | both by the campaign of attrition and 'also by the "enterprise" which was frustrated off the Jutland coast, they | have failed to do it, and their more 'subtle and insidious methods of at- tacking commerce by submarines, which are having the temporary suc- cess of most novel expedients, must also be suppressed in time. Torpedoes a Disappointment. Lessons that were supposed to have been learned in the Russo-Japanese War have been found to be useless or even misleading so far as the present Struggle is concerned... For instance, 'after the Japanese attacks upon the | | Russians at Port Arthur it was said | that torpedo craft would be the real factors in future wars, and it was ex-| pected by some that these vessels might be able to break up the Grand | Fleet. They have failed not only to 'live up to the predictions made by 'their admirers, but to cut any figure 'at all. Shortly before the war began it is said that the naval world was 'much disturbed by the large increase 'of range made by the torpedo and its destructive power. The "deadly ac- curacy" spoken of three years ago is a myth. In the Battle of Jutland there was no real torpedo success, and Sir John Jellicoe says that a great num- ber of them were apparently fired. Nor has the mine been much of a fac tor in the struggle, and it would have achieved much less than has been ac- complished had it been employed by la nation adhering to civilized means |! |of warfare. German unscrupulous-) ry however, has scored some sue- | /cesses with the mine. Neither the! ;mine nor the submarine nor the tor-! pedo can decide this struggle. At best) | they are mere aids to the battleship. | The Interlocking Forces. | The whiter says: "In all the fields of | ; action there is to be seen the inter-' dependence of the naval and military , forces. The fleets of nearly all the! Allies supply ships ] | | } | { to operate with: and protect the flanks of their armies. t was the turning of their flank by the Russian fleet which materially helped to force the Turks out of Tre- bizond and other places in the Cau- casus, while it was the failure of the German fleet in the Baltic to accom- lish a similar purpose that enabled the Russians to maintain their hold on! Riga. There is also indicated by the events of the war the limitations of sea power. It is the mainstay of the Allies, enabling them to do many things, but in itself it cannot end the war as they desire it should be ended. The comfortable reflection that 'time and the navy will do the job for us,' which had many sympathizers in the late Government, is fatal in its ten- dency toward inertia and procras- ' , Battleship and Cruiser. ; "Turning to the material, the bat- tleship maintains its pre-eminent. po- ition in spite of every aitempt to vhreaten its supremacy by mine and + torpedo. Care has been taken to pro- 'on the part of one class of vessel over | | | } tect it from these devices, whose power has thus been nullified. The submarine has not shown itself in any way to be more than a weapon of at- trition and not an entirely effective weapon even in that direction. If merchant ships were adequately arm- ed its success as a commerce destroy- er would be considerably curbed. En- tirely new light has been thrown upon the battle-cruiser, which novel type regard to it. Connected with this suc- demonstrated. This was shown quite early in the war by the achievements of the German raiders in the outer seas and again when Sturdee"s battle- cruisers made their swift and silent journey to destroy von Spee's squad- rons off the Falklands. It has also been exhibited many times in the North Sea, where an excess of speed another has enabied superior arma- ments to be brought to bear. In the! Jutland fight the fast battleships of the Queen Elizabeth type gave splen-| did results, a a! Women Astound Linen Firms. The Scottish linen manufacturers | have made a discovery. There is a certain work which men have _ béen | doing for years--the dressing of warp) yarns--which women have had to un-! dertzke since the war, and they do it far better than men did! In fact, they should have done it all the time, only | no one ever thought of giving them, the chance, just because the changing of the beams requires a man's strength. Now one man changes rt beams for fifteen or twenty women, | and they do the rest efficiently and quickly. JAPAN TO SHOW SYMPATHY. Will Raise Fund and Send Commis- | sion to Allied Countries. At a gathering of representative Japanese recently, among whom was -- Premier Terauchi, it was voted to send a popular commission to all the Entente countries, probably in April, te express Japan's sympathy for the wounded and for other war sufferers. _ An appeal will be made throughout ~ the Empire for the subscription in an effort to raise as large a fund as pos- sible. The movement is national in scope and is supported by the Govern- ment, the Diet, all political parties and business interests and the press. Prince Tokugawa, of the House of Peers, is chairman. Se weeceen fen Why Lion Roars and the Cat Purrs. The eminent English naturalist, Sir Richard Owen, made the interesting discovery that the lion roars 'simply because the hyoid bone in his throat is loose. In the cat, this bone is sta~- tionery, and therefore the cat purrs, and cannot roar; but in the lion and tiger the hyoid is. loose, and, even when calling to their mates, the larger members of the cat family, in- cluding the leopard and the jaguar roar. The roars of the jaguar and leopard are "like hoarse, barking coughs; an interval of about one second separates the expiratory ef- forts," says Sir Richard. The cheetah and the puma are like the domestic cat; their hyoid bones are firmly set in place, and they can purr. The fellow who chases after popu- larity-is apt to win few real friends. A good reputation isethe product of self-respect. Phenomenal Strides Made By Canadian Northern Railway System In First Year As Transcontinental New System in the Past Year Carrried Bushels of Wheat, an Increase Year. Ontario Makes ment of Operation. From Our Own Correspondent. Toronto, February 9th. The phenomenal gains that the Canadian Northern Railway reports | for its year as a transcontinental | line makes the statement one of the most important that has ever been issued by any railway in Canada. It is even doubtful whether the tremendous increases in business handled have ever been duplicated by any system in the world. There are many features to the report that make it of special import to every Canadian, owing to the in- terest the country hag in the build- ing up of this important transcon- tinental line and the attractive ter- ritory that has been developed through the completion of the sys- tem. The feature of the report that is likely to be especially grati- fying is that which shows the pro- minent part the Canadian Northern, with its. transcontinental system, has been able to play in handling such a large proportion of the grain requirements of the Mother Coun- try. Right along it has been the con- tention of Sir William Mackenzie and his associates that it was only a matter of a very short period be- fore Canada and the Empire would enjoy the benefits of the big sys- tem that had been built up across the. Dominion, and the showing made in the report indicates that these hopes' have been. realized much, earlier than it would have been thought possible when the transcontinental system was set in operation a little over a year ago. Important Gains of Year. A few of the outstanding fea- tures of the report are as follows : An increase in freight traffie dur- ing the ir $8,352,412, equiv- alent to as mdfch as 45.87 per tent.; increase in passenger traffic, $717,- 246, of a gain of 18.25 par eent.; an increase in total operating revenue of $9,564,168, or 36.91 per cent. over the previous year. That the company's lines handled over 131,000,000 bushels of frain is proof positive that the railway has been located in the b 1 growing areas of the West. The exact grain traffic handled amounted to 131,978,809 bushels as compared with 58,575,520 bushels in 1916, or an increase of. 73,403,-; 289, equivalent to an increase of as | much as 125.81 per cent. That the Company has been able to make such striking gains in the' amount of traffic handled over its lines will undoubtedly be more readily appreciated when it is re. | membered that it was only operated | aS a transcontinental system dur-! ing the last seven of the twelve months of the fiscal year, and when it is recalled that last winter the weather conditions in the Western provinces, and more particularly in British Columbia, were the most severe that had been experienced in a great many years, in fact, in some instances, were the most dif- ficult that Canadian railways had' ever to meet in that part of the country. It should also be point- ed ont that the Company had the disadvantage, owing to the condi- Vevivene trem the. war, of be. Withent its 'own terminals. : us tmMinals in est grain _ Northern an alre Approximately 131,000,000 of 125 Per Cent. Over Previops Company's New Mileage on Pacific Coast and Northern Astonishing Showing Right fro Commence- Company's Lines Most Favorably Located. such important centres as Vancou- ver in the West, and Montreal in the East. Company's Earning Power. The development that is sure to be most favorably received by every- body who is following the growth of the larger Canadian railways. will come from the fact that the Canadian Northern Railway has come within hailing distance of earning its total fixed tharges, the deficit for the year being brought down to less than a quarter of a million dollars, a reduction from the previous year of almost $1,400,000, As was to be expected, a great proportion of the Increased revenues come from the large crop gathered in the Canadian West in the fall of 1915, but since that time there has been a marked increase in the general . freight traffic handled. over the lines, and during the first four months of tha current fiscal year gross earnings have continued to show large in- creases over the corresponding per- lods of the year now under review. | Perhaps the most striking develop- ment in this connection is that it is in the month of October that the heaviest. grain movement oecurs, and yet in October, 1916, the gross earnings showed a gain over those of the same month in the previous year, As the grain crop was very much lighter, this evidently in- dicates that the growth in the traf- fic in other commodities has more than offset the lighter grain move- ment of the year now being report- ed on. : i ; : Some of the interesting features © of the Board of Directors' report ag Indicating the position, of the line and the progress it has made ins clude the following : An agreement of great ance in the development System's freight and traffic was made wi Steamship Co. import- of the passenger th the Cunard* : In future the Cun- ard Line and the Canadian North-- ern Railway will be, in fact, a single transportation unit between Burope and Canada. The possession grades as those lines has given of such favorable on the System's the Canadian : ady important ad- vantage in the economy at wen tion, particularly jn carrying the two commodities offering in largest. -- volume, viz,: lumber and grain, , The mein line of the Ganadian Novthern Railway from Quebec to Vancouver Is superior to any line crossing the continent of America m*points. of grade 'and 'curvatures favoring traffic. = The lines of the Company's sys- tem are now serving 75 per cent. of the aggregate population of the cities and towns of all Canada, hav- ing 5,000 inhabitants and overs. he present Situation emphasizes the fact that the Railway is not as dependent. upon grain crop*mave-- ment as in the past, and in be- coming transcontinental has acquir- eda highly diversified traffic. The -- developments of the year confirm ~ irectors in the belief that they Strongly hold, that the' ultimate Bie ah of the Canadian North--- oe ee System is measurable -- inion of Canada ee ae us