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1903.] MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. ? engaged in the ocean and international coasting trade. 'The navigation bounty (prize de navigation) is paid per gross ton per 1,000 miles as follows: For steamers of 1,000 to 3,000 tons, 1 franc 70 centimes. The allowance diminished as the vessel increased in size. This is for the first year, after which the rate diminishes annually 4 centimes for the first period of four years, 8 centimes for the second period of four years and i6 centimes for the third period of four years. But under this new law not a single French steamer was ordered until Oct. 9 last. Various orders then came forward and Dec. .17 all the available bounty had been taken up. Under the present law French owners paid large prices in the hope of earning the bounty for twelve years, but the ship might be lost on her first voyage, and owners could not sell their vessels to advantage except to French subjects as the bounty is only paid to ships owned and manned by Frenchmen. There were 59,000 tons of steamships under construction in France at the end of 1901, and 77,000 tons at the end of 1902. Referring to these facts, President Clink said that this state of matters revealed a kind of competition which was difficult io meet. It was suggested by some that their ships should be sub- sidized by government, and by others that every foreign sub- sidized ship touching at ports in the United Kingdom, colonies, or dependencies should be made to pay a countervailing tax, but, in his opinion, the only practical remedy was to lighten the bur- dens imposed on British shipping by parliament, and relieve ship owners from many irritating and useless legal provisions. He avas glad to notice that the select committee on steamship subsidies recommended the remission of all light dues. He hoped that parliament would not be long in giving effect to this. He thought the law ought to be altered so as to protect British owners. He also hoped that all foreign vessels trading or go- ing from or between any place or places in the United Kingdom or any British possession would be subjected to all the pro- visions of the merchant shipping act as were British vessels. Mr. William Law of the Glasgow "Shire" line of sailing packets, said that the decrease in the tonnage, which was a marked feature in the returns of sailing ships of recent years, had almost ceased. For example, in 1901 there was a decrease in the registered sailing tonnage of the world of 126,000 tons, whereas last year the decrease only amounted 'to 1,000 tons. These figures showed that while the British ship owners are still getting quit of their sailing ships--the decrease in the United Kingdom last year being 65,000 tons--foreigners are buy- ing and building to an extent that was keeping the tonnage stationary. The sailing tonnage built in the United Kingdom - last year was 49,352 tons, being more than double that of the preceding year, while in France the sailing tonnage built totalled 141,329 tons, including fifty-four vessels of 2,000 tons and up- wards. It is worthy of note that there are now only 8,214 tons of sailing tonnage building in France, which shows that the bounty is now reduced to a point offering little or no inducement to French ship owners to build for it. While British ship owners generally still evidently believed that ships of 2,000 to 3,000 tons register were large enough for all purposes, foreign- ers, or some of them at least, had faith in size, and during 1902 the largest sailing ship ever built was put into the water from one of the American yards, a_ steel schooner-rigged, seven- mister of 5,218 tons register. This was closely followed by a German ship of 5,081 tons register. The new steamer Bharata, built by Scott & Co., Greenock, for the British India Co., has sailed for the east after having sat- isfactorily completed a series of official trials under extremely adverse weather conditions. The speed obtained on deep-load trial was 15 knots, and a thorough test of the vessel's sea-going qualities was made, which proved satisfactory to owners and builders alike, the smoothness of working of the machinery and the entire absence of vibration being specially commented on. Phe Bharata, with other recent Clyde vessels, is to develop the passenger and mail traffic between Calcutta and Rangoon. CALLING FOR REMOVAL OF LIGHT DUES. On the burning question of lighthouses and light dues, the secretary of the North of England Protective Association, which represents over 2,000,000 tons of shipping and £25,000,000 of cap- ital, has addressed the following letter to the president of the board of trade: "I am requested by my directors to inform you that at the annual meeting of this association, which was held- at Newcastle on the 27th ult., the resolution of the special com- mittee of 1845 on lighthouses and the recommendation of the select committee of 1860 were fully discussed. The memoraa- dum issued by the Trinity House, under date of July 15, 1902, and the recent recommendations of the Shipping Subsidies Com- mittee on this subject, were also carefully considered, and it was pointed out that as previous to the repeal of the navigation laws ship owners were 'subjected to various burdens which would never have been imposed upon them had they not been a protec- tive class,' these burdens should have been removed when Brit- ish ship owners ceased to be protected. Instead of this fresh liabilities and restrictions have been enforced, some of which are dealt with in the enclosed section of our 'suggestions, and, pending the adoption of other measures, by which British ship- ping may be able to compete for the carrying trade of the world on something like equal terms, it was unanimously resolved: 'That, in consideration of the encouragement given by other countries to their shipping industries, no further time should be lost in commiencing to free British ship owners from the disa- bilities under which they labor, and that effect should at once be given to the recommendations made by the select committees of the house some fifty or sixty years ago, viz.: 'That the lighting - of our shores is a high imperial duty which we owe not merely to ourselves, but to strangers whom we invite to trade with us. That all expenses for the erection and maintenance of light- houses, floating lights, buoys and beacons on the coast of the United Kingdom be henceforth defrayed out of the public rey- enue. ; "My. directors also submit that the superintendence and management of lights, buoys and beacons on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland should be transferred to the board of trade, with the assistance of committees representative of the shipping, navigation, and trade of the country." E We are a good deal interested here in the efforts and pro- posals to solve the problem of the port of London. On this subject I draw attention to the following declaration by Mr. C. J. Cater Scott, chairman of the London & India Docks Co.: There can be no objection to the principle, he says,-to a single public authority being established for managing the river, in- cluding the duties of the Waterman's Company, but the docks should be excluded from management by the port authority leaving them to be carried on as commercial undertakings with a fair and wholesome competition with the riverside accommo- dation. The dock companies ought to be provided with amended revenue powers on goods discharged in the docks sufficient to insure the raising of capital for new works and equipment that may me necessary from time to time for the accommodation of the trade. In return the companies would agree (1) to a limi- tation of dividend, (2) to a reduction in the maximum dues on shipping from Is. 6d. to Is. (as against a maximum of Is. 6d. re- commended by the royal commission), (3) to be placed under the jurisdiction of the railway commissioners as to the reasona- bleness of their non-statutory charges, (4) the companies would also be willing to be made liable to be called upon by the port authority (subject to appeal to the board of trade) to execute such works of improvement in the docks as may be thought by that authority to be necessary. Such a scheme, whilst in many respects carrying out the recommendations of the royal commission, would remove the difficulty as to competition with private interests which evidently pressed upon the royal com- mission. It would constitute one supreme authority for the port, with the existing dock companies practically as managers of the decks, thus, in effect, adopting the suggestion of the royal commission as to the formation of a statutory dock com- mittee to manage the docks. 'There would be no need for any ~ large financial scheme in connection. with the purchase of the dock companies' undertakings, nor any necessity to have re- course to local or imperial taxation. Moreover, the financial position of the companies would be so far stereotyped as to render their purchase by the port authority a comparatively simple matter, should circumstances hereafter render that course practicable and desirable. PRODUCTION OF PIG IRON IN CANADA. The American Iron & Steel Association has received, direct from the manufacturers, statistics of the production of pig iron in Canada in 1902. They show an increase of 74,581 gross tons, or over 30 per cent. as compared with 1901. 'The total produc- tion in 1902 amounted to 319,557 gross tons, against 244,976 tons in 1901 and 86,090 tons in 1900. In the first half of 1902 the pro- duction was 157,804 tons and in the second half it was 161,753 tons, a gain of only 3,949 tons. Of the total production in 1902, 302,712 tons were made with coke and 16,845 tons with charcoal. A little over one-third of the total production was basic pig iron, namely, 107,315 tons. The Bessemer iron made amounted to about 9,000 tons. Spiegeleisen and ferromanganese have not been made since 1899. 'Ihe following table gives the total pro- duction of all kinds of pig iron (including spiegeleisen and ferro- manganese) in Canada from 1894 to 1902. Prior to 1894 the statistics of pig iron production in Canada were not collected by the American Iron & Steel Association. Years. | Gross tons || Years. | Gross tons. | Years. | Gross tons. 1894..| 44,791 1897..| 53,796 | 1900..| 86,090 1805...) -. 37,020 1808. .| . 68,755 IQ01..| 244,976 1896..| 60,030 gs0g.. | 04077. 1 1002..| 316,557 On Dec. 31, 1902, the unsold stocks of pig iron in Canada amounted to about 20,000 gross tons, as compared with 59,472 tons at the close of 1901 and 12,465 tons at the close of 1900. Of the unsold pig iron on hand on Dec. 31 over 19,000 tons were coke pig iron. On Dec. 31, 1902, Canada had fourteen com- pleted blast furnaces, of which seven were in blast and seven were idle. Of this total nine were equipped to use coke for fuel, four to use charcoal and one to use mixed charcoal and coke. In addition four coke and two charcoal furnaces were being built or were partly erected on Dec. 31, but work on several of the furnaces was temporarily: suspended.