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1008. MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. | 31 and sustains them and therefore laws are framed and acts passed for the encouragement of shipping. Our statesmen might gain some knowledge by studying British methods and thereby enact some measure of relief for our languishing merchant marine." Our conversation then took a general range and drifted into the subject of immigration to the United States, a subject at pres- ent of vital interest to New Yorkers, when he remarked: "I have just been reading in a government report lately received from Washington section 151 of our emigrant laws, from which I note that the master of a ship bringing emigrants to this coun- try is taxed $10 a head for every emigrant that dies aboard ship on the voyage to the United States, while we let in the offscour- ing of the old world, if they get here alive, for a few cents a head." Of course we understand that the $10 tax is put cn dead ones in order to cause the ship master to keep his vessel in a good sanitary condition, but I think it might be well to consider, in this connection, the sanitary condition of this couitry, especially in a moral sense, and place a restriction on immigration that will keep out undesirable people. G. W. RAMacE. ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST. Arthur Scranton, superintendent of the Lackawanna Steel Co. has resigned. Mr. Scranton is a brother of Walter Scranton who is the head of the plant. Secretary Cortelyou announced last week that Herbert Knox Smith had been appointed deputy commissioner of corporations in the department of commerce and labor. He was graduated from Yale in 1891 and has practiced law in Connecticut, Capt. J. C. Sanford, government engineer at Philadelphia, is advertising elsewhere in this issue for bids for the construction of a steel, twin-screw suction dredge for use in Savannah har- bor in Georgia. Bids will be opened by him at noon Sept. 5. An order was cabled to Admiral Cotton at Lisbon last week detaching the Chicago from the European squadron and directing her to sail Saturday for New York. The vessel will be extensively repaired at the New York navy yard and then will replace the New York as flagship on the Pacific station. The ninth dividend of $1.75 per share on the preferred stock of the United States Steel Corporation, payable Aug. 15, will go to 34,938 shareholders. This is an increase in the number of shareholders and would indicate that the recent heavy decline has caused small holders to buy it as an investment. The annual report of the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique (French Line) for 1902 gives the total receipts, including bounties, at $9,938,951.31, against $9,533,440.68 for the preceding year, an increase of 405,510.63. The total expenses for 1902 were $8,842,- 531.61, a decrease of $113,923.40 as compared with 1901. The ex- cess of receipts over expenses, amounting to $1,096,419.71 were appropriated for the amortization of the fleet and the construction of new vessels, no dividend being declared. _ Directors of the Dominion Iron & Steel Co. and the Domin- ion Coal Co. have decided to cancel the existing lease and to con- duct the two companies in future as separate and distinct con- cerns. It is understood that the steel company has, through this agreement, been able to make provision for: the completion of its plant by the erection of finishing mills. When the Detroit Ship Building Co.'s dry dock was pumped out to admit the steamer China last week about 2 tons of German carp were found in it. As a rule dry docks are not fishing nets, but in this particular case the reason is simple. The carp had followed the Craig into the dock, being attracted by the smell of her decaying cargo of corn. Those employes and neighbors who are fond of carp had a feast. Maj. W. L. Marshall, United States enginecr in charge of river and harbor improvements in New York, recommend$ in his annual report an appropriation approximating $1,500,000 for the fiscal year. In discussing next year's operations he estimates that 8,000,000 cu. yds. of dredging should be done in Ambrose channel and says that from 2,500 to 3,000 ft. of sea wall should be constructed at Governor's island. He wants $600,000 for Am- brose channel, $226,000 for Bay Ridge and Red Hook channel and $200,000 for the sea wall at Governor's island. The problem of how to prevent the further depletion of the lobster industry appears to have been successfully solved. The lobster has become commercially extinct, save in the coast waters of the maritime provinces. Even there they are much less nu- merous than formerly and only the wise precautions of the Do- minion government have prevented their extinction. The estab- lishment of close seasons, artificial propagation and the prohibi- tion of takins spawn lobsters have to some extent been effect- ive. The latter provision proved impossible of enforcement. 'This year the experiment was tried of buying the spawn lobsters of the fishermen and impounding them in a large water enclosure to be liberated at the opening of the close season to propagate in the natural way. The experiment has proved a perfect success, the adult lobsters being in perfect condition, the eggs being in all stages of development and the waters of the pound teeming with vigorous lobster fry. ' TRADE NOTES. An order has just been received by the Atlantic Works In- corporated of Philadelphia for one of the bevel band sawing ma- chines to be shipped to the Ollinger & Bruce Dry Dock Co., Mo-. bile, Ala. The Engineering Co. of America, with headquarters in New York, has issued a neat folder, explaining in detail the work it does and its methods and facilities, also giving a partial list of the engineers in its employ. By systematizing and specializing the company claims that it produces the best results in all kinds of engineering work at reasonable cost. Italian Royal Navy - - : Argentine Navy - = - The "Messageries Maritimes" Company Chemins de fer de l'Ouest: BELLEVILLE WATER-TUBE BOILERS NOW IN_USE (FEBRUARY, 1903) On Board Sea-going Vessels, NOT INCLUDING New In- stallations Building or Erecting. French Navy - - - - English Royal Navy - - - Russian Imperial Navy - - ~ Japanese Imperial Navy - : Austrian Imperial Navy - s . Chilian Navy ~ - - : (The French Western Railway Co.) Steamships plying between Dieppe and Newhaven : ' i Total Horse Power of Boilers in Use 276,460 H. P. 849,300 " $93,700. | 122,700 7 32,900: 3% £3,500. cn? 26,500 . * $3,000" 87,600. 18,500 2° - 1,634,360 WORKS: Ateliers et Chantiers de l'Ermitage, at Saint-Denis (Seine), France. TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS: Belleville, Saint-Denis-Sur-Seine.