British Whig (Kingston, ON), 29 Jul 1897

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MARINE INTELLIGENCE.

The schooner Fabiola is discharging a cargo of coal at Swift's store-house.

The tug Jessie Hall, with six light barges, from Montreal, arrived in port this morning.

The R. & O. steamers Algerian and Corsican are lying windbound in the harbor at Brighton.

The schooner S.H. Dunn cleared today, light, from Garden Island for Toledo to load timber.

The steamer Chieftain carried another cargo of withes from the mutual dock to Garden Island today.

The schooner Fabiola is being furnished with new scuppers, "wind and weather" having worn out her old ones.

The steamer James Swift arrived at Swift's wharf last night with a full list of passengers and a heavy cargo of freight.

The steambarge Quebec, from Bay of Quinte ports, touched here today with a cargo of lumber for Rideau canal ports.

The steamer King Ben cleared from Swift's wharf last evening, light, for Oswego, for a cargo of coal for Swift & Co.

The steamer Glengarry and consort Minnedosa, Fort William, arrived in port today with 87,000 bushels of wheat, consigned to the M.T. Co.

Called at Swift's wharf today: R. & O. navigation company's steamers Passport, bound from Toronto to Montreal; Spartan, bound for Toronto from Montreal.

The schooner Nellie Hunter was unable to get away yesterday, as delay was occasioned in discharging her cargo of coal on account of the rain. She cleared today.

The schooner Grantham crossed from Oswego in Tuesday's storm, experiencing a head wind all the way over. She made the trip safely and is discharging a cargo of coal at the penitentiary.

Two new brass wheels for the steamer Columbian have been cast at the Kingston foundry. The cost of each is $450. The vessel will be fitted with the new equipment at the first opportunity.

The schooner Onslow, consort of the steamer Inter-Ocean, arrived in port this morning with 52,000 bushels of corn, consigned to the M.T. Co. The Inter-Ocean's grain could not be handled here, so the steamer was sent down to Prescott.

The sailors on the schooner Eliza Fisher, says the Belleville Ontario, are on the verge of mutiny. They claim that they were not paid at the opening of the season when the boat was in charge of captain Taylor. The boat changed hands and since then they have been paid regularly but the men have not lost sight of the arrears. The owner of the boat claims to have paid the former captain, but he in turn failed to pay the men.

One Case In Point.

The need of the M.T. company having an elevator here was again demonstrated this morning, when the steamer Inter-Ocean and consort Onslow arrived with about 100,000 bushels of corn. On account of the company's barges and tugs being employed in carrying grain between Prescott and Montreal, a sufficient number could not be spared to receive the cargo of the Inter-Ocean, which was sent on down to Prescott. By this action the city loses the benefit of the transhipment.

Fifty thousand bushels, at half a cent a bushel, represents $250 for elevating, half of which is distributed among the shovellers. The steamer would have provisioned here. That trade is lost to Kingston merchants. The sailors would have spent a certain amount of money, which the merchants of Prescott will enjoy. By the sending of the Inter-Ocean to Prescott, at the very smallest reckoning, $400 was taken away from the city. Half a dozen similar cases have occurred daily for several seasons past.

Welland Canal Report.

Port Colborne, July 29th - Down - steamers Rust, Morley, Iona, Chicago to Prescott, corn; schooner Wawanosh, Toledo to Garden Island, timber; steamer Pueblo, Chicago to Ogdensburg, corn.

Port Dalhousie, July 28th - Down - steamer Orion, Elm River to Collins Bay, timber; barges Muskoka and Neelon, Waubashene, Grand Marias to Collins Bay, timber; steamer McVittie, Chicago to Ogdensburg, general cargo; steamer Parsons, Toledo to Ogdensburg, corn; steamer Rugee, Chicago to Kingston, corn; steamer Ketchum, Chicago to Kingston, corn; barge Owen, Chicago to Kingston, corn; steamer Glengarry and consort Minnedosa, Fort William to Kingston, wheat.

Will Likely Need More Space.

It is pointed out that should the proposed bonus of $35,000 to the M.T. Co. carry and two elevators of 500,000 bushels capacity each are erected, there will be only accommodation here for one million bushels of grain, as against two millions' capacity divided between Prescott and Ogdensburg. As these elevators are kept busy, it stands to reason that if the grain trade returns to Kingston either the two elevators it is proposed to erect here will have to be increased in capacity or other elevators will have to be built. The Mooers' company intend putting in machinery and power to operate a million bushel elevator, so that in case the 500,000 bushel storehouse proves inefficient additions may easily be made. It is expected the M.T. Co. will do likewise, provided the bonus bylaw carries.

Personal Mention - Mrs. James Dix and family left today on the schooner S.H. Dunn for a round trip to Toledo.

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THE ELEVATOR QUESTION.

Kingston, July 28th - To the Editor:

Our city council, in my opinion, acted very wisely last Monday night when they decided by an almost unanimous vote to let the matter of granting a bonus to the Montreal transportation company, go to the qualified electors, as they are certainly entitled to have the say on a matter of such vital importance as this is to the future of the city.

I was much struck with what Ald. Richardson said in reference to the Rathbun company having left Belleville, because the people of that town thought they had them for all time, and refused to grant them certain concessions. As alderman Richardson said, Belleville has never recovered from that blow.

Alderman Livingston struck the same chord when he quoted the fact of the Grand Trunk shops having left here some years ago. It is a well known fact that we have been striving to get them back, ever since, but although the city has offered all kinds of inducements we have been as yet unsuccessful.

The question now is, are we to allow our leading industry to pass away from us for the sake of a few thousand dollars, which alderman Elliott tells us will only increase our taxes thirty-two cents per year on each thousand dollars of assessment even should our city fathers in their wisdom see fit to increase the rate of taxation to meet the expenditure for this bonus.

It is a well known fact that the M.T. Co. are at present doing a large portion of their forwarding business at the port of Prescott and I understand that the president of this company gave the deputation to understand that unless some action was taken by the city of Kingston to retain the company's business here it would only be a short time until that business would be established altogether at some point down the river.

Now, if this bonus by-law does not carry, the company will, I believe, surely leave here. This means the taking of at least two hundred families out of this city, as they would have to either follow the company or be out of employment, and the city would lose more in taxes should this take place than they would have to pay in granting the proposed bonus to this company.

It is a regretted fact that the friends of the Mooers company are making such bitter attacks on the board of trade of this city, whose members consist of our brightest and best business men and our heaviest taxpayers.

"Contributor's" letter in the Whig of the 26th inst., is a good sample of this, but "Contributor" is not satisfied with sneering at the board of trade, but has also to bring in the city council and the editor of the British Whig. "Contributor" is, evidently, not well posted. He says that it was the height of folly for the deputation to go to Montreal and urge anything on the M.T. Co., as they had asked for nothing and that there was no sign that they intended to leave. Now, the facts are that the board of trade was in possession of information which showed that parties down the river were then negotiating for their removal to a point down the river, and it was on this information that the matter was brought before the city council and the deputation appointed, and I think alderman Elliott made it very clear on Monday night that the board of trade and the council had not acted any too hastily in the matter, and that what they learned in Montreal only verified the information which the board of trade was in possession of.

"Contributor" wants to know why, if the M.T. Co.'s barges carry grain from the Prescott elevator, they will not carry it from "ours," evidently overlooking the fact that the Prescott elevator is some sixty miles nearer Montreal than "ours" will be, and that unless the M.T. Co. received the elevator charges they will not tow their barges this sixty miles up and down the river as long as they can find storage room for their grain at Prescott.

It has been said that if a house is built by the M.T. Co. here that a fewer number of shovellers will be required by them. This, I should say, is a mistaken idea as with increased volume of trade they will no doubt use both floating elevators and house, and will more likely want to increase the number of their shovellers than reduce them.

I hope the people will look closely into this matter, and if they do, I believe there is only one verdict which they can give and that is that the trade of the M.T. Co. must be retained here, and to do this they must support heartily the bonus by-law.

A MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF TRADE.

Should Have Definite Information.

Kingston, July 28th - To the Editor:

In connection with the early submission to the people of a by-law, sanctioning the payment of $35,000 towards the erection of another elevator, I would like to ask if a definite pledge cannot be obtained from the M.T. company that they will really build the elevator if said by-law is carried. I understand that the submission of by-laws entails to the city considerable expense, and, this being so, it is hardly fair for either the M.T. company or the city council to ask that such expenditure be borne by the taxpayers if the former, after the by-law has been carried, at the city's expense, still have the option of declining to go ahead with the work. As far as can be gleaned from alderman Elliott's report on Monday evening, the committee that waited upon the officers of the M.T. company in Montreal, were, by them, only authorized to state that "the granting of $35,000 would cause the M.T. Co. to consider this matter."

Surely the proper time to "consider" so important a matter is before unnecessary expense is incurred; and, therefore, it is to be hoped that in the provisional arrangements preceding the appeal to the people, the council will see to it that there is on the part of the M.T. company an agreement to bear the entire expense of submitting the by-law, in case that after having been carried, said company should, for any reason, decline to take advantage of the same. As can be readily seen I am not writing against the passage of the by-law, indeed, I intend voting for it; but at the same time the city's interests should be carefully guarded, and the lack of definiteness in the report of the committee herein referred to, is, I think, quite sufficient to justify this letter. ONLOOKER.

People Pay The Fiddler.

Kingston, July 28th - To the Editor:

Well, I see that the aldermen of the city have but little consideration of what they seem to be doing when they give their votes to further a scheme to rob this city out of another bonus to the amount of $35,000, this time for the purpose of making a grand stand play, and show the M.T. company that they are not bad fellows after all. In conversation with some of the aldermen and their closest friends, they say: "Oh, I had to give the people a chance to decide; they are the ones to pay the fiddler," but know all the time when they are taking this stand that they will not only vote against it at the polls, but that they will advise others to do likewise.

Where is this bonus business going to stop. With a debt now of about $850,000, $35,000 to the M.T. company, and a prospective $150,000 for the K. & S.F. railway, making a total of about $1,035,000. Think of it, every man, woman and child in the city, liable for the sum of $53.70, or an increase of $9.20 for each individual, in one year. Is that not doing well? The property owners will have to study the question, and see where we are going to get off at. You will have to do the thinking. Your representatives in the city council will not burden themselves with the responsibility. Are the people of this city going to lay back and see their taxes going up at this rate? We have done enough this year by voting away $25,000, for, sure as fate, when the settlement of the taxes for the next year is to be made, we will find them simply out of sight. RATEPAYER.

p.6

By Defective Steam Pipes - The steamer Samoa on her trip to Prescott a couple of days ago had 1,000 bushels of oats damaged by the bursting of her steam pipe. On the same day the steamer Marquette, making a trip to the same port, had 800 bushels of corn damaged by leakage from her steam pipe.