tax and reduction of automobile licence fees; one in favour of an annual poll tax of $5; one asking that rural representatives be allowed on town school boards; one in favour of rigid weed inspection; one asking that Red Cross outpost hospitals be given the same authority as other hospitals in respect to collection of their charges; and one protesting against the proposed Federal plan of immigration assistance, the following resolution being passed:

"Whereas we understand that the Dominion Government is inaugurating a new policy in connection with immigration and we further understand that the Government proposes to purchase, and was already purchasing fully patented lands from the Hudson's Bay Company, the C.P.R., and other companies or individuals, to be sold to new settlers in a manner similar to the land already sold to soldier settlers:

"Be it resolved that if this is to be the policy of the Government we strongly protest against any system being introduced or put into operation that may result in more lands being added to those already classed as 'Crown lands' and thus exempted from assessment for taxes when abandoned or foreclosed, and further that any immigrants settled on previously patented lands by the Dominion Government should be made amenable to the Statutes of the Province particularly in connection with the levying and collection of taxes, sale of these lands for taxes, stray animals Act and all other Provincial laws or municipal by-laws."

Saskatchewan Municipal Hail Insurance.

A profitable and successful year for the Saskatchewan Municipal Hail Insurance Association was reported at the Annual Meeting in Prince Albert on Mar. 2, 1927, in spite of the heavy hail losses experienced in 1926. The year's profit was shown to be $9,220.82. The auditors' report recommended that the reserve fund be built up as much as possible. It showed a net surplus for the year of $150,535.85, and a reserve fund on hand of $2,100,000. Total insurance carried in 1926 was on 5,811,584 acres at $5 per acre, or a total of $29,057,920. Net revenue from hail insurance taxes was $1,369,868. Forty-two hail storms occurred in 1926, and claims were made from 96 municipalities on 939,406 acres of crop. The ratio of loss was 4.33 per cent. Rates varying from 6 to 18 cents per acre, with an average rate of 14 cents were charged. A. E. Wilson was President of the Association and the Directors were E. G. Hingley, R. H. Blackmore, J. W. Cairns, G. H. Hummel, Joseph Hill, J. N. Near, and J. J. Lamb. Mr. Lamb, who had been Vice-President of the Association, was appointed SecretaryManager on June 29, 1926, succeeding E. G. Hingley, who became Manager of the Wheat Pool.

The Superintendent of Insurance reported that 1926 was a very bad year for hail insurance companies operating in the Province, the loss ratio being 77.12 per cent., compared with 31.3 per cent. in 1925. The different insurance companies had a total premium income of $3,455,180.28, and losses amounted to $2,668,982.

Vital Statistics.

Vital statistics for 1925 were published in March, 1927, and showed the death rate for Saskatchewan in 1925 to be 6.8 per thousand, the lowest in Canada, and also said to be the lowest in the world. Birth rate was 24.7 per thousand, the second highest in Canada, while in marriages, Saskatchewan stood sixth among the Provinces, with a rate of 5.9 per thousand. Births exceeded deaths by 14,954. Total living births numbered 20,582. Sixtyeight per cent. of the fathers of children born were farmers. The average number of children to each family reporting births was 4.1. The fathers from English-speaking countries of the children born in 1925 numbered 67.2 of the total, and 74.4 per cent. of the mothers came from English-speaking countries. Illegitimate births were at the rate of 16.7 per thousand births. Among the causes of death, still-births were responsible for 574; pneumonia, 502; cancer, 353; tuberculosis, 344. The total infant mortality, exclusive of still-births, under one year of age, was 1,662, a rate of 80.8 per thousand births. Twentyfive per cent. of the total infant mortality was due to premature births.

Agricultural Conditions and

Organizations

Saskatchewan experienced another good year of crop production in 1926, although both yield and value were somewhat below those of 1925. Wheat seeding began early, and was general by May 1st, while on May 18 it was reported in Crop Report No. 3 of the Department of Agriculture to be 90 per cent. completed. On June 29 conditions were reported to be promising in all parts of the Province. Hot, dry weather in July forced the crop along to early maturity. Harvesting began in most parts of the Province before Aug. 10, while rain and cooler weather in early August benefitted late sown crops, and resulted in a larger yield than at first anticipated. Both harvesting and threshing operations were delayed by a continuance of wet weather. On Oct. 19 Crop Report No. 14-A stated threshing to be about 70 per cent. complete over the whole Province. On Nov. 16 crop Report No. 16 estimated that less than five per cent. of all threshing still remained to be done.

Statistics furnished by the Department of Agriculture gave the following estimates of 1926 agricultural production :

Total acreage under cultivation, 26,264,640, including pasture, 382,403; new breaking, 485,505; and summer fallow, 5,678,206.

ESTIMATED VALUE OF OTHER FARM PRODUCTS, 1926

NUMBER AND VALUE OF LIVE STOCK IN SASKATCHEWAN, 1926

Saskatchewan progress in livestock was indicated by the winning of many prizes at the Winter Fair at Ottawa, in November, 1926, including 7 championships and 17 first prizes, which went to exhibitors from the Province. At the International Hay and Grain Show at Chicago, which opened Nov. 27, 1926, many prizes for wheat were captured by Saskatchewan growers.

The Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company. In accordance with the decision of the delegates at the special meeting of the Company in April, 1926, the elevator system of this Company was sold to the Saskatchewan Pool Elevators Limited, a subsidiary company of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, and turned over on Aug. 2, 1926. The purchase price had been fixed by arbitration at $11,059,310.47.

The last Annual Meeting of the Company was held in Regina on Mar. 2-3-4, 1917, with 450 delegates in attendance. The Report presented by the Directors showed that the last fiscal year of the Company, Aug. 1st, 1925, to July 31, 1926, was the most successful in the Company's history, the profit before payment of Income tax, amounting to $1,068,316.94. During its final year of service, the Company operated a total of 451 country elevators, through which 52,629,835 bushels of grain were handled, an average of 116,966 bushels. Through its terminal elevators a total of 63,639,198 bushels were handled. Owing to the late completion of the transfer elevator at Buffalo, only 3,483,985 bushels passed through that elevator. The export department handled 14,547,060 bushels, on which a loss of $832,930 was sustained. It was stated that the export business on the whole had been extremely unprofitable to the Company, losses totalling $1,238,147 having been experienced during five years.

The Meeting authorized the payment of a refund to Pool shippers of $231,000 profit earned on pool street grain in country elevators, and decided not to offset against this losses incurred on other classes of pool grain in country elevators, as they had a right to do under the contract with the Pool.

The Government Bill for the liquidation of the Company was before the Saskatchewan Legislature and was passed on Mar. 4, 1927, during the progress of the Meeting. Owing to the large number of shares which had been bought up by speculators as soon as liquidation of the Company had been decided upon and before shareholders were aware of the real value of their holdings, the Government were requested to set aside all transfers and assignments of shares from Mar. 31, 1926, to Mar. 31, 1927, giving the vendor an opportunity to repossess upon repayment of consideration with interest. This the Bill as passed did not do, although it invalidated transfers and assignments to persons other than agriculturists or in excess of twenty shares to one holder, thus continuing the provisions of the Company's charter. The Meeting also requested that all restrictions upon share-holding be removed from the time of appointment of a liquidator. This was not granted, and the Bill passed with the restrictions continued.

The Bill was passed before the Meeting considered the question of distribution of assets among different classes of shares. It provided for distribution on the basis of paid-up value of each share. The Meeting adopted a recommendation of the Board of Directors for a different basis, that of allocating profits, reserves and increment on the basis of the years in which they had been earned, and requested the Board and the liquidators to seek an amendment to the law at a later Session of the Legislature.

The

The shares of the Company had been issued each year with a par value of $50, of which only $7.50 was called. The balance of the uncalled capital was pledged to the Saskatchewan Government as security for various loans, which, with accrued interest, amounted at Aug. 31, 1926, to $2,336,743.36. practice had been each year, after payment of an eight per cent. dividend and payment of interest on elevator reserve, to credit one-half the profits to elevator reserve and apply the balance as a stock bonus in increasing the paid-up value of shares outstanding. Thus, as the uncalled capital secured to the Government decreased in amount, the elevator reserve, also secured to the Government, increased by a corresponding amount.

During the Meeting a letter was received from the Wheat Pool suggesting that by flotation of a bond issue, they might be able to pay by cash, in full, the amount still due at the end of the current crop year, if the shareholders would accept a discount of ten per cent. By a vote of 231 to 138, the Meeting voted in favour of allowing a discount of ten per cent., provided the money was paid by Aug. 1st, 1927, and that the discount should not apply to the payment of one million dollars then due nor the interest. The amount unpaid and not due at that time was $6,967,745.42.

The Meeting approved the selection of The Saskatchewan General Trust Corporation as liquidator and appointed, as inspectors to assist the liquidator, W. C. Mills, R. M. Johnson, William Robinson, and J. A. Maharg. Later, Hon. George Langley was appointed by the Provincial Government to be the fifth inspector.

The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. The Annual Meeting of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool was held in Regina, Oct. 27-28, 1926. The Board of Directors reported that the amount of wheat and coarse grains marketed in Saskatchewan during the season up to July 31, 1926, was as follows: Wheat, 229,357,616 bushels; coarse grains, 41,878,830 bushels. Of this amount there were delivered to the Pool 129,713,876 bushels of wheat or 56 per cent.; 6,659,646 bushels of oats, 2,569,071 bushels of barley; 1,353,617 bushels of flax; 783,820 bushels of rye; making a total of 11,349,174 bushels, or 28 per cent. of all coarse grains marketed in Saskatchewan. At that date the membership of the Wheat Pool had reached a total of 78,785, representing 10,492,443 wheat acres under contract, or 79 per cent. of the estimated acreage in Saskatchewan seeded to wheat. In the coarse grain pool 37,312 contracts were fyled, covering 1,783,302 acres of oats, 371,333 acres of barley; 362,199 acres of flax; and 109,500 acres of rye. Based on the Provincial Government's estimate of seeded acreage, the percentages of the various grains under contract were respectively: oats, 38.90 per cent., barley, 36.90 per cent., flax, 60.90 per cent., and rye, 37.90 per cent. The deduction of two cents per bushel, for acquiring elevator facilities as provided under the grower's contract amounted to $2,751,765.91.

The outstanding event of the year 1926 was the taking-over of the elevator system of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company on Aug. 2. Including the 451 elevators purchased from the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company, the number of Pool country elevators in 1926 amounted to 582. Two terminals owned at Port Arthur had a capacity of 7,575,000, while the C. N. R. terminal under lease had a capacity of 7,500,000. Adding the 2,000,000 capacity of the Buffalo elevator gave a total terminal elevator capacity of the Saskatchewan Pool of 17,075,000 bushels. The total cost of operations for both the wheat and coarse grains pools amounted to $691,696.94, or slightly less than one-half cent per bushel. This was reduced to a net cost of $553,644.99, or slightly over one-third of a cent per bushel. It was decided to reduce the commercial reserve deduction from one per cent. to one-half of one per cent. of the gross selling price. The total commercial reserve account amounted to $1,703,465.82.

Co-operating with the United Farmers of Canada, Saskatchewan section, the Pool had undertaken to accept orders from growers, on the proceeds of grain delivered, for the amount of the membership fee, and had guaranteed to the banks the payment of the proceeds of these assignments, when collected.

It was announced in September, 1926, that the Saskatchewan Pool Elevators would pay a patronage dividend on grain of the 1925 crop as follows: On wheat shipped through country elevators, two cents a bushel; on coarse grains shipped through country elevators, one cent; on platform wheat shipments, one and a half cents, and on platform coarse grains shipments, one-half cent. This was made possible by the return to the Saskatchewan Pool Elevators of $537,250 from the central selling agency as the Province's share of terminal elevator profits and by a net surplus of $171,706.22 on the country elevator end of the system. The total cost of operating both the wheat and coarse grains pools was $691,696.94, or less than one-half cent per bushel. After applying amount refunded from last year's pool, and the net Pool's share of terminal earnings, the net cost was $553,644.99, or slightly over one-third cent per bushel. The full deduction of two cents per bushel was made for elevator reserve, which amounted to $2,751,765.91. One-half of one per cent. of the gross selling price

was retained for commercial reserve, as compared with one per cent. last year. This amounted to $945,449.04, the total commercial reserve for the two years being $1,703,465.82.

Directors elected for 1926-27 were: President, A. J. McPhail, Regina; Vice-President, L. C. Brouillette, Landis; Managing Director, R. J. Moffat, Regina; E. B. Ramsay (Secretary Canadian Co-operative Wheat Producers, Winnipeg, Man.); A. F. Sproule, La Fleche; H. Smyth, Shaunavon; Thos. Baldwin, Cabri; C. W. Coates, Keeler; A. E. Wilson, Indian Head; R. S. Dundas, Pelly: D. G. Cragg, Punnichy; Brooks Catton, Hanley; P. H. Kennedy, Conquest; H. Marsh, Herschel; John Strain, Birch Hills; J. H. Wesson, Maidstone. Donald McRae, formerly Manager of the Pool, became Manager of the Saskatchewan Pool Elevators, Ltd., the subsidiary Company under which the pool elevators were operated, when the system of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company was taken over. E. G. Hingley, formerly Manager of the Saskatchewan Municipal Hail Association, was appointed Manager of the Pool.

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal on June 22, 1926, reversing a decision of Mr. Justice Embury, in the Court of King's Bench, gave judgment against Leon R. Zurowski, of Southey, in the sum of $397.50, at the rate of 25 cents a bushel on 1,590 bushels of grain which he had sold through another company, although under contract to sell through the Pool. The lower court held the contract invalid on the ground that the Pool had failed to notify Zurowski that his application for membership had been accepted. Four appeal judges held that the contract was good, was not in restraint of trade, and that the damages stipulated in the contract applied. Mr. Justice Martin, in a separate judgment held that the contract was partly in restraint of trade, and that the Pool was entitled to collect only actual damages, amounting to one per cent. on the value of the grain, and two cents a bushel, or a total of $58.19.

United Farmers of Canada, Saskatchewan Section, Ltd. The first Annual Meeting of this organization, which was formed by the amalgamation of the Saskatchewan Grain Growers' Association and the Farmers' Union of Canada, was held in Moose Jaw, Mar. 22-25, 1927. The Convention was held behind closed doors, only accredited delegates and members of the organization being admitted. Reports of the Convention were given out through the committee. Membership was stated to be approximately 25,000, and 1,500 delegates and visitors were in attendance. The Trading Department, formerly carried on by the Saskatchewan Grain Growers' Association, was shown to have made a net profit in 1926 of $8,598.97, part of which had been applied to reduce the impairment of the debenture capital to $100,000. The following resolution was passed with respect to the Trading Department: "That the Board of Directors take immediate steps to completely separate the trading department from the educational organization (The United Farmers of Canada), having due regard, in so doing, to the debenture-holders and creditors and to keep in mind the principle of co-operative purchasing by our members."

The immigration policy of the Dominion Government was condemned in a resolution which declared that the problem of unemployment in the country should be solved before efforts were made to bring in additional population. A resolution was passed condemning the Robb Budget as recently brought down because it had failed to reduce the tariff. It reduced the Income tax, and had not provided for any reduction in the cost of living. Resolutions on banking reform occupied considerable time, but no definite action was taken. It was resolved to establish a Bureau of Social and Economic Science and Publicity. A ritual for the use of local lodges was provided. By resolution, the Convention refused to join the Canadian Council of Agriculture.

A number of constitutional amendments were dealt with, including one to provide that at future conventions each Local should be entitled to send one delegate. This, it was expected, would give a representation of over one thousand. In order to provide for the representation of farm women, separate women's lodges were provided for with a minimum number of five members. No action was taken by the Convention with respect to politics. Officers elected were as follows: Honorary President, E. A. Partridge; President, J. A. Stoneman (for