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24 : MARINE REVIEW ‘IRON ORE ROADS PAY ONE-SIXTH STATE TAX. Duluth, Feb. 24.—It is an astonishing fact that the iron ore hauling roads of St. Louis county, Minn., pay into the state treas- ury nearly one-third of the entire tax paid by all railways of the state. In Minnesota the roads all pay a 3 per cent. gross earnings tax in lieu of all other taxes, and this amounted last year, for the three iron ore roads, to a little more than $425,000. The entire tax paid by all roads of the state amounted to only about $1,600,000. In addition to these taxes the mines of the county pay $600,000 in taxes every year, which is distributed as are other general taxes, to the county and municipalities. Min- nesota has a great railway mileage, and numerous large and important lines centering at Minneapolis and St. Paul, and at Du- luth, aside from the three ore roads, and the fact that the latter pay. a third of the state tax is really very remarkable. The total cost of operating the state is about $2,500,000 a year, of which the mining roads pay more than one-sixth. ~The Canadian Northern’s new elevators at Port Arthur are about completed and work has ceased till spring. On the work- ing house only the sheet iron and tin work remains uncompleted. All machinery is in place and is ready to turn over. The con- veyor tunnels between this and the tile storage house are partly done. The storage house is completed so far as erection is con- cerned, though the roofs will not be put on till spring. Engine and boiler houses are done, and boilers are installed, while en- gines are now going up. The addition of a 1,500,000-bu. elevator by the Northern Grain Co. of Winnipeg will make the Fort William facilities very large and will give the Canadian head of the lakes about half the capacity of Duluth-Superior. Tce is about 40 in. thick out of Thunder bay, and as far as the eye can reach from the outermost point on Isle Royale there is no water in sight. UNIFORM RULES FOR LAKE NAVIGATION. That Canada is willing to take a long step to secure uniform rules of navigation on the great lakes is evidenced by the follow- ing letter to the Review from Captain Thomas Donnelly of Kingston who was one of the Dominion representatives at the re- cent conference at Buffalo. He says: “At the conference at Buffalo there were present President Livingstone and Harvey D. Goulder of the Lake Carriers’ Asso- ciation and, on behalf of the Dominion Marine Association, Capt. S. Crangle, and A: A. Wright of Toronto, Thos. Donnelly of Kingston and the secretary of the marine association F. King. At our request Mr. J. Bertram, chairman of the Dominion Trans- portation Commission also attended the meeting. A very long discussion was entered into regarding the rules and every one was of the opinion that the rules for navigating the great lakes should be uniform on both sides of the line. To make a change in the White law, it was pointed out, would necessitate a special act and this might be difficult to obtain within a reasonable time. The Lake Carriers’ representative claimed: that the rules at pres- ent in force on the lakes viz: the White law are working very well. It was agreed to arrange with the marine department at Ottawa for the adoption of navigating rules as near like the present White law as possible and, after such consent had been obtained from the marine department, to submit the same to the executive committee of the Lake Carriers’ Association. We are all in hopes of reaching a happy solution in a very short time.” GRAIN AT DULUTH. Duluth, Feb. 24—Al! the macaroni wheat in store at Duluth has been bought by one large grain shipping house and the price has been advanced 15 cents a bushel in four or five days. It seems that the prejudice with which flour men viewed this grain last year is gradually disappearing under the pressure of short supplies, and it is much easier to dispose of macaroni now than then. Many millers, not alone in the northwest, are buying and grinding it and some of the local bakeries are importing maca- roni flour and blending it, making a bread that contains as high as 40 per cent. macaroni. A lot, of this bread was served at the Board of Trade restaurant at Duluth and grain men didn’t know it was anything out of the ordinary till they had expressed their satisfaction over its taste. Macaroni wheat is coming in very slowly now, and the country appears to have been pretty well cleaned out, but if it continues to grow in favor and sells at as high a relative price into the spring the acreage devoted to it. will be very greatly extended, especially in the arid portions of the northwest, thus bringing into use lands that have not been con- sidered safe for grain. -» Receipts: of all grains are small and stocks have increased slightly the past week. Flax is again going out in quantity and stocks of it are about stationary. Reports from the interior are to the effect that country deliveries are about over, and even the stimulus of dollar wheat is bringing out little above the ordinary run of car lots. s TO SERVE ON ERIE CANAL ENLARGEMENT. Governor Odell of New York sent to the senate last week the nomination of five men to constitute the canal advisory com- mission, whose duties will be to watch the work of canal im- provement and to make recommendations and reports. The men named are: State Engineer Bond, who will be chairman, resigning his present office; Alfred Brooks Fry, now in charge of United States buildings in New York; Dr. Elmer L. Corthell of the West Shore railroad; William A. Brackenridge of the Niagara Falls Power Co., and Major Thomas W. Symons of Washing. ton. Messrs. Fry and Brackenridge are Democrats. The governor fixes the salaries at $7,500 per year, except that of the chairman, who will receive $8,000. In his communica- tion the governor says the appointments were submitted for the - purpose of record. They do not have to be confirmed. INQUIRY INTO CAUSE OF WRECKS. The bills which have been introduced in the house and sen- _ ate for the establishment of a load line similar to the Plimsoll mark of the British marine has led to a congressional inquiry as to the number of vessels which are lost at sea from overloading or improper loading of cargo. It must be remembered that the Plimsoll mark is but a small part of the regulations which have given such remarkable safety to British vessels, and its importance has doubtless been exaggerated. The British rule for the ceiling cargoes of grain, for example, is an important one. If a cargo of that material was so left in hold of a ship that it could swing from side to side with the movement of the sea, the vessel might easily capsize. To prevent that grain cargoes — must be ceiled across the top so that they will stand steadily. It does not appear that American coastwise traffic is suffering very heavily from improper loading. For obvious reasons an oil tank steamer, if suitably constructed and in good repair, is not troubled this way, since its load can be so easily lessened in case of dan- ger. To an extent this is true also of a lumber-laden steamer where the deckload furnishes the real element of danger. 4 The principal cargoes of American sea-going sail vessels of over 100 tons burden, are lumber carried past Cape Hatteras,which is a real danger point, to Philadelphia, New York and Boston, and — coal between points north of Hatteras and the North Atlantic States. Sail vessels laden with lumber cargoes invariably carry a deckload, and this constitutes the element of danger where me any exists. Quite a part of the fleet engaged in coal carrying — consists of old square-rigged vessels, some of which have been completely dismantled and converted into barges; and, while others are rigged like schooners for emergencies, they are us- ually drawn in tow. By the cutting of wide coal hatches such vessels have fost part of their structural strength. Lumber-laden_ vessels do not founder, but when abandoned, in course of time break up. Derelicts are almost exclusively lumber laden. me In a review of this subject the commissioner of navigation “Of the seventy-four sail vessels and barges lost, the hulls of thirty were over twenty-six years old, or beyond the age entit- ling them to retain a class in the Record of American and Foreign Shipping, and subjecting them to the examination of that so- ciety’s officers. Insurance on the vessels is reported in only eight of these thirty losses. Only one of the thirty vessels chanced to fall — within the inspection laws of the United States. An act of con-— gress subjecting the hulls of all sea-going American sail vessels” and barges over twenty-five years of age, and over 100 gross — tons to government inspection is more desirable at the present time, in the interest of safety to life and property, than a general, load-line act. Of the thirteen lumber-laden sail vessels missing — or abandoned, one was lost on the Pacific, eleven were lost in the — North Atlantic or Gulf between Oct. 31 and April 16, and the re- maining one on April 27. All lumber-laden vessels carried deck cargoes. Of eight coal-laden sail vessels missing or foundered, four were schooner barges, each of over 700 gross tons, cut down from old square-rigged vessels. The law now requires the af-_ nual inspection of the hulls of square and fore-and-aft rigged sail vessels over 700 gross tons. The annual inspection of seagoing schooner barges over 700 tons is even more desirable.” “TURBINE EXPERIMENTS IN GERMANY. Considerable interest attaches to the results of the trials of © the German protected cruiser Hamburg as she is one of two ves sels building by the Vulcan company of Stettin, for the purpose” of testing the relative efficiency of reciprocating and turbine en- gines. The Hamburg has the ordinary piston and crank engines; — thé sister cruiser, to be fitted with the Parsons rotary engine, 18 far advanced. Both hulls are exactly alike; the length is 360 ft. 10 in., the beam 4o ft. 4 in., and at 16 ft. 5 in. draught the displace ment is 300 tons. Normand boilers are*used, and with twin screw reciprocating engines a speed of 23.3 knots has been realized with 11,000 I. H. P. This power is 1,000 in excess of that anticipated in design and the result was the addition of 1.3 miles per hour’ to the speed expected. The turbine boat has therefore a stiff task set. It will have exactly the same under water form andthe same boilers, and on trial will have the benefit of reduced displace- ment of any economy in weight resulting from the application Of : the turbine system of propulsion. Each ship is to be driven 10 : give its best result, and the weight of water and coal used to: ater tain a given’ speed over lengthy run will be the measure of the _ work done by each system of prime mover. Curiously enough these German ships are of the same size as the Amethyst and — Topaz, the British cruisers with which similar comparative trials” are to be made, the former having the turbine and the latter re- ciprocating machinery. The length and beam differ only by inches, but the British ship is of lighter draught, and the antic~ ipated speed with 9,800 I. H. P. is 2134 knots. The British ships” have twelve 4 in. guns, the German ships only ten; but the latter have more smaller guns. The great difference in the two pairs ships, however, concerns the number of turbines, shafts, and pre pellers, and this is one of the questions which is at present. gaging the attention of those responsible for the design 0