VALUE OF EXPORTS OF CANADIAN ASBESTOS, BY COUNTRIES, 1906-1910

Totals....

$1,578, 137 $1,206,776,$1,730,752 $6,758,057 $2,108,632

Manufactures of asbestos imported into Canada are subject to a duty of twenty-five per cent. The following is the value of the imports from the United States, of asbestos in any form other than crude, and all manufactures thereof: 1905, $109,916; 1906, $122,691; 1907, (9 months) $113,158; 1908, $166,380; 1909, $161,964; 1910, $230,489.

RESOURCES OF CANADA.-The production of asbestos is derived altogether from the province of Quebec. It is mined at Black Lake, Thetford, East Broughton, and Danville. A small quantity of asbestos has been mined in Templeton and Denholm townships, Ottawa county, where it occurs in the Laurentian formation in close association with the crystalline limestone of the Grenville series. The fibre, as a rule, is short and, owing to the ore being found in "pockets" of small extent, it is not now being worked. A deposit of asbestos of not very great importance has also been found in the Chibougamau region in northern Quebec.

Coal Mine Accidents

The following table gives the statistics from which the diagram (Plate XX) has been plotted.

TABLE I

TABLE SHOWING FATALITY RATE PER 1,000 EMPLOYED IN THE PRINCIPAL COAL PRODUCING COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD

This diagram (Plate XX) shows that the death rates per 1,000 men employed in the coal mines of Canada and the United States are greater than in any other country in the world for which accurate statistics are available.

The diagram also shows that fatalities in the United States and Canada are on the increase, while Great Britain, Belgium, Prussia and France show a gradual decrease. We must interpret this in this way: (1) The danger inherent in the work can never be eliminated but could be brought down to a minimum, as indicated by the low, constant death rate in Belgium, Great Britain, and France (excepting the year 1906); (2) Coal mine explosions occur very frequently in Canada and the United States, while they are more infrequent in other countries. The causes for this loss of life are complex and neither the operators nor the miners willingly submit to them. It is not reasonable to expect that the loss of life and property can be entirely done away with; but at the same time, experience has abundantly proven that careful and impartial investigations of such conditions will point the way to the remedying of at least some of the abuses. In view of the importance of the subject to the country and the public at large, such studies should be undertaken.

a British Columbia and Nova Scotia.