Manitoba, in common with other Provinces of Canada, has contingent liabilities represented by guarantees which it has affixed to certain issues of Railroad Drainage and Municipal Bonds stated by the Treasurer to amount to $31,794,542. With respect to such guarantees the Treasurer advises us that the Province has never been called upon to make any payment with respect to the railroad bonds, the obligation of which he states is fully secured by first mortgage, and that as to the drainage and municipal bonds so guaranteed, levies are made yearly not only to provide for interest, but also for sinking funds.
The official reports show that the receipts from the various Provincial Departments, such as Public Works, Telegraph and Telephones, Provincial Lands, etc., together with the Dominion of Canada subsidies, have been more than sufficient to cover all expenses chargeable to Income and the interest requirements of the Provincial Debt without recourse to direct taxation.
That the Province of Manitoba, altho the most easterly and oldest settled of the "prairie provinces" of the Dominion of Canada, is only on the threshold of the general develop ment still awaiting it, is shown by the fact that the land within the Province now under cultivation is equivalent to only approximately six per cent of the total land area of the Province. Manitoba's annual production of oats, wheat and barley is already close to 180,000,000 bushels, in addi tion to which indication of strength in cereal products, di versified and mixed farming have already resulted in an im portant and steadily increasing production of flax, potatoes, dairy products and live stock. Moreover, there is a large and increasing manufacturing business, which in Winnipeg, the chief provincial center of that business, already has an estimated annual value of $40,000,000.
In August, 1916 (the 28th) , the list of quotations, as issued by Mr. W. Sturgis Macomber of New York City, was as follows: 3. Canadian cities in various sec tions of the Dominion differ in character and credit much as American cities do. There is a marked ab sence of graft. It is possibly partly for this reason that in the western portion of the Dominion there is a much greater confidence in public initiative, and a greater willingness to extend it into the field of public utilities than exists in the United States. This attitude is logical, however. It is an inheritance from England, for one thing; and it is natural as the effort of a frontier people to supply themselves with the conveniences of city life before private capital could be attracted, and at a lower capital charge than pri vate capital would exact. Most of these utilities are
reasonably profitable. The street railways, however, would probably be found to be breaking barely even, if a strict accounting of maintenance charges were taken. The scrutiny of Canadian municipal balance sheets turns chiefly on the manner in which the deben tures issued to finance municipal business enterprises are treated. The per capita debts of Canadian cities are large, and the debt limits, where any have been established, are very liberal.
The 1916 financial statement of Montreal, which will serve as a type of the eastern city, was as follows : The financial statement of Edmonton, Alberta, which may be used as a type of West Canadian as of December 31, 1915, was as follows: The difference between this statement and that of Montreal reveals why Edmonton has to pay one per cent more for money than does Montreal.
Mr. W. Sturgis Macomber's quotations on Cana dian municipal bonds, on August 28, 1916, were as follows: 4. Europe and Latin America—international in the space of two years the European war converted the United States into an international market for investments, at least so far as national government bonds are concerned. In order that the wide range of new offerings now spread before the investor may be appreciated, and the extension of the range of American investment study and interest may be indicated, a fairly complete list of the foreign government loans floated in this country from July 4, 1914 to August 15, 1916, is here given.' 5. Argentine government.—On May 15, 1915, The Argentine government offered to American in vestors thru American banking and investment houses its five-year 6 per cent bonds to the extent of $25,000,000. On the same date £5,000,000 of the same loan was offered in Great Britain. These bonds are the direct general obligation of the Argentine govern ment. The funds are used in refunding certain short term notes and in continuing the construction of sani tary works for Buenos Aires. These works are part of a national system of sanitary improvement. In 1913 the external and internal funded debt of Argen tina amounted to $525,493,137, or less than $69 per capita, and the interest and the sinking fund required 23 per cent of the revenues of the government. In normal times bonds similar to those of this issue sell on approximately a 5 per cent basis.