choice is made, the parcel post rate is found to be simply prohibitory of business by so largely increasing the cost of the goods. Will not the Postmaster-General investigate this matter and give us graduated rates, commencing with 6 cents per lb. instead of the present uniform rate of 6 cents per 4 oz.? An even lower rate might be in time be possible. Will he not also arrange to deliver the parcels at the addressees' houses in all cities where there is a postal delivery, and, eventually, in all the large towns? An enormous expansion of this branch of the postal service. would follow-an expansion that would greatly aid the postal note and money order departments, for, the business being cash, every order given for execution by parcel post means an accompanying remittance, which would suggest a further use in this direction of the post office facilities.

It is very difficult to understand our Canadian parcel post when it is recalled that the 3 lb. parcel which sent from, for instance, Toronto to Belleville, would cost 72 cents in postage, would be taken by the same postal authorities from Toronto to England for 40 cents. An even heavier parcel will be carried to England than from points in Canada to points in Canada. And now the Postmaster-General of Great Britain proposes that it should cost only 48 cents for colonial parcels up to 7 lbs. in weight, and for that rate that they should be taken to the Cape and Australia as well as to the United Kingdom.

NEWSPAPER POSTAGE.

The vast number of newspapers carried free by mail has always been a weak spot in the financial results of the Canadian post office. The new rate of cent per lb., about to be imposed, will only realize about $82,500, and is too small to be of much service. The chief question which has to be considered is—who is to pay the newspaper postage? the proprietor or the public? The new rate being small, the proprietor will be unable to add it to the price of the paper, and postage must to that extent be an added expense to his establishment. Increase the rate to 2 cents per lb-a very favourable rate-and, whilst it will give a substantial addition to the post office revenue, it will at once bring in the public as a possible factor to be dealt with. That the public is willing to pay its share of the cost of delivery of the newspaper, and that the newspaper should not be free, is the opinion

of business men generally. That this share should be the whole postage would not be fair, as, since the newspapers have been delivered free, the cost of paper has been enormously diminished by the use of spruce pulp, and the mechanical processes for printing and issuing the newspaper cheaply and quickly have been greatly improved. With paper at 2 cents per lb., copies of the great Montreal and Toronto morning and evening dailies do not cost for paper alone more than one-third of a cent each. It will be of course alleged that other expenses necessary in conducting a newspaper, notably in the telegraphic news and the reporters' department, have increased, but against this, the circulation has greatly increased, and so have the returns from advertisements in the case of most papers in the, great cities. Again, the paper which will have to bear the postage is issued direct from the publishing office, as a rule at full price, and does not pass through the hands of news agents and news boys at a one-third reduction. Receiving the full price, the publisher can better afford to pay the increased postage. There is thus much to be said on the side of the public, as well as the publishers, as to the share each should bear of the cost of carriage by post, but there is absolutely no valid argument why the Dominion Government should carry annually over 8,000 tons of newspapers to distant points without charge, and thus incur a great deficit in a department of the Government which should be self-supporting. The Postmaster-General will be sustained by the business community and the good sense of the people at large, if he increases the postage rate on newspapers to a point that will afford a profit, or will, at any rate, equal the cost of handling them.

Another anomaly! Why should a newspaper posted by a publishing house be free when the same newspaper posted by one of the public at large would require a stamp? Is not the mission performed by the newspaper in each case the same? Why should a barrier-as some would regard postage-be placed on this use of the post by the public? And yet the public has hitherto willingly paid this charge as being, on general principles, fair. The suggestion that can be here made is that, as few daily or weekly newspapers weigh less than an ounce, the limit of weight under which the cent postage is charged should be

increased from one to three ounces. The great Montreal and Toronto dailies average in weight about 2 ounces, and facilities should be given to the public for sending them at the cent rate.

SAVINGS BANKS.

One object of the Savings Bank is understood to be to encourage thrift among the working classes, and its depositors also include large numbers of young people. Under the present rules, no deposit under one dollar is permitted, nor are any fractions of one dollar accepted. Now, one dollar is a considerable sum to most wage earners, and it takes time for their accumulated savings, as well as those of the children, to reach that amount. Who, besides, does not realize the temptations which are in the way of both to spend before the savings reach the prescribed minimum? My suggestion is that the question should be carefully considered whether the minimum should not be made twenty-five cents, and whether any number of twenty-five cents should not be accepted up to a given amount. It will probably to some extent increase the clerical work in the department at Ottawa, but it will swell the Savings Bank returns, and encourage thrift, and it has for precedent the British post office, which accepts deposits of one shilling or any number of shillings. Twentyfive cents being one quarter of a dollar, adding up columns and all calculations become simple and are done with great rapidity.

Another suggestion is that some special advantages and facilities in connection with deposits should be afforded to those savings institutions and working men's associations throughout the country which receive the small savings of the working classes and of the young people. No limit in amount should be placed on their deposits, and they and all small depositors should be allowed to buy 3 per cent. Dominion stock at par direct from the Government.

The sale of annuities and Government life insurance form other sources of revenue open to the Savings Bank Department. The large commissions paid by the ordinary life companies to their agents, and the fact of the Government having already its equipment in buildings and staff, and being free from taxes and expensive management, would of themselves enable the Government to realize considerable profit, whilst the fact of the security

being Government would form a great attraction to the public and would do away with the necessity of accumulating great reserves for the protection of the insured. The matter is well worth considering.

INSURANCE OF REGISTERED LETTERS.

For several years I have, but thus far unsuccessfully, tried to induce the Government to undertake the insurance of registered letters up to a maximum amount of $250 on each letter or package. The Post Office statistics have shown that, in the extensive business of the registration department, the revenue is large and the actual loss small, and that insurance would largely increase the number of registered letters. All this has hitherto had no effect in the face of an apparently general policy that the Government should not incur the risk of loss among letters. However, the present Postmaster-General has been giving the matter more attention than his predecessor would, and it is to be hoped that some scheme may be evolved which will satisfy the desire of the public for safety in the transmission of money and valuable property. Presently, the Government exacts annually about $175,000 in registration fees, but in return assumes no liability whatever, although it does agree to obtain a receipt for each letter if it arrives at its destination safely, and is assumed to make an investigation if it does not.

I can only repeat what I have frequently said, that a system of insurance of registered letters would not only be a great convenience and ensure to the public a means of safe transmission, but be a source of considerable profit to the Government without much attendant risk. It is encouraging to find that the British Government has very recently once more increased its minimum limit, up to which it will insure this time to £125 stg.

A. T. DRUMMOND.

BINOCULAR VISION.

OLYPHEMUS was blinded by the burning stake of Ulysses

POLYPHEMUS

and his friends, because the Cyclops had but one eye. If he had had two eyes there is no doubt but that Ulysses would have formed a savory dish for the breakfast of Polyphemus, and the beautiful story of Homer would have closed at this point.

It was unfortunate, then, for the Cyclops that he had but one eye, and it might be concluded that the purpose of two eyes, or at least one of the purposes, is that if a person happens to lose one eye, he is not thereby blinded. Such a conclusion is, however, of doubtful legitimacy. Polyphemus was a creature of the imagination, and no one-eyed beings are now or ever have been known except some low forms of molluscs or crustaceans, and the real function of their single eye is somewhat of a doubtful quantity. Many animals amongst the lower classes, such as spiders, &c., have a multiplicity of eyes, but amongst the higher classes, and especially the vertebrate animals, every individual is supplied with two eyes, complete or rudimentary, and with two only.

Why the eyes exist in single pairs only is probably not explainable, as it appears to be impossible to get at the ultimate reason of things. But it is for the same cause that the higher animals have two ears and two nostrils, and consist in fact each, as far as external form is concerned, of a right and a left symmetrical semi-animal united along a median plane. The very existence of the right and left symmetry is the reason for the doubling of the external sense organs, and its cause must be sought for in some occult influence in the primary processes of evolution.

But if we cannot give a reasonable explanation as to why an animal has two eyes, we can at least understand some of the purposes which the presence of two eyes serves in the mechanism of vision, and especially in human vision, for, after all, the human animal is the only one upon which anything like satisfactory experiments can be carried out in the elucidation of this subject.

In man the fields of vision of the two eyes are nearly altogether in common. That is, the same scene with pretty much