The Seward-Fairbanks route has been officially selected for the United States government railway in Alaska, setting in motion many plans for the further development of resources in that territory. The property of the Alaska Northern Railway Company from Seward over the first stage of the journey has been purchased for one million one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The government system will include a thirty-eight mile branch to tap the Matanuska coal fields. The estimated cost of the system is given at twenty-six million eight hundred thousand dollars, and Congress provided not to exceed thirty-five million dollars.

Secretary Lane said construction work would be begun at once, and that probably forty miles of the extension of the Alaska Northern from Ship Creek would be completed this year. Construction will be carried on under contract, individual contractors building separate units of roadway. In one of the orders signed by the President, the Alaskan commission was instructed to guard conditions about the men at work and to adopt a system of compensation similar to that in force on the Panama canal.

The interior department statement said in part: "The route adopted is known as the Susitna route, and extends from Seward, on Resurrection bay, to Fairbanks, on the Tanana river, a distance of four hundred and seventy-one miles. It is to be a standard gage road. The Alaska Northern has been purchased for a price less than its physical valuation, as estimated by the Alaskan engineering commission and by the engineers of the interstate commerce commission. Under the contract approved by the President, the road is taken over free from all debt or obligation of any kind."

The nation-wide study of the lumber industry, which is being made jointly by the department of agriculture and the department of commerce, and the other industrial and technical investigations and experiments which have been carried on by the forest service in the last two years, were under discussion at a conference of forest service officials at Madison, Wis., last week. The forest service laboratory, the Washington office of industrial investigations, and each of the seven national forest districts were represented at the conference by specialists. Among the subjects for discussion were: Cooperation of the forest service with industries, lumber distribution in the United States, utilization of low grade lumber and mill waste, adaptation of manufacturing and grading to specific classes of consumers, unification and standardization of lumber grades, study and development of general markets for national forest timber, mill scale studies, including technical methods, tallying, etc., lumber depreciation, and the collection and compilation of lumber price data. The information already collected by the forest service under some of these headings includes the most exhaustive data on the mechanical properties of wood ever collected by any agency in the world, and already has resulted in practical reforms and big savings to several of the important wood using industries.

Water from the Apennines was distributed last week for the first time to the provinces of Bari, Foggia, and Lecce, Italy, through the Apulia aqueduct, which was begun in 1905 and is said to be the largest in the world. More than two million persons now are assured of a supply fresh from mountain streams, brought through 1,875 miles of pipe. The territory served has suffered for centuries from lack of an adequate supply. For the construction of the aqueduct, the cost of which is estimated at thirty million dollars and upon which four thousand workmen have been engaged fifteen years, the course of the Sele river has been diverted. A collecting basin has been built at its source, 1,370 feet above the level of the sea, whence the waters are conveyed by tunnel for seven and a half miles, penetrating a watershed, and then through the aqueduct, which is 155 miles long. While the most important parts of the aqueduct have been completed, it will take a year longer to finish all the minor details.

Reporting on the trade of the consular district of Bangkok, the British vice-consul mentions that during the year a law was introduced relating to the care of forest woods and of all forest products other than teak. A measure for the conservation of teak forests in the north, the report states, was introduced some years ago and has been carefully carried out, but it is now generally admitted that the matter was not taken in hand in time. The new law, however, has been introduced, while the forest products of Siam, with the exception of teak, are practically untapped; and while giving power to the minister responsible to issue permits for the felling, burning, or destruction of timber and for the obtaining of forest products, it expressly stipulates that such permits shall not exceed one tenth of the forest land in the country.

Sets of sixty-four samples of commercially important woods of the United States, together with maps showing regions in which each species grows, and short statements as to their uses and physical characteristics, have been prepared by the forest service of the United States department of agriculture for loaning to schools, libraries, and other educational institutions. Charts and tables showing forest products by states, the rise and fall of the lumber industry, and the percentage of lumber supplied by the different regions of North America, accompany the exhibit of woods. The entire exhibit covers a wall space about four feet high by thirteen feet long. It is loaned for short periods, under the agreement that the borrower shall pay thetransportation charges.

Public subscriptions for the purchase and preservation of the Bennett-Boardman house in Saugus, Mass., crected about 1650, and one of the least altered and best examples of the type with overhanging second story, are being urged by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. The old house is now held by a trustee subject to an option to the society, and unless money enough is raised to purchase the old dwelling before June 1, it must takes its chances in an unrestricted sale. A minimum of four thousand dollars is needed to buy the house and land and make necessary repairs.

The year 1915 is to be important for Portland, Oregon, in point of public improvements. A report which has been prepared by the municipal department for public works, at the request of the mayor, indicates that there are proposed for this year improvements to cost $6,095,900. The report shows that the department of public works expects to supervise the construction of 33.83 miles of pavement during the year. It is estimated that 18.10 miles of streets will be graded and provided with cement sidewalks. The total cost of public structures to be started during the year is put at $2,329,900.

The interstate commerce commission has announced the discontinuance of its investigation into the rates and practices of the telephone and telegraph companies. The investigation, carried on intermittently for several years, was begun on the commission's initiative. Many specific complaints laid before the commission have been settled, and the understanding between the American Telephone & Telegraph Company and the department of justice last year is said to have made further investigation unnecessary.

The Panama-Pacific exposition has issued a statement of its operations from Feb. 20, the opening day, to March 21, which shows a net income for that period of $85,410,64. The statement shows a total income of $823,882,07 and total expenditures of $738,417.43, which includes a twenty thousand dollar reserve for contractual obligations. Total admissions for the period were 2,024,704.

At the recent annual meeting of the board of directors of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company of Texas, the expenditure of one million five hundred thousand dollars for the purchase of forty-two locomotives and reballasting was authorized. It is stated that thirty-five freight-engines and seven passengerengines will be purchased at a total cost of nine hundred thousand dollars.

The ship-owners of all the great passenger lines on all the Great Lakes have informed the department of commerce that they propose to form a wireless company and establish stations at Chicago, Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Duluth, and other points. This decision has been reached because of the excessive rental charges by the Marconi Company.

The earnings of the Panama canal in March were the largest of any month since it was opened. They exceeded by about one hundred and forty thousand dollars the previous record made in January. March earnings were $560,-784. The receipts in January were $419,037.

The area in New Zealand now planted in apple orchards has a value of two million five hundred thousand pounds, producing apples to a value of fifty thousand pounds yearly.

A bill authorizing the founding of normal schools in Cuba has passed the lower house of Congress. A foreign educator may organize the schools.