Chambers of Commerce are to be organized in Cartagena, Cali, Cucuta, and Bucamaranga, in Colombia, South America, at the request of business men in each of those cities. The governor of each of the respective departments will call a meeting of not less than thirty of the principal business men of the community, representing various branches of commerce, importing, exporting, transportation, stocks and bonds, insurance, commission, manufacturing, and so on, and these men will elect 30 per cent of their number as members of the new Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber of Commerce of Bogota is authorized to act as the official organ of all the commercial interests in Colombia, and as such to present to the national Government practical methods for increasing the prosperity of the country, to advocate improvements or reforms in commercial legislation, to make recommendations regarding taxes and tariff rates, and to promote the organization of any service which would be of value to commerce and industry in general. The Government is to make use of the chamber at Bogota as a consulting and administrative body, in the securing of estimates for public works and in supervising construction. The chamber will also provide a commercial court for the settlement of disputes arising between merchants where the parties concerned voluntarily submit their differences to this court rather than to the tribunals of law.

Improvements for the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, as agreed upon by the rivers and harbors committee of the National House of Representatives, including completion of projects already under way and maintenance of those completed, aggregate a total cost of $10,000,000. This sum has been included in the $45,000,000 river and harbor bill about to be reported to the House. The bill proposes $6,720,000 for the Mississippi and $600,000 for the Southwest Pass at New Orleans in addition to the $100,000 regularly appropriated in the sundry civil bill for the South Pass. For the Missouri River $1,500,000 has been agreed upon for continuing improvements from Kansas City to the Mississippi, $50,000 from Kansas City to Sioux City, $125,000 from Sioux City to Fort Benton, and $75,000 for St. Joseph. The last item is dependent on a similar amount to be subscribed locally. For the Ohio River $5,000,000 is included for locks and dams, and upwards of $500,000 is proposed for open channel work. For the Hudson River generally an item of $640,000 has been included.

In South Australia, as in other parts of the commonwealth, the development of the interior has always demanded special attention by the Government on account of the problem presented by great distances. The area of this state is 380,070 square miles, and although over four and a half million acres have been brought under cultivation, the greater portion of this land is along the fringe of coast-line. In some instances, notably on Eyre's peninsula and south of the River Murray, vast tracts have been settled by means of the railway, and land that once was considered almost useless is now, by means of artificial fertilizers and improved farming methods, producing abundant crops of grain.

At a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, results were reported of some excavations conducted by the society at Traprain Law, Haddington. The area laid bare last year amounted to about an eighth of an acre. In this, with an average depth of from three to four feet, were found four distinct levels of occupation. The increasing Roman influence in the various levels was particularly marked. Thus Roman pottery was found to a small extent on the lowest level and to a greater extent on the higher, and the same evidence was forthcoming with regard to the coins, of which eighteen were discovered.

A bill presented by Senator Tillman for a Government armor plate factory has been approved by the Senate naval committee. An appropriation of $11,000,000 is carried by the bill for the purchase or construction of such factory, with an annual output of not less than twenty thousand tons. That is little more than would be required for two first-class battleships, and would leave a large part of the armor needed in the navy's increased building program to come from private plants. The proposal has the backing of Secretary Daniels, and Senator Tillman will press his bill for early passage.

Within a few weeks a comprehensive plan of planting the Lincoln Highway from coast to coast, fitting the individual vegetation of each state into a general harmony, will be worked out by an expert for the General Federation of Women's Clubs. The thought of planting the national road developed with the conservation department of the federation several years ago. The need of a general scheme of planting and marking of entrances to towns, approaches to historic spots, railroad crossings, and the like, soon became apparent, and committees were appointed to cooperate with committees of the American Institute of Architects.

The new bridge that is being built across the river Neva in front of the Winter Palace, Petrograd, Russia, is nearly completed; much of the delay is due to the fact that some material had to be reordered in Sweden after the outbreak of war, as the orders in Germany had not been delivered. The bridge is a five-span structure, with a length of 246.94 meters between the shore abutments. The width of the thoroughfare is 22 meters, while the footpaths are 2.91 meters wide. The bridge has already been opened for pedestrian traffic.

Proposals have been made that Massachusetts acquire Mt. Holyoke and Mt. Grace, and property for thirteen miles along the Mohawktrail over the Berkshire hills for state reservations. Besides the advantages of these places as attractive resorts for the people, there was said to be an opportunity for the state to make a business investment that would return good dividends from the sale of lumber. Particularly was this true in the case of Mt. Grace, which now has about five million feet of marketable timber.

A general plan for the consolidation of the Boston & Maine Railroad Company with its leased lines has been adopted by the directors of the Boston & Maine, the Boston & Lowell, and the Fitchburg railroads. It has been approved also by many of the large stockholders of the three companies. These three companies have taken the lead in a reorganization movement which is intended to include all the twenty-six railroads that constitute the Boston & Maine system.

A return by the New Zealand minister of finance shows that 13,967 taxpayers pay an income tax,—10,101 persons pay on incomes under £700, 137 on incomes over £10,000. The total net incomes assessed for 1914-15 were as follows: Salaried persons, £2,039,004; traders, manufacturers, and so forth, £4,119,167; companies, £5,486,301; professional persons, £1,320,742; others, £885,047; total £13,850,261.

Mount Mitchell Forest Reserve, in the very heart of the southern Appalachian Mountains, will soon be opened as a national park. Arrangements for the opening of the reserve have been completed by the forest service of the Government in cooperation with the Southern Railway. It is the purpose of the Government to place within the reach of all either locations for cottages or sites for camps.

A bill to establish a national park service was recently introduced in Congress by Representative William Kent of California. Each of the fourteen national parks is now under separate management. It is required in the bill that these parks, aggregating about four million six hundred thousand acres, be administered by the Government in Washington.

Half a dozen additional state game preserves may be established by the Pennsylvania state game commission within the next few months, as under the act of 1915 such preserves may be created on leased land. The state now has fourteen game preserves, of which eight were established last year.

An increase of 46 per cent in membership during the last year was announced at the annual meeting of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America. The increase to 182,622 boys and scout masters made the year the most prosperous in the six years' history of the movement.

At its annual meeting in Boston, the American Society of Landscape Architects discussed in detail the bill now before Congress authorizing the establishment in the department of the interior of a new national parks service under the charge of a director appointed by the secretary of the interior.

Work on the Jackman and Moosehead Lake Highway, in Maine, which will open up to the outside world an elaborate network of macadamized roads built in the wilderness by the Great Northern Paper Company and the Hollingsworth & Whitney Company, will begin at once.

The printing of Japanese school-books in Roman letters was recently begun in Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands. A prominent Japanese resident of the city has made the remarkable statement that "inside of fifty years Japan will be using the Roman characters exclusively."