NOTES AND MEMORANDA.

This article focuses on various economic activities in different countries. The German Empire has at last grappled with the difficulties which have arisen from the sugar tax and bounty, and has put the bounty system in the way of ultimate extinction. It will be remembered that the peculiarities of the situation arose because the excise on beet sugar was in the form of a tax on the raw beets while the drawback on the export of sugar made from the beets was excessive, being virtually a bounty on exportation. The drawback, as fixed in 1869, was calculated on the assumption that it required twelve pounds of beets to make one pound of sugar. What, so far as the American continent is concerned, is a novel experiment, has been this year tried in Toronto, Ontario. The city authorities assumed for a time the management of the street railway. The steps which led to the experiment and the details of the case are interesting from an economic point of view, as indicating a secondary stage in the development of this peculiar industry. In 1861 the legislature of Ontario passed an act incorporating the Toronto Street Railway Company, which at once began operations.