These Gentlemen
Have Looked At Difficulties Merely In Respect To The Most Summary Way
Of Surmounting Them; And, Certainly, The
Great and bold works around
the head of Lake Superior, the many river and ravine crossings of
unusual span and
Height, and, especially, the works of the 600 miles of
mountain country between Calgary and the last summit of British
Columbia, so successfully traversed, would make the reputation of a
dozen Great George Streets.
CHAPTER IV.
Canadian Pacific Railways.
The pioneer suggestion of a railway across British territory to the
Pacific has been claimed by many. To my mind, all valuable credit
attaches to those who have completed the work. The christening of "La
Chine" - the town seven miles from Montreal, where the canals which go
round the rapids end, and the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa rivers join
their differently coloured streams - contained the prophecy of a future
great high road to the then mysterious East, to China, to Japan, to
Australia; and it is to the Sieur de la Salle, who, 200 years ago,
bought lands above the rapids from the Sulpician Fathers of Montreal,
and began his many attempts to reach the lands of the "setting sun,"
that we owe the name; while the resolution of Sir Charles Tupper,
carried in the Dominion Parliament, finally embodied in an Act which
received the Royal assent on the 17th February, 1881, and was opposed
throughout by the "Grit" party, was really the practical start. It
would be inadequate to write of the Great Canadian Pacific Railway
without some reference to the history of railways in Canada itself.
In the interesting book, "Rambles on Railways," published in 1868, it
is remarked that great as has been the progress of Canada, in no
respect has the growth of the country shown itself in a more marked
manner than in the development of its railway system. It was in 1848,
or almost immediately after the completion of the magnificent canal
system of Canada proper, and by which vessels of 800 tons could pass
from the ocean to Lake Ontario, and vice versa (ships now pass
from Chicago to Liverpool of over 1,500 tons burthen), that the
Canadians discovered it was necessary, notwithstanding their unrivalled
inland navigation, to combine with it an equally good railway
communication; and accordingly, in 1849, an Act was passed by the
Canadian Government pledging a six per cent. guarantee on one-half the
cost of all railways made under its provisions. In 1852, however, the
Government, fearing the effect of an indiscriminate guarantee, repealed
the law of 1849, and passed an Act guaranteeing one-half of the cost of
one main Trunk line of railway throughout the Province, and it was
under this Act that the Grand Trunk Railway was projected.
These terms were subsequently modified, by granting a fixed sum of
3,000l. per mile of railway forming part of the main Trunk line.
It is true that prior to these dates railways existed in Canada. There
was, for example, the horse railway from La Prairie, nine miles above
Montreal, to St. John's on the Richelieu River, opened in July, 1836,
and first worked with locomotives in 1837; there was also a horse
railway between Queenstown and Chippewa, passing Niagara, opened in
1839, and over which I travelled in 1851; but with these exceptions,
and the Lachine Railway, a line running from Montreal for seven miles
to the westward, the railway system of Canada cannot be said to have
commenced until after the passing of the Railway Act in 1849, and even
then, it was not for about a year that any progress was made. Soon
after that date, however, the works of several lines were pushed
forward, and in 1854 the section between Montreal and Quebec was
opened, the first train having carried Lord Elgin, who was then en
route to England to confer with the home authorities respecting the
future Reciprocity Treaty with the United States Government. So, whilst
in 1852, Canada could only boast of about 30 miles of railway, she has
now over 10,000 miles. The population of the Dominion is estimated
roughly at 5,000,000, so that this mileage gives something over two
miles of railway for every thousand inhabitants, a greater railway
mileage system per head of population than, perhaps, is possessed by
any other country in the world.
The old Grand Trunk proprietors feel that their early pioneer services
to Canada, and their heavy sacrifices, have rather been ignored in
competition, than recognized, by the Canadian Pacific not being an
extension of the Grand Trunk system. Had I remained in office as
President of the Grand Trunk, undoubtedly I should have laboured hard
to bring about such a consummation, which undoubtedly would have
economised capital and hastened the completion of the great Inter-
oceanic work. But the London agents of Canada, who were, and are,
responsible for launching the Grand Trunk and for its many issues of
capital to British shareholders, have undoubtedly aided the competition
and rivalry complained of; for in July, 1885, they floated - when other
great financial houses were unable - 3,000,000l. sterling, not
for the Pacific line itself, but to complete other extensions of the
Pacific Company's system of a directly competitive character with the
Grand Trunk, and which could never have been finished but for this
British money, so raised. While I do not enter into the controversy, it
still seems to me that blame lies nearer home than in Canada, if blame
be deserved at all. Great financiers seem sometimes ready to devour
their own industrial children.
The Canadian Pacific Railway from Quebec to Port Moody is a mixture of
the new and the old. The first section, from Quebec to Montreal, is an
old friend, the North Shore Railway, once possessed by the Grand Trunk
Company, and sold back to the Canadian Government for purposes of
extending the Pacific route to tide-water at Quebec, and making one,
throughout, management.
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