Upon the subsidies to be
obtained from Canada, and from British Columbia and Vancouver Island.
"I have the assurance of the present leader of the Canadian Government,
that the offer to give a subsidy, made last year, will be officially
renewed, and I shall endeavour to get this promise put into writing,
and send it to you home.
"British Columbia, I assume, would do what the Colonial Office
requested, but, in any case, we ought not to commit ourselves to a
through communication through Canada and British Columbia without a
clear understanding as to the subsidies. At the same time, if you, the
Hudson's Bay Company, have command of one thousand miles of telegraph,
enabling you to transmit information through your own channels with a
new expedition, you will practically have command of the future
discussion of this large question.
"I have obtained estimates, and made calculations of the cost of these
telegraphic operations, and I have selected a very eligible gentleman,
Mr. Wood, the Manager of the Montreal Telegraph Company, who, I am
quite sure, will carry out the operation, with the assistance of the
employes of the Hudson's Bay Company, and under the orders of Governor
Dallas, with perfect success.
I should recommend that immediate steps be taken; and there is no
reason, in my opinion, why all the materials should not be on the
ground by the end of the coming winter, since much of it can be taken
by canoe, and the remainder may be taken across the snow in the winter;
and why may not the whole telegraph from Jasper House to Fort Carry be
completed by September in next year?
