"I Also Made A Very Important Conditional Agreement With This Montreal
Telegraph Company, Under Which They Were To Extend A
New and
independent, or precautionary, line of telegraph from Halifax (Nova
Scotia) to Mirimichi and on to Father Point, connecting
With the other
existing telegraphs up to Arnprior (Ottawa), and another telegraph from
Arnprior to the Sault St. Marie, where you have a trading port. On the
other hand, subject to the aid of Canada and British Columbia, your
Company were to extend, or obtain the extension of, a telegraph from
the Sault by Lake Superior to Fort Garry, and another by Jasper House
to Fort Langley. All these telegraphs were to be completed by October,
1865. The Montreal Company were also to obtain the extension of the
Minnesota telegraph to your boundary near Pembina, you extending your
telegraph to that point. Thus, assuming the Fort Carry and Jasper House
telegraph to be completed by October, 1864, and knowing that this, and
the telegraph from Fort Langley to Jasper House, could be finished as
easily, a complete and independent Atlantic and Pacific telegraph,
stretching for more than 1,000 miles through your territory, might have
been secured, - always assuming that this season of 1863 were saved,
which was the great practical object before me. I obtained, as a
condition, that in dividing the rates paid for messages, your
telegraphs should have a bonus of 33 per cent. so long as your capital
did not pay a clear 10 per cent.
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