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Government, fearing the effect of an indiscriminate guarantee, repealed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.
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