For instance, an "Intercolonial" Railway -
constructed so as to serve many local, but no grand through, purposes;
constructed to satisfy local interests, or, probably, local political
needs - has been built.
The Grand Trunk extension from Detroit to
Chicago, an excellent Railway, has been completed, thanks to the
indomitable efforts of Mr. Hickson, the Managing Director of the Grand
Trunk. A line from St. Paul to Winnipeg has also been opened; but the
route of the line from Winnipeg to the Pacific has been deviated from,
and, to save distance, the Kicking Horse and Beaver River Passes have
been chosen. I think needless cost has been incurred, and that future
maintenance will be greater than it need have been.
The British Columbian Railway has been constructed from Fort Moody to
Kamloops, and is now part of the Canadian Pacific.
It seemed to me, at that time, that the route of the Ottawa Valley,
Lake Nipissing, and round by the head of Lake Superior, was a great
project of the future; and that to accomplish so great a work, in such
a country, the policy was to utilize existing outlays of capital,
filling in vacant spaces rather than duplicating what we had got.
It seemed to me, also, that the use of existing railways in the United
States was not only economical, but politic: and I knew that, at that
time, the Government of the North would have made every reasonable
advance to meet England in affairs of mutual interest.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 424 of 492
Words from 117502 to 117758
of 136421
