"It Is Obvious That, Unless Materials Are Supplied And Plans Arranged
Before The End Of September, The Overland Operations Must Wait A Year's
Time.
Therefore, apparently under a misapprehension of your wishes or
policy, as our interview of yesterday showed, I looked out for the best
practical man I could find fit to undertake the construction of a
telegraph and system of posts, enabling postal and telegraphic service
to be worked together.
I found that man in Mr. O. S. Wood, an American
settled in Canada, the engineer and manager of the 4,000 miles of
telegraph owned by the Montreal Telegraph Company, which pays 23 per
cent, upon its capital of 100,000l.; and believing him to be
exactly the man for the occasion, I agreed with him, subject to your
sanction, to superintend and be responsible for the erection and
operation of a telegraph and system of posts between Fort Garry and
Jasper House. I do not trouble you with the document, as it is to be
cancelled, so far as your Company is concerned; but I may shortly state
that it proposed the completion of the works by October, 1864, and in
addition to a liberal, but not excessive, payment for Mr. O. S. Wood's
work, responsibility, and experience, it awarded a percentage upon all
savings on the total sum of L30,000l., the outside estimate
taken for the whole job, and a small premium for all time saved in the
completion of the work. These payments were to be so made that the
integrity, completeness, and success of the work would be their main
condition.
"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. dividend.
"To this end, I advised you to confirm the order of 175 tons of
charcoal wire and of the insulators, post pins, batteries, and
instruments needed for the length between Fort Garry and Jasper House
(the wire from England, and the other material from Canada and the
United States), at a total cost, already given you in complete detail,
estimated, when delivered at Fort Garry, as not to exceed
10,000l.. This statement of cost, and a reference to my past
statements, will answer the question in Mr. Fraser's letter of the
13th, as to whether I had calculated the heavy expense of carriage -
20l. per ton to Fort Garry. The question shows that it had not
been calculated in Fenchurch Street that the poles and timber would be
got in the country, and that the whole weight of material to be sent to
Fort Garry was about 200 tons at the most.
"I may pause, however, in answer to another similar question, about the
relative prices of American and English wire, &c., to say, that the
best market for wire is England; and the best market for the less
important articles is the United States, while the proper prices
chargeable for the best article by the best houses are known to all
practical men. I may add, as I am asked what is the weight per mile of
telegraphic wire, that 'best charcoal No. 9 electric wire' is 320 lbs.
to the mile of 1,760 yards.
"On leaving this subject, I may add, that if on further consideration
you determine to store the material above named (cost and carriage
10,000l.) at Fort Garry, there is yet time to get it out to St.
Paul, and some, if not all, may go through to Fort Gany. There is a
post three days per week to Fort Garry, and posts go through all parts
of your own territory regularly, the 'Winter Express' leaving Fort
Garry on Christmas Day. Though, in my humble opinion, not the best
thing, still the transmission and storage of that material would be
looked upon as an evidence of your intentions, and would help to keep
you right in Canada and in your own territory, as also in British
Columbia, and would expedite a final and favourable decision as to the
proposed subsidy. So strong is my opinion, that I am ready to join any
four or five gentlemen of your Committee feeling an interest in the
work, in providing and paying for the material itself, if you will send
it through at once.
"It will, I assume, be apparent to you how necessary it is to keep the
section of telegraph in your own special district in your own hands.
Your organization, also, will enable you to convey and erect material
very cheaply. As to all details, I refer to the papers already sent
over containing full particulars, and showing quantities, kind, cost,
means of conveyance, and, more important than all, character of country
and proposed route; the latter from the personal experience and
knowledge of the country of Governor Dallas and Mr. Hopkins, whose
reliability and capacity as advisers no one will question.
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