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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul cllchA. 11 est fllmA A partir de I'angle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ^'■1 h\ t THE El CASPE DISTRICT ITS CASE STATED BT 1X8 TWO MRMBRBB ITS GRIBVAIfOlfl, OPPRKSSOBS, NATURAL RICHES AND BKAOTIBS tiOBllECi PtiQted by Billbau &, C<> 1890 ^*, \ THE GASPE DISTRICT ITS CASE STATED BY ITS TWO MKMBKBS ITS GRIEVANCES, OPPRESSORS, NATURAL RICHES AND BEAUTIES ^V <|VEBEC t Printed by Belliau & Co 1890 /no PRELIMINARY REMARKS. Among all our public men, there is none whose career prcj^cnts 8U('h an example ol' energetic, arduous and constant work, as Mr. Mercier's, since 1883. In these eight years, lie has overturned the Mousseau and Ross Administrations, formed the National party, brought that party into power, and effected the complete political and admmistrative renovation of the province. What an amount of desperate struggle, activity and exertion the accomjjlishment of this task cost him, only those are aware who were Mr. Mcrcier's intimate a'^sociates in the work, who saw him coni^tantly enga<;ed in it, toiling day and night, direct- ing the controversy in the newspapers, the fight in the House and the battle on the li'iMtingH, travelling over the province, disregarding his own comfort and invarial)ly taking charge of the most dangerous posts. During the famous caT)ipaign of 1886, the Gasp' district was the only one that he did not thus visit. But a concurrence of, so to say, providentinl circumstances led to his spending his first holidays there tiftcr his advent to office as Premier of the Government. The herculean work which he had been performing for some years had begun to aiTect hi-^ rol)ust constitution to such an extent that his friends, in serious alarm about the state of his healthy] oined in pressing upon him the necessity of taking a few weeks' rest. He finally yielded to their representations and it was agreed that he should spend some weeks at Carleton, in the Bay des Chaleurs. On his arrival at Carleton, Mr. Mercier received a genuine ovation. The mayor, Mr. Nicolas Arseneau, presented him with an address and bade him welcome, in the name of the Inhabitants. In replying to this address, the Premier declared that he would hold himself at the disoof^al of all who had business with him, and he further invited the inhabitants to call and lay before him the wants of the locality and even of the county. This cordial and kindly invitation was a genuine surprise to the good people of Bonaventure county, who, until then, had been treated as pariahs by the petty tyrants who had lorded it over them with all the insolent snobbery of the parvenu. ^ A handful of theae parvenus were complete masters of the situation — 4 — and did pretty much as they pleased, blowing hot and cold according to tneir caprices, controlling cverytiiing, monopoliz- ing everything, and, if any one ari8h priests and the principal inhabitants, also organized the colonization society of the county of Bonaventure. Nor was agriculture forgotten. The Government has given grants to aid the establishment of two or three cheese factories, and the one opened at New Richmond and now in operation, has already yielded splendid results. It will succeed still better when the farmers get to more fully understand and Miii — fi- appreciate the advantages of this manufacture and, in a few years, the county of Bonaventure, one of the finest grazing regions imaginable, will take a foremost rank in the dairy industry. Under thf old regime, Mr. Mcrcicr had asked the Govern- ment to aid the esialdishnicnt of a starch factory at Maria. He has not lost sight of this excellent imtject, as evidenced by the fact that he had S^,0()0 voted for the purpose this year. This assures the success of the undertaking. ;nid hereafter the Bona- venture farmers will hnve on the s])()t a market for the sale of the potatoes which they raise with so n)uch skill and in such abundance. The estaldishment of this industry re|)re- sents the expenditure in the county, every fall, of $25,000 to $30,000 of reaurcb.aFe of ])otatoes. In 1887, during the very first sessirr after his advent to poAver, Mr. Mercier hasto assure the completion of the l^ay des Chaleurs Kailway, by doubling the subsidy for the section of the road from Cross Point to Paspebiac. The enterprise was in the hands of political adversaries and, under the old regime, this would have been a reason to boycot it and to refuse it the slightest measure of aid. But Mr. Mercier's nature and policy do not stoop to such meanness and, as soon as he became convinced that the completion of the road would be advanta- geous to the people and conduce to the material advancement of the county, he made it a duty to grant the $280,000.00 asked for in addition to the subsidy of $36(),(K)0.00 already accorded, but on the condition that the works should be pusfied vigour- ously and every one paid regularly. He was odiously deceived. Instead of applying this money to the purposes for which it had been given by the Government, this company or its representatives pocketed it, with the result that the contractors and sub-contractors were left unable to pay their workmen, materials and board accounts. Needless to say that this entailed distress, hardship and even disturbance in the county • +he workmen, who had not been paid for months, went on strike and took forcible possession of the rolling stock used for the traffic of the road. Tliis was in the fall of the year and the fast-approaching winter held out the most alarming outlook to the poor work- men. To earn a little money on the railway, some of the local farmers had neglected their crops and other works, and accord- ingly found themselves Avithout means to lay in their provi- sions for the winter. Mr. Mercier at once appointed a commis- sion to enquire into their situation, and, on the preliminary report of the commissioner, lost no time in distributing among the claimants the balance of the subsidy for the first sixty miles remaining in the hands of the Government. Those, who had worked on K aection, between the two Cascapediti rivers had not been any better paid than the others and they also asked for the Government's intervention. It was very difficult for the Government to help them under the circumstances, as, the road not being finished, the law was against the payment of the subsidy for the ten miles in question. Nevertheless, Mr. Mercier found means to overcome the difficulty, by asking au- thoritv from the House to pay an amount on account of this subsidy, and, in April, $20,000 were paid to the workmen. A considerable amount still remains to be paid on the claims Avhich were not seUled, either because they were not fyled before the commissioner or becauj^e they were not adndt- ted by the debtors. Mr. Mercier bus just taken the requisite steps to assure the payment of all these claims and before the end of January, the whole of them will be paid off and the enterprise of the Bay des Chaleurs Railway will be in the hands of men able to push it through vigorc'Usly and even to build the road to the port of GaspC'. We cannot here avoid making a contrast bctvveen the former and the present representatives of the (iasp6 district. Clause 19, of the contract between the Bay dcs Chaleurs Rail- way company and its contractor, contains the following stipu- lation : " Should the contractor at any time fail, refuse or neglect to pay any sum due for work done, supplies furnished or for any other matter connected with this contract, the company may pay any of such claims, so far as they can be ascertained, and charge them as a payment on account of this contract. " The company could therefore pay, if it liked, the moment it knew that its contractors were not paying, and it could easily have done so, for, as shown by Mr. Carrier, it drew from the two Governments nearly all of the subsidies, which amounted to a total of 6845,129.00. And it is impossible for it to plead ignorance of the fact that its contractors were not paying, since its managing director, Mr. Riopel, was constantly on the spot and thoroughly posted in all that was passing. But that would have disturbed the little arrangements of those gentlemen and, as they had never regarded the people of Bonaventure other- wise than as serfs to be worked and fleeced without pity, they did not hesitate for an instant to sacrifice them for the benefit of certain contractors, Avho, like the abyss, swallowed up every- thing and gave back nothing. Mr. Mercier carried out this stipulation of the contract ; he did what the company had neglected or refused to do in favor of the poor people of the county and paid the mpney to the work- men and the furnishers of materials, instead of paying it to the contractors who would have kept it. He thus saved for these — 8 — unfortunate people some fifty thousand dollars, which they would otherwise have hopelessly lost, without his intervention. Mr. Carrier, member for Gasp6, also deserves the gratitude of the population of the Gaspe district for the part he has taken in the matter. The speech, reported and printed further in this pamphlet, contributed in a marked degree to the adoption of the measures destined to transfer the enterprise of the Bay des Chaleurs Railway to the hands of men al^le to pay for the works and to complete them promptly. Naturally anxious for the interests of his county, he wants the railway to be pushed through to Gasp6 Basin. This is why he asked for the produc- tion of the necessary information to post himself on the affairs of the company and its contractors and proposed the taking away of its charter, in the event of its not being in a position to carry out its undertaking. The two following speeches will show that the counties of Gasp6 and Bonaventure are now represented by men who have at heart the interests of their constituents and who miss no occasion of advocating and defending them. THE BAIE-DES-CHALEURS RAILWAY. On the 20th November, 1890, Mr. Carrier, member for Gasp^, moved, in the Quebec House of Assembly : That an Address be presented to His Honor the Lieutenant (iovernor, praying His Honor to cause to be laid before the House copies of all orders in Council, correspondence and other documents relating to tli» Baie-des-Chaleurs Railway Company, to the claims fyled against the said company and to the payik ents made by the (govern- ment, together with a complete stnttmex.tofall said claims and, payments, &c. In support, he said ; Mr. Speaker, My object in asking for these papers is, in the first place, to enlighten myself, and, secondly, to enlighten the House and the public in regard to the actual position of the Baie-des- Chaleurs Railway, an undertaking of the utmost importance to the constituency which T have the honor to represent. On reference to the statute books, I see that the first company to build this road was chartered in 1872 and that a large subsidy was granted to it, which it forfeited by reason of its failure to raise the necessary means to carry out the work. In 1882, the same parties had the Dre^^ent company incorporated, l)ut it did not begin work until 188G. On the 9th June, 188fi, it entered into a contract with Mr. Charles Newhouse Armstrong, railway contractor, of M(tntreal and Sorel, to construct 100 miles of the road between Matapcdia and Pf'.Bj'ebiac. On the 8th June, 1888, Mr. Arnistrong transferred his contract to Mr. Henry MacFarlane, of Toronto, . for the 60 miles terminat- ing at ihe Grand Cascapedinc river. Mr. MacFarlane went to Avork and pushed the undertaking with great vigor for upwards of a year, but, unfortunately, not having been paid himself for the work he had done, he was unable to pay his men, who finally went on strike, simultaneously with Mr. Armstrong's men on section K, to the east of the Cascapediac river. To put an end to the disturbances and obviate the grave con- sequences threatening to arise therefrom, the Government in- structed the present JFIonorable Provincial Secretary to m;ike an enquiry, which he began on the 23rd October, 1889. A large number of claims were fyled with him by workmen, boarding- 10 house keepers and furnishers of iniiterials ; Imt many others, through carelessness or owing to other reasons, neglected to present their accounts. Shortly after the Conunissioner's return, the Government sent Mr. J. C. Langelicr to pay off the claims fyled at the enquiry against Messrs MacFurlane & Son., sub-contractors for the first sixty miles. In the iiionth of April, IMr. Limgelier was again sent down to pay off the claims against section K. On the? e two trips, Mr. Langelier collected a host of claims tluit had not been]. resented to the Commissioner charged Avitli the cncpiiry, and I am in- £()rmed that :dnce then the Government has settled a good part of these claims. The chief ol)ject of the papers T am now a.skingfor is to show jkN'hat has been paid and what still remains to be paid. As regards the still unsettled claims, I trust that the Govern- ment will make it a duty to ])ay them off without further delay. The neglect of the comjjany and its contractors in this re.si>ect has spread ruin throughout the region concerned and T have it on good authority, that, if the claims still due are not shortly paid, a niultitu(1e of people inhabiting the districts traversed ])y this railway will be forced to emigrate to the United States. This is a misfortune which, I am sure, the Gdvernment will feel bound to do all in its power to prevent. I will, doubtless, be told that it is the company which should see to all this, and pay for the works done for its benefit. This Avould be very true, if the company had the means to carry out its undertaking ; l)ut it seems manifest enough that it does not possess the necessary resources for the purpose. Here is what T find on the subject in the report of the Com- missioner, the present Honorable Provincial Secretary: " From all this, it is clear that all the trouble, which occurred respecting this undertaking, is the outcome of the company's want of capital. They had relied entirely on the money to be obtained from the Government and the municipal corporations to carry out their enterprise. And if the debates which took place in the House of Commons in 1885 are to be relied on, not only did the company not put a cent of its money into the undertaking, but it even obliged its contractor, Mr. Armstrong, to pay quite a heavy percentage on the subsidies granted by the Governmenta to pay for the building of its railway. It is evident that the company has not a cent at its disposal besides Government subsidies, to pay the additional costs arising from the changes made in the plans and specifications, and it seems evident to me that the enterprise can hardly be continued if it does not pass into other hands, that is, into the hands of persons possessing the means necessary to do the work and finish the thers, ed to it sent — 11 — road. This is also Mr. Leduc's opinion expressed with suffi- cient clearness in this part of his evidence : Q. " According to your knowledge of the present state of the enterprise do you believe that it can be continued and finished by those who have it in hand at present and why ?" A. " Probably they may succeed in building the road ; but it will take much time an(l by other means than they can dis- pose of at the present time." The foregoing will be found in the sessional papers of lyst session, No. 22fi, pages IB and 14. Now, if the company has not a cent of means, apnrt from the Government subsidies, it is perfectly clear that it is unable to pay off the claims against the first (U) nnles, inasmuch as all the subsidies relating to that part of the road have Iteen afready paid, with the exception of a trifle retnined by the Federal Government for reasons to it best known. For the lOd ndles of the railway from Matapedia to Paspebiac, the company has drawn from the Governments of Ottawa and Quebec the following subsidies : From the Federal Government $620,000 From the Quebec G overnment (530,000 $1,250,000 Or an average of S12,500 per mile. By means of the transfers conceded by the two GovernmeJits, the money subsidies for the different sections of these 100 miles M^ere apportioned as follows : For the 20 miles starting from jMetopedia, the Federal subsidy amounted on the average to $15,000 per mile, Avhile that of Quebec was equivalent to $3,500, making in all $18,500 per mile and $370,000 for the 20 miles. For the next 50 miles, the Federal subsidy amounted to $6,400 per mile and the local subsidy to $7,000, making $13,400 per mile or $670,000 in all. For the remainin?> 30 miles, the only subsidy was that from the Quebec Government, amounting to $7,000 per mile and forming in all $210,000 for these 30 miles. On account of the subsidies for the first 60 miles, the com- pany received $524,175 from the Federal and $320,954 from the Quebec Government, making in all $845,129, or an average of $16,085 per mile; but, in spite of this, it has failed to meet its engagements and is actually sued by the sub-contractor, Mac- Farlane, for $416,000, in addition to 'what it will cost to com- plete these 60 mi^es. Owing to this litigation between the company and its con- tractors, the works have been suspended and cannot be resumed — 12 — as long as this law-3uit remains unsettled, unless the Govern- ment steps in to remedy the unfortunate state of thin^;? which has lasted for over a year. The best way to do so and to start the enterprise going once more, would undoubtedly be to wipe out the present company and transfer the execution of the undertaking to another com- pany offering the desired guarantees, and, unless this dejisive measure be taken for the i^uppression of this company of strav, Heaven only knows when the road will l)e finished. Tn all railway charters, there is a clause which provides that the works must bo begun and completed within a certain time, and, in the absence of this clause in a special act, panvgraph 3 of article 517G of the Revised Statutes, which declares that the com- pany ceases to exist if it has not expended 10 per cent of its capital Avitbin three years from the date of the granting of its charter, applies. As these enactments, which are a guarantee for the public, might, liDwevcr, have somewhat hampered the opera- tions of these gontiemen, they took care to provide an escape from them by sections 21 and 25 of their act of incorporation — 45 Victoria, chapter 53 — so that, if it pleases them to do so, they need not prosecute their works for fiftv vears. Thev are re- stneted to no limit of time ; their privileges are eternal, and, on the same principle the carrying out ofthe undertaking threatens to l)e('ome eternal aUo. It suffices to j>oint out such a state of things to show the necessity for wiping out this company which has not yet i)ut a single cent of its own money into the enter{)rise. Tt is said that several parties, representing wealthy capitalists, have offered to take (»vertbe Baie-des-Chaleurs Railway, to build it in short order to (Taspf' and to pay off at once all the outstand- ing claims, on the condition that the present company dis- appears and that the Legislature votes a reasonable measure of aid. If there is any truth in these reports, I trust that the Government will make it a point to give effect to such proposals for upon their action in the matter hangs the fate of the Gasp^ district. In granting these additional subsidies, provision might be made for the construction of a bridge over the Grand Cascape- diac river, between Maria and New Richmond, that might be used both by railway trains and by horse vehicles. The subsidies, which, T hope, will be granted, should also be large enough to assure the building of the road to Gasp^ Basin, which is one of the finest sea-ports imaginable and a winter port into the bargain. By means of this railway and the port at Gaspe, the merchants of Quebec might easily capture the New- foundland trade, and, from this standpoint alone, it may be claimed that the Baie-des-Chaleurs railway is an enterprise of 13 — general interest to the province of Quebec and the whole western section of Canada. For all these reasons, 1 ank the Government to take immediate steps to piy off the claims ntill outrl 3 of for the pur- pose, in the hope that, with the help of the (iovernment, who have already given [roof of their s{)irit of justice and their devotion to popular interests, T shall succeed in the end. lUit, for this, the (tusp^- d'.>y a railway, which cannot he built as long as the present company, in its powerlessncss or bad faith, does not stop down and out to make room for another whose interests will not clash with those of the people. In the (lasp^ district, Mr. Speaker, there is a fertile soil for agriculture, not to speak of mmeral resource-i, which arc daily astonishing its ex})lorers. But what is the use of all these riches, if the population are powerless to develop them? T therefore, Sir, make an earnest appeal to the Government and I rely on its being heard. These injustices must be put an end to. I know that there is enough of ])atrioti8m in this House to put aside all party spirit where a national cause is at stake, and, as the cause I am pleading here to-day is not only one of equity, hut of public interest ! I trust that my honorable colleagues will lend me their aid in securing its triumph. (Applause.) paralyzes pu]>pre8- cpense of a whole (lod has the par- ent, who nd their id. Hut, )roduct8, h cannot ^sncas or 00 m for 3 [)e()ple. rtoil for ,re daily )e richea, tierefore, rely on d to. I 3 to put , and, as ■ equity, 'lleagues ise.) The Premier's Speech, Plonorable Mr. Mercieu, whose remarks created a profound iinpression, followed the nioniher for dlasp^-, saying: There cannot he the slightest objection on the part of the Government to lay before the Houbc the paper? anked for. We shall liring them down in as complete a condition as possible, and 1 may state that it will not take nmch time to do so either, as the question has long occupied my attention, which has' necessitatod special researches on my [)artto thoroughly master the situation of the intelligent poi)ulation of the Gasp^ district. The statement of facts just made by the gentleman who has E receded me is unfortunately only too true. The little time I ave had to study the <|ue>