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E. m .---o - x-^ h !> Sanab S^nlml Mailiua^. -»•-•- Canada has never been deficient in her appreciation of the importance of Railways, however powerless at times slie may have been to promote tliem. As early as 1837 — but a few years after the invention of the system — the Legislature of Upper Canada tendered a loan to the Great Western Railway of £3 for every £1 of private stock subscribed, and this to the extent of £200,000. In 1849, the Legislature of United Canada tendered a loan of one-half the cost of anv railway seventy-five miles in length — of which law the Toronto Northern is the only railway that obtained the benefit. In 1851, finding that even this liberal legislation was insuflicient, and feeling the intolerable position of the country as compared with the Uniieu States, without at least one main line of railway, provision v/as made for the construction of the Grand Trunk as a public work. In 1852 this was changed, at the instance of a private corpora- tion promoted by the Government of Canada, for a subsidy which yielded that Company between nineteen and twenty thousand dollars per mile. The aaine allowance in cash now would complete every projected line of railway in Ontario. Under the law of 1849, the Toronto Northern received a value of about $27,000 per mile — certainly the full cash value of the road. This road was originally pro- jected Northward to Lake Simcoe, but as it was soon dis- covered that under the law of 1849 it was easier to build one hundred miles than fifty, the line was deflected West- ward to Collingwood. The Bytown and Prescott Railway, under construction at the same time, was only fifty miles in length, and therefore did not get a penny of Government aid. J lad its projectors deflected it up the Ottawa to 9 Arnprior, it would have formed a parallel to the Northern in direction — and have been paid for out of the public chest. Starting from Toronto, three great lines traverse the Western Peninsula — North, West, and South-West as follows: — Northern, to Collingwood. ...... 96 miles. Grand Trunk, to Sarnia 168 " Great Western, to Detroit 224 " A total of 487 miles. The construction of the whole of these was secured by the public chest. The legislation of 1851 contemplated combined action by the Government and Municipalities as one of the schemes for securing the Grand Trunk Railway, but the arrange- ment of 1852 relieved the Municipalities, and left them free to embark in branch railways of local importance. To aid them in doing so. Government became their endorser, or rather " exchanged notes " with them, under the provisions of the " Municipal Loan Fund Act" and, as in similar cases of close relationship. Government has been called on to pay. In this way ittnay truly be asserted that the railways built out of that fund were as eifectually Public Works as the Grand Trunk, Northern, and Great Western. The Gov- ernment have only succeeded in getting anything on account of this Loan Fund from the Municipalities, by first voting them a bonus indiscriminately, and then retaining the shares of the defaulting Municipalities. So long as the Grand Trunk and the Northern are not called on to pay — so long as old and wealthy sections of the country are supplied with railway facilities at the public expense — it is impossible to expect Municipalities which liave got hold of public monies for a similar purpose to look upon themselves in the light of debtors. Moreover, in the matter of the Loan Fund the Government stood in the position of guardians, and mnst share the responsibility where excessive credit has been given. Under this Loan i^ 8 i} Fund those sectioiia of Ontario not supplied with niihvay fucilitics by the Grand Trunk, N^orthern, and Great West- ern, obtained their railways. The City of (>ttawa obtained £50,000— loaned and lost it in the Preacott Railway. Tin County of Renfrew, an Ottawa County united with Lanark for municipal purposes, was concerned in a loan of $8()o,000 by which the Brockv ille and Ottawa Railway was carried as far as Almonte in Lanark, but the funds ftiiled before Renfrew was reached, and the subsequent extension ivas made, years after, out of the private purse of tho English bondholders into whose hands the road has fallen. Renfrew —the only Ottawa (younty interested in this road— became liable tor the loan, but did n ot get a mile of railway in return. The amount borrowed from the Upper Canada Muni- cipal Loan Fund, for railway purposes only, was IJ5,594,000, of which the City of Ottawa took $200,000. No other Ottawa Municipality except Renfrew, as stated above, participated. While Ottawa got $200,000, Port Hope received $740,000, Cobourg $500,000, Brantford $500,000, Brcw-kville $400,000, London 3375,0rK), Niagara $280,000. Whatever the borrowers hoped to have been able to do, time has proved the inability of many of them to pay, and the only solution appears to be some attempt to put all the Municipalities on a par in the matter of railway aid, and treat such aid as a })ublic contribution. About twenty millions of dollars have been supplied by Government to railways in Ontario since 1853, of which the sum of $200,000, exactly one per cent., found its way to the Ottawa. This one per cent, of Ontario railway subsidy is all which has given railway facilities in any Ottawa County —and for this loan the City of Ottawa pays the full interest. As the i'Gi>eal of the law of 1849, in 1851, deprived the anly Ottavva railway of any public aid, so the subsequent repeal of the Loan Fund Act pr. en ted the extension of its benefits to other Ottawa Counties which luid been slow Ut take advantage of it. The public chest having been exhausted by the Grand Trunk and the Municipal Loan Fund, our railway progress was arrested while yet a large, an old, and iiiijK)rtAnt section of United Canada — viz. the North Shore of tha St. Lawrence below Montreal, and t»ie Ottawa Valley — was unprovided with any railway system whatever. In January 1854, the writer of this drew atten- tion to the Illinois Central land grant, and advocated in a public lecture at Montreal the opening of the Ottawa Valley by rail, in the following words : — " The Ottawa possesses within herself all the means necessary for her own development, if we are only jiist enough and generous enough to give her her own. The public lands are a financial basis broad enough to work out the development of the Ottawa, and it is not asking too much that a portion of them should be set apart for such a thoroughly domestic purpose, Avhen to those which have, all has been given. Public guarantee tor railways, plank and macadamized roads, bridges, and canals — all have gone to the St. Lawrence. A grant of public lands would secure a highway through the Ottawa, and would be a necessary inducement to the construction of a railway. The local trade would be confined to the bringing out of sawn lumber until tliiP country was settled, wliich it would in a measure become by the process of construction ; but the means being secured of opening the road through to Ports on Lake Huron, or in connection with the railways around Lake Simcoe, it would have a through traffic which would sustain it until it became productive." In 1856, the Legislature of Canada chartered a railway from Lake Huron to Quebec, and the preamble to that Act stated that " It is of the utmost importance to the general " interests of this Province that a main line of railway com- "munication should be opened from Lake Huron to the " Ottawa and thence to Quebec in the most direct line, and " whereas the opening of such a line from Arnprior or some " place between Arnprior and Pembroke on the River Ot- " tawa, to such point on Lake Huron as may be found best " adapted for the purpose, would secure for the said main "line so Urge a proportion of the travel and traffic of the "great West, as to enBure the succeas of tlie remainder of "line from the River Ottawa to Quebec, wliilo it would " also open for settlement a most valuable tract of country "now niiinjproved and waste,— it is therefore expedient " to grant special encouragement and aid to the construc- "tion of such railway." Four millions of acres of land were granted to this road —a proportionate quantity being delivered on the comple- tion of each section of 25 miles oi' more. The charter expired in 1863, but in 1861 it was amended by the incor- poration of the Canada Central, the preamble of which Act states that the construction of the Lake Huron and Quebec Railway was attended with difficulty, " in consequence of the want of a concentrated interest therein," five separate Companies having participated in the land grant. The Preamble also states, that " the vast country extending - through the interior of this Province is wholly without Railway accommodation." This Act reduced the length of Sections to be completed before any land was obtainable to twenty miles. In September 1865 an Act was passed extending the time for the commencement of the Canada Central to three years, and for completion to i\ u years, from the passing of that Act. The work was commenced within the time prescribed, and the Section in progress will be completed on or before the date specified. The period of two years. assigned in the Act between the date of com- mencement and compi .ion for such a road in such a country is manifestly too short. It would be insufficient even with the amplest means, and a further extension of time is, therefore, needed, — which can only be granted by the Par- liament of the Dominion. The Ottawa Valley had a fair claim to this or greater aid, not only because it needs the railway and the railway needs the aid, but because while its people have borne their share of all tlie railways and other public works for the rest of Canada, they have supplied tlie whole of the means to defray every expenditure of the Provincial Government v/ithin the Ottawa Valley and a considerable surplus to the public chest beside. Since the Union in 1841 the total expandifure on the Ottawa, including Parliament Buildings and Kideau Hall, Ottawa Kiver Works, Chats Canal and St. Ani'.c Lock, is about one million dollars less than the receipts within the same period from Ottawa timber dues and slidage. The revenue of the Crown Timber Office at Ottawa, for both Provinces, in 1869, from timber and slidage, exceeded half a fnillion of dollars. The nett revenne from the slides, &c., since 1845, is nearly $600,000. The Lake Huron and Quebec was the first and only land grant railway of Canada; and no doubt it is just because this first attempt proved so fruitless that it has been the only one. The fact that the land grant has not in fourteen years secured the construction of the road is the best evidence that it was not too liberal. There are, how- ever, good and sufficient reasons why it has ueen found heretofore impossible to build this road. While the Grand Trunk was a borrower it was hopeless to seek capital for this enterprise where only it could be obtained, and the ill success of that and other Canadian railways increased the difficulty. The lands were held by the Government at an upset price of a few f>hillings per acre, or v ..-re l)eing giv^en away as "free grants " and, therefore, were no temptation to capitalists. Now, the progresr of events has so much improved the situa ion as to render it practicable to utilize die land grant and secure the railway. Ottawa has become the Capital, and, what is more important to this question, the largest manufactory of sawn lumber in the world. The rapid extension of the lumber trade has given increased value to all the public lands of the Ottawa Valley, whether -for timber or agricultural purposes. Over two millions of saw logs, producing between four and five hundred millions of square feet lumber, were cut last year, besides about twelve millions cubic feet of square timber. The increase of this trade is represented by the additional employment of thousands of men and the expenditure of millions of dollars, and thus aifords the highest encouragement to the railway. Secondly, tha example of Toronto and Western Ontario has aroused the City of Montreal and the Ottawa Municipalities to a sense of the importance of thrt local exertion which is as necessary as the land grant to secure this road. Lastly, the North-west question, and tlie progress of the Northern Pacific Railway, have given additional importance to this charter — which will no doubt be of good service to it in England when it is known that any North- ern Pacific line, Canadian or American, will find its shortest route to tl e Atlantic seaboard through the Ottawa Valley. The land grant policy of Congress and of the Western States, which has been so steadily and extensively pursued for the last twenty years, is the admitted source of the rapid development of the great West. One hundred and fifty-four millions of acres, comprising an area of 232,000 square miles — a quantity double the total surveyed area of the Dominion, and three times the area of our occupied lands — have been granted to secure the construction of railways. Many of the companies have failed to complete within the time prescribed in their charters, but in no instance has Congress withdrawn the grant, or hesitated to extend the time for completion. Territories there have be- come States, but this has not influenced the railways, except beneficially. Here Confederation should have the lefi^ect of hastening rather than retarding the conotniction of the Canada Central. No existing railway is as import- ant to the Dominion as one which, stretching from Quebec to Lake Huron, would pass through Ottawa, and open a line of communication between the arsenal of the East and the granaries of the West, beyond the influence of a raid, and requiring no army to guard it from interruption. Such a road would commun cate with all the railways running back to the St. Lawrence, and form a base line of opera- tions, by means of which we could advance to or retire from any point of an exposed frontier. As a rapid colonizer, such a road would be equally important to the Dominion, and it would be the first and only eflfectual means of open- ing a pathway to the West, and of competing with Wisconsin and Minnesota for European Immigration. It may be presumed that the Legislatures of Ontario and Quebec will severally sustain the policy with respect to this road which they have so long followed 5ointly, especially since Confederation has manifestly increased the importance of it. But whether viewed as a national work or not, there is no local railway, nor can there be any, more important to either of these Provinces. But inasmuch as the charter expires b'^ibre another meeting of these Local Legislatures — and can only be extended by the Dominion Parliament — the first step toward securing the road must be taken in Ottawa. Before the charter expires in Septem- ber next, and before another Session of tlh> Local Legislatures, nearly a million of dollrrs will have been expended, and over fifty miles of the railway will have been completed. Id 1850, the " Philosophy of Railways " advocated the construction of railways in general, and of the Grand Trunk in particular as follows : — " If the liberal provisions of our railroad law prove inefficient shall w^e not as a people take it up ooute qui coute. We cannot any longer afford to be without railways. Tlieii* want is an actual tax upon the industry and labour of a country. Men may talk about the burden of taxes to build railways, but the tax which people pay to be without them is an hundred-fold more oppressive." After the Grand Trunk was under contract the com- mencement of the great Ottawa railroad was urged in Jan- uary 1863 at Montreal, as a local road then, as follows : — " The extension to Lake Huron must follow sooner or 9 later, nor will it atop there. The four great Lakes, Ontario, Erie, Huron and Superior, are separated by three peninsulas — at Niagara, Detroit and Sauit Ste. Marie. To these points must all surrounding railwap converge, for at these points conneetions and crossings may be constantly main- tained. A railroad terminating on the Georgian Bay would be confined to its local business for four or five months in the year, but if extended to Sault Ste Marie, it covdd pene- trate Michigan peninsula, Minnesota, and the Upper Mis- sissippi, to all of which it would be the shortest route to the East, and draw over it a stream of traffic wliich can hardly be overrated. This route when made must becoi'^e one of the great lines of this continent." The Northern Pacific, from Lake Superior through St. Paul and Minnesota, is now a fact, and it is known to the writer that the policy of that Company is to extend East- ward from Superior City to ?»ault Ste. Marie, and seek their Atlantic outlet through the Ottav, a Valley, When no other form of public aid was left to us but land, the writer, as before stated, urged this as peculiarly applicable to the Ottawa Yalley — where the public was the chief owner — would benefit most by a railway — and ought therefore to contribute most in this form. If a railwav increases the value of wild lands within twenty miles on either side, only to the extent of one dollar per acre, it looiild create a value of $25,000 per mile of route, and in this way it can easily be proved tliat an Ottawa Valley railway will pay for itself without reference to dividends; nothing therefore can be more just than a policy which charges a fair ])ortion of the cost to the localities so benefited. The writer has quoted arguments used by him 16 to 20 years ago — when he was not a resident of Ottawa — as evi- dence that an Ottawa Valley Railway has always been regarded as a national highway. He 'advocated Municipal and Governjnent aid to railways twenty years ago, because he believed that no railway in Canada, with the exception IPMHI^ 10. of the Great W'^sterri from Niagara to Detroit River, offered inducements to capitalists — that without such aid we would not get tliem — and that without the railway first, the country would never reach that position which would make a railway pay. In all new countries future develop- ment must be by the railway, which is now the Queen's highway of former days. Neither immigrants of capital, nor our own young men will settle out of the reach of railways — and no county is fit for a Canadian to live in now which cannot have one ; and because they are beyond the reach of local and municipal aid — except in a few favored localities made rich by the railways built at the public expense — the writer holds that it is the first duty of Government to aid in supplying the omitted sections of the country, with railway facilities as fast as they show a disposition to help themselves — and ability to pay the work- ing expenses of the road. This was the principle of legis- lation in 1849 — and then we had no railways in Ontario. Now the settled districts unsupplied with railway facilities in all parts of the Dominion are so few, that it is quite within our ability to complete the system — and it will be a disgrace to us if we do not. THOS. C. KEEFER. Printed by Bell St Woodborn, Elgin Street, Ottawa. ^""^mmmmmm