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emphatic an expression could not be without its effect in 

 forcing the opponents to inquire into the reasons which 

 led to it ; and we are witnessing the usual result of such 

 reflection on the part of business men, who rarely persist in 

 impracticable courses, while in the present instance a calm 

 consideration of the facts must show that merchants must 

 be gainers by an increase in the earning power of the 

 labouring man. The satisfactory results of the working of 

 the forty-five miles of road already in operation have also 

 had their effect in producing the practical withdrawal of 

 opposition, and no Government would now be possible in 

 the colony that did not make railway progress a cardinal 

 principle of action. The inducements to the company, 

 besides the subsidy, are the business of the resident 

 population along the road, with the large traffic that 

 must reasonably be expected from the new population 

 that will be attracted by the homes offered on the lands 

 the road will open up ; and as it will pass through 

 fertile stretches and timber districts, as well as valuable 

 mineral belts, which are all available for the claims of the 

 company, the prospects are such as should entitle the 

 enterprise to take a good place in the category of pro- 

 mising bond fide business undertakings. In harmony with 

 the spirit that promoted the railway is that which led to 

 the establishment of a graving-dock at St. John's, the 

 capital, and which will accommodate the largest vessels 

 of the Atlantic fleet. The position of the port in the 

 route of the trade between Europe and America, making 

 it an unrivalled harbour of refuge, gives this dock a 

 place of high importance to the transatlantic trade, and 

 underwriters will not be slow to recognise its value. It 

 will be completed and ready for work by the end of 1884, 

 and is being built by Messrs. J. E. Simpson and Co.. 



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