82 ItOADS AND RAILWAYS. 



of this gi'L'at if-land — tlie union of it.s eas^tern and wej^tern .-shores- 

 — the working of its lands, forests and minerals; its connection^ 

 by a rapid means of communication, with the neigliboring con-- 

 tinent. It means the increase of its population ; the conversion 

 of the country into a liive of industry; the coiumencenient of 

 a material and social advance to wliicli at present no limits can 

 be set. It means employment and gofxl Avages for the people^ 

 many of whom, alas I are now very scantily supplied with ther 

 poorest necessaries of life — 'too little to live on and too much 

 to die on.' To St. .T dim's itself a railway means a vast increa.se' 

 of business of all kinds, and an advance in the value of real 

 estate. It means ojjenings of all kinds for the talents and ener- 

 gies of the yo;ing generation. But wanting a railway, none of 

 these benefits will come, and we sliall he siuiply at a stand-still, 

 and all the natural resources of the island must remain unde- 

 veloped. 



"But then it is asked iiow is a poor colouy like this to liuild 

 a railway? We can't afford it. I reply we can"t attbrd to dcv 

 without it. Our poverty is our strongest argument for under- 

 taking it, in order to transform that i)overty into AM-alth. To- 

 me it seems that a railway is perfectly within our reach, if 

 rightly gone about. It is really one of the easiest countries in 

 the world to i)ierce with a railway. AVhat is wanted is that the' 

 people slioidd arouse themselves to the necss>ily of getting a 

 railway and tell their I'epresentatives that it must Ije done, and 

 that if there are difficulties they are sent to the halls of legis-' 

 lation to overcome difficulties an<l to lead the wav in the path 

 of progress. If I were Premiei- of this colony, I would, in 

 Yankee phrase, 'freeze to this railway.' I Avould plot and 

 scheme, and scrape and pare, and revise the tariff, and do 

 everything short of stealing, till I got money enough to build 

 the railway. Ouce it is built, all things are possil)le. Hail I 

 to the great Hereafter, when Newfoundlanders will be making 

 excursions by rail, on their pulilic holidays, to Gander Lake, 

 and holding picnics at the Grand Falls on Exploits Eiver, or 

 dancing parties in the great international hotel in the Hundier 



