SAINT JOHN 



5153 



SAINT JOHN RIVER 



harbor, which is under the direct control of the 

 commissioners elected by the voters. The har- 

 bor and its approaches have a minimum depth, 

 at low tide, of thirty-two feet, deep enough 

 for the largest ship afloat. The harbor is never 

 frozen over, a fact which has made Saint John 

 the winter port of Canada." In winter, when 

 the Saint Lawrence is closed by ice, Saint John 

 receives the larger part of the export and im- 

 port trade which would otherwise go to Mont- 

 iv:il and Quebec. Its foreign trade now has a 

 value of $50,000,000 or more a year, a figure 

 exceeded only by Montreal among Canadian 

 Atlantic ports. Grain, lumber, meat and flour 

 are the chief exports. 



Saint John's high standing as a port is due in 

 part to its natural advantages, but also to the 

 government policy of subsidizing steamship 

 lines. This policy was inaugurated in 1895 and 

 was extended in 1898. There are now nearly 

 twenty subsidized lines, the most important of 

 which run to Liverpool, London, Dublin and 

 other British ports. To some extent steamship 

 .-.as interrupted by the War of the Na- 

 tions, but will undoubtedly be increased on the 

 conclusion of peace. 



Manufactures. The city is also a distributing 

 point for the southwestern part of the province. 

 Much of its domestic trade is in its own manu- 

 ires, the chief of which are refined sugar, 

 <nt ton goods of many kinds, brass, iron and 

 steel products, including nails, engines and 

 boilers, stoves and ranges, axes .and other tools. 

 Lumber milling and woodworking constitute 

 tin largest single branch of manufacturing. 

 The value of all manufactures is about $12,- 

 000,000 a year. 



Other Features of the City. There are many 

 beautiful public buildings, including the court- 

 house, customhouse, armory, city hall, exhi- 

 bition building and the public library, a stately 

 -tn ict ure donated in 1906 by Andrew Carnegie. 

 Many of the private institutions are also note- 

 worthy, especially tin* Y. M. C. A. building, 

 tin general hospital, the Wiggins Institution 

 for orphan boys, and the Good Shepherd Home 

 for in rl.-- . Conspicuous among the many fine 

 public school buildings are the High School and 

 tin- KMJK Kilwml \l-\andra, Albert and Vic- 

 schools. 



Government and History. Saint Jol, 

 ih< tii>t city in Canada to adopt the commis- 

 ~K.n form of government ; this was in 1912. 

 common council is composed of the mayor, who 

 i- a l-o commissioner of finance and public af- 

 l, and four other commissioners. The char- 

 323 



ter of 1912 also provides for the initiative and 

 referendum on legislation and for the recall of 

 municipal officials. 



On June 24, 1604, three great Frenchmen, 

 Champlain, De Monts and Poutrincourt landed 

 at what is now the Market Slip in Saint 

 John. It was the festal day of Saint John the 

 Baptist, for whom the city is named. The 

 French and later the British built forts at the 

 mouth of the river, but it was not until 1783, 

 when 3,000 United Empire Loyalists landed at 

 the same spot where Champlain had moored 

 his ships nearly two centuries before, that the 

 city was really founded. In 1877 a great fire 

 wiped out $22,000,000 worth of property and 

 made 13,000 people homeless. The burnt sec- 

 tion was rebuilt at once, and the city has since 

 grown steadily in size and prosperity. H.V.B. 



SAINT JOHN RIVER, the principal river of 

 New Brunswick. It was on the twenty-fourth 

 of June, the festal day of John the Baptist, 

 that Champlain and De Monts landed at this 

 river, which they named Saint John. It has its 

 source in a number of small streams which rise 

 on or near the boundary between Quebec and 

 Northwestern Maine. The headwaters of the 

 Saint John are perhaps five miles from those 

 of the Penobscot, which flows south through 

 Maine, and the Chaudiere, which flows north 

 into the Saint Lawrence River. The Saint John 

 flows northeast across Maine, and then de- 

 scribes a wide arc, turning first east and then 

 southeast, for eighty miles, forming the bound- 

 ary between Maine and New Brunswick. After 

 it enters New Brunswick it continues south for 

 about seventy-five miles, and then describes a 

 second wide arc to the southeast, and finally 

 empties into the Bay of Fundy. The river is 

 over 400 miles long and drains an area of 21,500 

 square miles. The city of Saint John, the com- 

 mercial metropolis of New Brunswick, is situ- 

 ated at its mouth. Fredericton, the provincial 

 capital, Woodstock and Edmundston are other 

 important places on its banks. 



Th< Saint John is one of the most pictur- 

 esque rivers in the Maritime Provinces, and like 

 the Hudson River is often called the "Rhine 

 of America." Three miles after it enters New 

 Brunswick it plunges over the Grand Falls, a 

 precipice seventy-five feet hiuh; tin* falls are 

 about 225 miles from the river's mouth. For 

 ly a mile below the falls are rapids, in flic 

 course of which thr river drops another sev- 

 enty-five foot. The Saint John is navigable 

 for steamers of considerable size from its mouth 

 n, a distance of eighty-five miles. 



