214 



DOMINION OF CANADA. 



running north from Lake Temiscaming to the 

 shore of Hudson Bay. 



The manifold schemes devised by the Gov- 

 ernment for the speedy completion of the Pa- 

 cific Railway have one after another ended 

 in disappointment. The mission to England 

 undertaken by the Ministers in 1879 to induce 

 the British Government to pledge its credit for 

 the completion of the road was a total failure. 

 The plan was, to intrust the direction of the 

 enterprise to a joint commission appointed by 

 the Imperial and the Canadian Governments, 

 which should raise the funds for extending the 

 works by the sale of 100,000,000 acres of land 

 in the Northwest, set apart for the purpose, 

 and upon Canadian bonds guaranteed by the 

 British Government. The prospect of opening 

 up a wide and fertile territory for immigration 

 was advanced as a sufficient inducement to the 

 Imperial Government to come to the relief of 

 Canada in her helpless efforts to establish rail 

 communication between the grain-fields of the 

 Northwest and the seaboard, and to carry the 

 road across the Rocky Mountains, and discharge 

 her promise to British Columbia. As might 

 have been expected, the Canadian Cabinet offi- 

 cers obtained nothing more substantial than 

 good words from the Imperial Government. 

 No direct negotiations took place ; but in an 

 informal conference with the Canadian repre- 

 sentatives, the Secretary for the Colonies, Mr. 

 Forster, expressed the opinion that the Im- 

 perial Government ought, perhaps, to aid the 

 Dominion in completing her great public un- 

 dertaking, but not if the Canadians recognized 

 no mutual obligations, and continued to impose 

 prohibitory and protective duties upon imports 

 to the prejudice of British manufacturing and 

 exporting interests. In the summer of 18SO 

 Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Charles Tup- 

 per again visited Europe with the purpose, this 

 time, of inducing private capitalists to take the 

 enterprise off their hands. It had been re- 

 ported, before their departure, that negotia- 

 tions had commenced with reference to such 

 a plan with Lord Dunmore and Mr. Brown, of 

 London, who visited Canada for this object. 

 On September 27th, after his return, Sir John 

 A. Macdonald announced in a speech at Mont- 

 real, that he had concluded an arrangement with 

 an association, including certain of the leading 

 capitalists of England, Germany, France, the 

 United States, and Canada, by which the road 

 was to be completed in ten years, and kept run- 

 ning for ten years after its completion " with- 

 out the cost of one cent to the people of Can- 

 ada." It was afterward understood that the 

 European capitalists, among whom are sup- 

 posed to have been the houses of Baring, Er- 

 langer, and Rothschild, had not entered into an 

 actual agreement with the Canadian envoys ; 

 but a syndicate of Americans, it was given out, 

 the chief members of which were Morton, Rose 

 & Co., the American Banking Agency in Lon- 

 don, and Mr. Maclntyre, of Montreal, the prin- 

 cipal shareholder in the Canada Central Rail- 



way, had engaged to build the road on the 

 same terms. These were understood to em- 

 brace the transfer of the portions of the road 

 at present completed and contracted for, the 

 cost of which, including surveys, is estimated 

 to amount to $34,834,618, the payment of a 

 bonus of $25,000,000, and a grant of 25,000,000 

 acres of land along the line of the railway. 



The division of the line traversing the fertile 

 plains of the Northwest, from Selkirk to the 

 Rocky Mountains, 900 miles, and the Thunder 

 Bay branch, now nearly completed, 404 miles, 

 connecting it with the head of navigation on 

 Lake Superior, are generally regarded as a 

 sound commercial undertaking, which will re- 

 turn good profits in a short period ; also the 

 Sault Sainte Marie branch connecting the prai^- 

 rie division with the American network of rail- 

 roads. The Rocky Mountain and British Colum- 

 bia division, 550 miles in length, which is ex- 

 pected to cost $30,000,000, or as much as it will 

 to complete the whole 1,400 miles from Lake 

 Superior to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, 

 and the division around the shore of Lake Su- 

 perior to connect the Northwest with old Can- 

 ada, 620 miles in length and running through a 

 barren wilderness, which is almost as costly to 

 build as the British Columbia road, are justi- 

 fiable only from a political standpoint, and 

 could hardly be expected to pay their running 

 expenses for a long time to come. 



The portions of the Pacific Railway under 

 contract at present are the section of the main 

 line from Fort William to Selkirk, 404 miles in 

 length ; from Emerson to Selkirk, thePembina 

 branch, 85 miles; 100 miles on the main line 

 and the Winnipeg branch west of the Red Riv- 

 er; and 127 miles in British Columbia: alto- 

 gether 722 miles. The total expenditure on 

 account of the road up to the end of 1879 had 

 been $14,159,165. The Yale-Kamloops line in 

 British Columbia was let in four sections, and 

 the contracts were subsequently transferred to 

 Andrew Onderdonk, of San Francisco, con- 

 tractor and civil engineer, who acted for a syn- 

 dicate of American capitalists, consisting of 

 L. P. Morton and H. B. L. Laidlaw, of New 

 York ; S. G. Reed, of Portland, Oregon ; D. O. 

 Mills, of San Francisco, financial agent of the 

 association, and Onderdonk himself, who su- 

 perintends the construction. The disposal of 

 their contracts at a profit by the Canadian con- 

 tractors was made the subject of strictures upon 

 the Government. The contract price for this dif- 

 ficult division, which involves much bridging, 

 excavation, and tunneling, amounts to $8,000,- 

 000 or $10.000,000. The work was commenced 

 the 15th of May with a numerous force of white 

 and Chinese laborers brought from California. 



The route of the Canada Pacific over the 

 Rocky Mountains had to be selected from 

 three only known passes. These are the Yel- 

 lowhead Pass, at an elevation of 3,645 feet; 

 the Pine River Pass, whose elevation is about 

 2,800 feet ; and the Peace River Pass, with an 

 elevation said to be only 1,650 feet. The dif- 



