DOMINION OF CANADA. 



217 



THE NORTHWEST. The number of immigrants 

 who settled in the Dominion in 1881 was 47,- 

 991, of whom about 28,600 went to Manitoba 

 and the Northwest Territory. In the first nine 

 months of 1882, 46,739 immigrants arrived, 

 against 30,434 in the same period of 1881. 

 There were 2,753 homesteads, comprising 438,- 

 707 acres, located in Manitoba and the North- 

 west Territories during 1881, a less number 

 than in 1879. The number of acres pre-empt- 

 ed was 263,647. The settlements have been 

 planted in all parts of the Northwest as far as 

 the foot of the Rocky Mountains. The total 

 number of homesteads located down to the 

 end of 1881 was 14,124; the total number of 

 acres occupied, 2,358,163. 



Several colonization societies, some of them 

 probably with speculative objects, have se- 

 cured tracts in the Northwest under the pro- 

 visions of a recent act releasing such bodies 

 from the restrictions against purchases by non- 

 residents. Within a year of the issue of the 

 new regulations on May 25, 1881, some 7,000,- 

 000 acres were conveyed to various coloniza- 

 tion companies, the price being the regular $2 

 an acre, one fifth in cash and the rest in four 

 annual installments, or, by a later arrangement, 

 half the pre-emption price paid down in full. 



One of the tracts was taken by a temper- 

 ance colonization society, which will not allow 

 the manufacture or use of intoxicating liquors 

 within the limits of the settlement. As a 

 counter-stroke, the licensed victualers started 

 an association and purchased a neighboring 

 tract. A company was formed, under the 

 presidency of the Duke of Manchester, which 

 acquired the title to a large portion of the Pa- 

 cific Railway grant west of Brandon, with the 

 object of promoting the colonization of dis- 

 tressed agriculturists from Ireland and Great 

 Britain. 



The efforts expended in instructing and en- 

 couraging the Indians of the Northwest in the 

 raising of cattle and cultivation of the soil are 

 gradually meeting with success. The Govern- 

 ment felt impelled three or four years ago to 

 supply the Indians with food in order to save 

 them from impending famine, the consequence 

 of the disappearance of the buffalo, which no 

 longer crossed the border, and of the gradual 

 extinction of small game. The supplies were 

 continued the following year, and have now 

 become a regular item of expenditure. Col- 

 lisions are anticipated between whites and the 

 red-men as the settlement of the Northwest 

 progresses. To avert them it is proposed to 

 raise the mounted police to double the existing 

 force. 



The Northwest Territory was divided by an 

 order in Council into four "separate districts or 

 territories, named and bounded as follows: 

 Assiniboia, containing about 95,000 square 

 miles, bounded on the south by the frontier 

 line of the United States, on the east by the 

 western boundary of Manitoba, on the north 

 by a line drawn near the 52d degree of latitude, 



and on the west by one drawn between the 

 110th and lllth meridians; Saskatchewan, 

 containing 114,000 square miles, bounded on 

 the south by Assiniboia, on the east by Lake 

 Winnipeg and Nelson River, on the north by a 

 line near the 55th parallel, and on the west by 

 a continuation of the western boundary-line of 

 Assiniboia; Alberta, containing 100,000 square 

 miles, bounded on the south by the American 

 frontier, on the east by Assiniboia and Sas- 

 katchewan, on the west by British Columbia, 

 and on the north by a continuation of the 

 northern boundary -line of Saskatchewan ; Ath- 

 abasca, containing 122,000 square miles, bound- 

 ed on the south by Alberta, on the west by 

 British Columbia, on the east by the continua- 

 tion of the eastern boundary of Saskatche- 

 wan deflected westward until it strikes the 

 Athabasca River, and then by this river and 

 the lake of the same name and the Great Slave 

 Lake to the northern boundary, which is near 

 the 60th degree of latitude. In Assiniboia are 

 Q'Appelle, South Saskatchewan, and Souris 

 Rivers, and Forts Felly and Ellice. Saskatche- 

 wan includes Battleford, Carleton, and Prince 

 Albert. Alberta is the cattle-ranch district, 

 containing the Belly, Battle, and Bow Rivers. 

 The famous Peace River district is in Atha- 

 basca. 



PACIFIC RAILWAY. The Canada Pacific 

 Railway is being built at a more rapid rate 

 than the specifications call for, and will proba- 

 bly be completed from ocean to ocean by the 

 year 1886, or 1887 at the latest. The history 

 of this enterprise has been recounted in former 

 volumes of the "Annual Cyclopaedia." It was 

 in brief as follows: Upon the entrance of 

 British Columbia into the Confederation, in 

 1871, a promise was given that the Canadian 

 Pacific Railway should be built by the Do- 

 minion, and completed within ten years. A 

 company undertook the work for a cash sub- 

 sidy of $30,000,000 and a land grant of 50,- 

 000,000 acres. The people were suspicious of 

 the relations of the company to the ministers 

 and party in power, and to managers of Ameri- 

 can railroads. At the general election Sir John 

 A. Macdonald was voted out of office, and the 

 first Canada Pacific Rail way Company collapsed. 

 The succeeding Prime Minister sought to ob- 

 tain a new arrangement with British Columbia. 

 The negotiations were prolonged two years, 

 but finally came to nothing. In 1874 Mackenzie, 

 who had professed the intention to redeem the 

 pledge to British Columbia as nearly as possi- 

 ble, passed an act authorizing the construction 

 of a transcontinental railway, either as a gov- 

 ernment work or by a private company. All 

 efforts to induce capitalists to undertake the 

 scheme were unavailing. The Government had 

 expended a large amount of public money in 

 the construction of portions of the line, when 

 they were defeated at the polls in 1878. Sir 

 John A. Macdonald, upon his return to office, 

 after failing to induce English capitalists to 

 embark in the enterprise, formed a syndicate, 



