CANADA, DOMINION OF. 



133 



within the three-mile limit, and in the first 

 year about eight hundred American vessels 

 were thus licensed ; but the American fishermen 

 soon got out of the habit of taking out licenses. 



Temperance. The Dominion Alliance for the 

 Total Suppression of the Liquor-Traffic fought 

 a very vigorous and successful campaign in 

 1885. Between January 15 and September 24 

 the Canada Temperance Act, better known as 

 the Scott Act, was submitted to twenty-five 

 constituencies in Canada, with the result that 

 the act was adopted in twenty of them, in 

 most cases by large majorities. The majori- 

 ties against the adoption of the act in three 

 of the five constituencies that rejected it were 

 only seven, ten, and twenty-five respective- 

 ly. The counties and cities that adopted the 

 act were as follow: In Ontario: Kent, Lan- 

 ark, Lennox and Addington, Guelph, Carleton, 

 Durham and Northumberland, Elgin, Lamb- 

 ton, St. Thomas, Wellington, Frontenac, Lin- 

 coln, Middlesex, Ontario, Victoria, Peterbor- 

 ough; in Quebec: Brome, Drummond, Chi- 

 coutimi ; in Nova Scotia : Guysboro'. The 

 act was rejected in Kingston, Perth, Hastings, 

 and Haldimand, Ont., and in Missisquoi, Que. 

 The provisions of the act have not yet been ex- 

 tended to British Columbia. In Manitoba, out 

 of five counties and one city, two counties 

 have adopted the act. In New Brunswick, 

 out of fourteen counties and two cities, nine 

 counties and one city have adopted the act. 

 In Nova Scotia, out of eighteen counties and 

 one city, thirteen counties have adopted the 

 act. In Ontario, out of thirty-eight counties 

 and unions of counties and ten cities, twenty- 

 three counties and two cities have adopted the 

 act. In Prince Edward Island the act is in 

 force throughout the province. In Quebec, 

 out of fifty-six counties and four cities, five 

 counties have adopted the act. The Scott Act 

 has not yet been abandoned by a single con- 

 stituency that has tried it, although six repeal 

 votes have been taken. 



Railways. In the autumn of 1885 the Cana- 

 dian Pacific Railway was completed. The con- 

 struction of a transcontinental railway by the 

 Dominion was one of the conditions upon which 

 British Columbia entered the confederation in 

 1871, and this onerous undertaking has ever 

 since been one of the greatest responsibilities 

 of successive Governments. The work, after it 

 was begun by Governmsnt, was handed over in 

 1881 to the present company, which undertook 

 its completion by May 1, 1891, on the follow- 

 ing conditions: The company to receive as 

 subsidies 25,000,000 acres of land; all land 

 required for stations and workshops ; the sec- 

 tions of the railway built and being built by 

 the Government, valued at $30,000,000; ex- 

 emption from taxation for twenty years ; the 

 privilege of importing materials for the road, 

 duty free ; no rival lines to be authorized for 

 twenty years. The scheme was fiercely op- 

 posed by the Liberals, on the ground of the 

 price being too high, but the contract was 



ratified by Parliament. The construction of 

 the main line has gone on at a marvelous rate, 

 but the company's financial career has been so 

 unfortunate that Parliament has repeatedly 

 had to come to its assistance. In 1883 the 

 Government guaranteed 3 per cent, interest 

 for ten years on the company's stock of $65,- 

 000,000, taking a deposit of $14,000,000 us 

 security. In 1884 Parliament authorized a 

 loan of $22,500,000 to the company until 1891, 

 secured by a mortgage on the whole property 

 of the company. Five years' credit was also 

 given the company for $7,300,000, due the 

 Government on the guarantee fund. This year 

 the company once more appealed to Parlia- 

 ment, declaring itself unable to raise the cap- 

 ital to equip the line, because of the Govern- 

 ment's mortgage upon its whole property, and 

 asking for a rearrangement of the lien, for 

 power to issue first-mortgage .bonds, and for a 

 temporary advance, to be paid from the sale 

 of part of the bonds. Parliament authorized 

 the company to issue $35,000,000 of 5 per 

 cent, first-mortgage bonds ; cancelled the Gov- 

 ernment lien upon the line; took $20,000,000 

 of the first - mortgage bonds as security for 

 $20,000,000 of the loan ; took a mortgage on 

 the company's unsold lands as security for 

 the balance, and authorized a temporary loan 

 of $5,000,000 until July 1, 1886. The bonds 

 realizing a much higher price than was 

 expected (95), the company raised enough 

 money to repay the temporary loan and to 

 complete the line. The Canadian Pacific has 

 spent about $15,000,000 in acquiring, by lease 

 or purchase, the control of branch lines. The 

 main line is 3,025 miles long, running from 

 Quebec to Port Moody, and it has 432 miles of 

 branch lines. It has cost the country, includ- 

 ing loans, over $140,000,000. Early in Octo- 

 ber the Canadian Pacific purchased the North 

 Shore Railway, running from Montreal to 

 Quebec. 



Hudson Bay Exploration. The second explor- 

 ing expedition to Hudson Bay, organized by the 

 Canadian Government, was successfully carried 

 out in the summer of 1885. H. M. S. Alert, 

 formerly one of Sir George Nares's vessels, and 

 subsequently lent to the United States for the 

 Greely Relief Expedition, was lent to the Cana- 

 dian Government by the Admiralty for this 

 expedition. The primary object of the Alert 

 was to relieve the stations established in Hud- 

 son Strait in 1884, by the Neptune, for the 

 purpose of watching the movements of the ice 

 and of taking other observations to test the 

 practicability of the Hudson Bay route. The 

 possibility of navigating the strait was not in 

 question, the Hudson Bay Company's vessels 

 having demonstrated this for many years. The 

 problem to be solved was, whether the season 

 of navigation is sufficiently long to enable the 

 produce of the Northwest to find an outlet by 

 way of Hudson Bay. The opening of this 

 route would bring the wheat-fields of the 

 Northwest much nearer to the English mar- 



