The Hudson's Bay Route. 283 



this line will, in the natural bent of progress, be opened. Not until its 

 construction is assured, will the Province of Manitoba renew its lost 

 commercial vitality. 



Just as the Hudson's Bay route is the natural eastern outlet of 

 the wonderful regions of the Peace and Athabaska Rivers, and the 

 vast fertile plains of the Saskatchewan Rivers, so also is it the 

 natural outlet of the Province of Manitoba ; and unless the people of 

 that Province place themselves in an attitude to secure the early 

 completion of their much-desired road to Hudson's Bay without 

 delay, they will find much of their future shorn of its possibilities. 



I am inclined to the opinion that too much reliance must not 

 be placed upon private railway companies such as are annually 

 created by Act of Parliament at the urgency of charter speculators. 

 No line from either Manitoba or the North- West to Hudson's Bay 

 or anywhere else will ever be constructed by this means. Time and 

 money and support expended in this way are wasted, and the result 

 can only be delay and disaster. 



Such enterprises can succeed only under the immediate support 

 and control of Government, either in a manner similar to that 

 which characterizes the construction of the Canadian Pacific, or 

 under the direct supervision of a minister of the Crown, at national 

 expense. The question has been opened as to whether this Hudson's 

 Bay route, and the roads necessary to be constructed to make it 

 available, should be undertaken by the Federal Authorities or the 

 local Governments of the North- West Provinces. I have up to 

 the present time held that the entire enterprise should rest with the 

 Government at Ottawa, and shall find no occasion to change my 

 views in this respect unless the eastern provinces of Canada develop 

 a disposition to oppose the undertaking, which is somewhat to be 

 feared, and which, if it comes to pass, will greatly cripple the 

 usefulness of the Central Government in connection therewith. 



It is only fair that the Federal Authority, vested as it is with 

 the domain of the North-West, should, while it refuses to pass the 

 inheritance over to the local Governments, provide the means for 

 these interprovincial railways. Nor will the obligations of the 

 Ottawa Government to the present and future inhabitants of the 



