The Great North- West. 389 



such a way as to leave them, when finished, in a condition to do 

 their work efficiently and without loss. This certainly would not 

 be the case if, through too hasty and ill-considered construction, or 

 through any other cause, liberal Government grants, as well as 

 private resources, were swallowed up, and the lines left burdened 

 with debt which no future traffic could support or remove. The 

 system of highways to which I have referred is one of evolution, and 

 would necessarily be of slow growth ; it is, nevertheless, in my 

 judgment, one which could not fail to succeed. It is, however, 

 purely, a colonization scheme. I am prepared to admit that there 

 are many weighty reasons why some one of the lines projected 

 across the continent should be pushed to completion more rapidly 

 than colonization purposes actually demand. I have already men- 

 tioned that the enterprise known as the Canadian Pacific Railway 

 has been designed for a purpose beyond that of settling the vast 

 interior of the country. One of its objects is to unite the Pacific 

 and Atlantic coasts with a continuous line of railway without pass- 

 ing over foreign sea or soil." 



True, indeed, the " Canadian Pacific Kailway was designed for 

 a purpose beyond that of settling the vast interior of the country;" 

 and so far as the prairie section of that road has been adapted to 

 the necessities of colonization, it was only shown plainer than ever 

 that the national highway, although in many respects of great 

 commercial advantage to Canada, is rather a national than a com- 

 mercial success. Its construction has been the means of attracting 

 many thousands of settlers to the North- West ; but as a means of 

 communication with the outside world, it has not met, nor will it when 

 completed meet, the wants of the people in the central portions of 

 Canada to any great extent. A glance at this Manitoba discontent 

 opens at once the great problem of transportation between the 

 Canadian North-West and the markets of the old world. The 

 country itself has been demonstrated to be all that can be desired. 

 Indeed the productiveness of the soil has proven to be greater than 

 the most sanguine claims of its advocates ; but, as Mr. Fleming 

 said, the greatest of all its drawbacks, its great distance inland, 

 turned out to be a great obstacle. 



