506 Our North Land. 



are now beginning to look to that Bay for our future seaport., I 

 believe some people regard the scheme as impracticable ; but the 

 people of the North- West who have conversed upon the subject with 

 men who have practical knowledge of Hudson's Bay believe that it 

 is navigable for a considerable season of the year. 



" Last year I conversed with an engineer who had spent the 

 preceding winter on Nelson River. He had been sent out there on 

 a surveying party for one of the railways for which a charter was 

 granted by this House, and he states that the Nelson River was not 

 frozen over last year until the 1st of January. It broke up last 

 summer on the 4th of June, and on the 8th of that month the river 

 was clear of ice. That would give about six months to navigation on 

 Nelson River. Of course there remains the question of the navigation 

 of Hudson's Bay, but when we know that old-fashioned tubs, old- 

 fashioned sailing vessels, have been able to navigate the Straits for 

 the last two hundred and fifty years, we need have no doubt as to 

 the possibility of navigation by ocean steamships of the present 

 style which should be able to navigate that channel easily, because 

 they have not to overcome the difficulties encountered by sailing 

 vessels which have to wait for time and tide, and which could not 

 attempt to run the channel if ice floes were coming in the opposite 

 direction. 



" I believe it is of the utmost importance that a committee should 

 be struck, charged with the duty of obtaining all possible informa- 

 tion on the subject, and that the Dominion Government should send 

 a vessel to examine the route as soon as possible. We in the North- 

 West depend altogether on growing grain, and our success depends 

 in a large measure on the facilities we have for shipping that grain 

 to the outer world. At the present prices of grain in the North- 

 West farming will not pay. The freight rates are excessive, and I 

 think they are higher even than the figures given by the hon. 

 member for Provencher (Mr. Royal). During last fall the" freight 

 rate from Winnipeg to Toronto was forty-two cents per bushel of 

 wheat, and, of course, that reduced wheat to a low value in the 

 North- West. As has been explained by the hon. member for Algoma 

 (Mr. Dawson), the opening of Hudson's Bay will be beneficial in 



