508 Our North Land. 



" The construction of a railway over that route would not be 

 more difficult as regards the greater portion of it than in the build- 

 ing of a prairie section. We trust the Government will be able to 

 afford the House such information as will show that Hudson's Bay 

 is navigable, that the recommendations of the committee, when 

 made, will be acted on by the House, and that at a day in the near 

 future we will have a seaport in close proximity to our wheat fields 

 in the North-West." 



Mr. Casey said : " We have heard from two hon. members who 

 have just spoken for the Province of Manitoba ; we have also heard 

 from an hon. member who does not seem to be quite certain as to 

 the Province to which his constituency belongs, and I think it will 

 not be out of place that something should be heard from a repre- 

 sentative of Ontario. I happen, Mr. Speaker, to agree with all the 

 hon. members who have spoken. In the first place, I admit the vast 

 importance of the question as to whether Hudson's Bay is navigable 

 or not. The importance of the question to the Province of Manitoba 

 is beyond all doubt. It goes without saying that a measure which 

 will bring Winnipeg within six hundred miles of Montreal must be 

 of the utmost advantage to that Province. The practical effect of 

 this scheme, if carried out, will be that the port of Hudson's Bay 

 will be as near Liverpool as Montreal now is, and Winnipeg will be 

 only from six hundred to six hundred and fifty miles distant from 

 that port ; that is to say, that the people of Winnipeg will occupy 

 as favourable a position for shipping grain as do those who live only 

 five hundred miles west of Montreal. 



" The vast importance of securing such a result would justify 

 even stronger language than has been used by the hon. members 

 representing Manitoba in urging the scheme. The importance of 

 the matter to other western portions of the Dominion does not 

 however, stand out so clearly, perhaps, at first sight ; but I quite 

 agree with the hon. member for Provencher (Mr. Royal), and the 

 hon. member for Algoma (Mr. Dawson), in declaring that it is of 

 importance to the rest of the Dominion. The hon. member for Pro- 

 vencher has very aptly said than it would create a new Maritime 

 Province, or at all events a new seaboard, and it would give an 



