570 Our Forth Land. 



single article of cheese. The export of cheese in 1844 amounted to 

 $5,250 in all, and in 1883 to $7,252,000. The export of cattle in 

 1844 amounted to $1,440, in 1883 to $3,900,000. I need not say 

 much about the evidences of increasing prosperity in our postal 

 communication, as my good friend and colleague Mr. Carling has 

 lately expatiated on that subject. I will, however, only say that in 

 1844 there went through the post-offices of the several Provinces 

 1,400,000 letters, of which 1,200,000 were sent not beyond four 

 hundred miles of the senders' residences because of cost, the rates of 

 postage being 4|d. for 60 miles, and running up according to a scale 

 to 2s. 3d. a letter if carried a thousand miles. In 1883 the number 

 of letters carried was 90,000,000, and the postage from the Atlantic 

 to the Pacific is but three cents per letter. I well remember myself 

 when I had to pay Is. 6d., 2s. and 3s. a letter under the old system 

 of older Canada. Now, gentlemen, as regards the cost of transport ; 

 and as you know, the value of our agricultural crop, especially, 

 depends greatly on the cheapness of the price at which it can be 

 carried to the market to which it is destined. The freight rate in 

 1844 for a bushel of wheat from Kingston to Montreal was 12 J 

 cents, and from Chicago to Montreal 28 cents. For the last ten 

 years the average freight rate on a bushel of wheat from Kingston 

 to Montreal has been a little over 2 cents, and from Chicago to 

 Montreal a little over 9 cents. Now, gentlemen, about the great 

 arteries of transport, the railways. When I entered public life there 

 were 16 miles of railway in operation in Canada. There are now 

 nearly 10,000 miles. Canada has $104 invested in railways for each 

 inhabitant, being only excelled by the United Kingdom, which has 

 $107, and by the United States, which have $112. Now as to rail- 

 way rates. The charge in 1844 was equal to $1.92 per ton and 

 passenger, last year the charge was equal to $1.45. If the rate of 

 1884 were applied to the passenger and freight traffic of 1883, the 

 result would be the addition of $10,750,000 to the cost of transport. 

 By our railway and canal policy we have reduced the cost of trans- 

 port so greatly that the saving effected would not only pay the 

 whole interest on our public debt and all the cost of schooling in 

 Ontario, but give the people, through cheapened transport alone 



