Notes. 127 



ing factors in the decision being apparently, in addition to an 

 adequate supply of raw material, the advantage of having an 

 ocean port free to navigation throughout the year, and the prac- 

 tical independence of railroad transportation. There may per- 

 haps be the additional factor that it was possible to obtain a better 

 bargain with the Government of Newfoundland than with the 

 Governments of the eastern Provinces. 



The Newfoundland Government has entered into an agree- 

 ment with the Harmsworth Syndicate, the main provisions of 

 which appear to be the following : — The corporation is permitted 

 to secure a solid block of timbered land, containing 2,000 squaie 

 miles, for 99 years without rental. The concession makes pulp- 

 wood free of dues, other timber being subject to a royalty of fifty 

 cents per thousand feet. It also gives virtual ownership of the 

 land with mineral rights. The company is required to spend a 

 quarter of a million dollars during the first four years, and a 

 million dollars during twenty years. Game and fish are reserved 

 for the public, the natural migration of the caribou is to be left un- 

 restrained and the right of way for roads, railways, telegraph 

 and telephone lines is also reserved. 



A strong agitation against the confirmation of this agree- 

 ment arose in Newfoundland, and the bill has been fought at all 

 stages, and appeal has even been made to the British Govern- 

 ment for disallowance. The movement is strengthened by the 

 fact that the bargain made in 1898 with the Reid s>Tidicate. for 

 the building of a railway across the island, gave away large pub- 

 lic privileges, without the matter having been submitted to the 

 people, and the feeling that the present agreement is a repetition 

 of the same process. 



One of the chief objections made to the bargain is that it 

 does not specifically recjuirc the building and operation of a pulpmill 

 within a fixed period, although the grantees are obliged to spend 

 $250,000 in and alx>ut the providing of water powers, and the 

 erection ol a mill or mills within four years. The reply of the 

 Syndicate to this argument is that many exhaustive investigations 

 have yet to be made as to mechanical and engineering data, and 

 to force their hand might be to cause them to erect a mill that 



