FOURTH EXPLORATION, 1880 179 



men on the steamboat were going to go up the Assiniboine on their 

 way to survey a route from the Grand Rapids to Fort Ellice. 



The formation of the, "Syndicate" in the autumn of 1880, and 

 the transference of the Canada Pacific Railway to it in the spring, 

 upset speculations of many site seekers, and turned their attention 

 to the more southern district. The announcement, that the 

 "Syndicate" was about to take the southern route was soon fol- 

 lowed by the selection of Brandon as the site for a future city. 

 Mr. Sandford Fleming, in his Railway Report for 1880, advised 

 the Government to adopt this route, and to found a city at this 

 very point. The following extract is taken from page 248 of the 

 Report : 



"I have carefully examined all the data at hand, and I think 

 that a modification of the latter line points to a scheme worth 

 the consideration of the Government. If the railway is carried 

 to a point in the valley of the Assiniboine, near the mouth of 

 the Little Saskatchewan, where the land remains unsurveyed and 

 ungranted, there might here be established the site of a city which 

 would shortly become important." 



After giving various reasons in favor of this scheme, he says, 

 on page 240: 



"The adoption of the lines to the point I have indicated in 

 the valley of the Assiniboine, near the mouth of the Little Saskat- 

 chewan, would provide 150 miles of excellent trunk line leading 

 from Winnipeg and Selkirk to the coal deposits, and would, to that 

 extent, make provision for the supply of fuel, where no timber 

 exists, and thus supply one sorely felt need in many countries. 

 The laying out of a city at the point mentioned, and the location 

 of stations at regular intervals on other ungranted lands, along 

 the line, would secure to the Government all the benefit arising 

 from the enhanced value which would be given to the land, to 

 assist in meeting the cost of the railway." 



It will be seen by the foregoing extracts that both the Govern- 

 ment and its officials were aware of the importance of Brandon as 

 a railway centre, and, had the Government held control of the 

 route, they would most undoubtedly, have carried out the above 

 suggestions. It will be seen, then, that Brandon is not a specula- 



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