202 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



should national assistance be given. The construction of a national 

 highway should not be undertaken until a proper plan is prepared 

 showing the tributary systems of the provinces through which it 

 would pass. The design of the location of feeders and terminals 

 is as important in highway as in railway development. When new 

 arterial thoroughfares are made at public expense sufficient width 

 of land should be acquired for the purpose to enable the government 

 to obtain the increment of value created by its own improvements. 

 In proportion as private lands may be increased in value as a result 

 of public expenditure in road improvements, provision should be made 

 for making special assessments on such property to meet a portion 

 of the cost. A sound financial system should be adopted, under which 

 money borrowed for road construction should be repaid with interest 

 during the life of any improvement. Public land should not be alien- 

 ated until after access by good roads is provided. 



The extension of railways so as to distribute the population with 

 more regard, than hitherto, to successful industrial settlement, and 

 the linking up with the railways of a good roads system designed to 

 facilitate rapid motor transportation in rural areas, also need consid- 

 eration by the governments with a view to helping and advising 

 provincial and municipal authorities. Our governments have to recog- 

 nize that it is of more importance to the farmer to have the land economi- 

 cally planned and developed in advance of settlement, than to get land 

 cheap, or for nothing, or to get the benefit of rural organization under 

 conditions which make such organization expensive and largely inef- 

 fective. 



Good roads to facilitate motor transportation and a cheaper 

 parcel post organized in co-operation with the railway companies 

 could be of great advantage to the farmer and help him in distribut- 

 ing small articles direct to the consumer at reasonable cost. One of 

 the merits of an improvement in this direction would be that it could 

 be taken advantage of by every producer, as it would be of general 

 and not of limited local application. 



In many cases the railway lands which have been alienated are 

 being administered with as great an efficiency as they could be 

 under a government department, but the railway companies, like all 

 private owners, are necessarily influenced by considerations of profit 

 to themselves rather than the public advantage. 



Colonization by Railway Companies 



The Canadian Pacific Railway Company has pursued a business- 

 like policy in regard to the settlement of its agricultural lands, al- 



