PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 569 
completed in 1901, is 85 miles long, has 45 feet rise, effected in five locks, and 
has cost from first to last about 2,300,000I. 
In the construction of this great waterway many difficult engineering 
problems have been solved, and every modern improvement has been intro- 
duced ; electricity has been utilised in its equipment, both for power and 
lighting, so that navigation can proceed by night as well as by day. For 
the years 1903-7 the canals were declared free of tolls; but it is estimated 
officially that if tolls on the ordinary scale had been collected the revenue for 
1907 would have exceeded 91,000/. In these five years the water-borne traffic 
of the Dominion increased from 9,204,000 tons in 1903 to 20,544,000 tons in 
1907 ; in the same period the increase in Canadian railway traflic was from 
47,373,000 tons to 63,866,000 tons. The official reporter justly remarks that 
‘ these results are exceedingly encouraging.’ 
It was recognised long ago that the utilisation of the waterways of Canada 
from the Great Lakes to the sea would yield considerable advantages by 
facilitating cheap transport of agricultural products of the fertile regions 
from the great North-West, but the Canadian portions of that territory were 
then regarded as ‘a great lone land.’ Subsequent developments of the corn- 
growing regions of Canada have emphasised the value of the water route and 
its great potentialities. In his ‘ History of Merchant Shipping’ (pub- 
lished 1876) Lindsay dwelt upon this point, and foresaw that if the water- 
ways of Canada were made continuously navigable a struggle for supremacy 
in over-sea trade must arise between New York and the Canadian ports of 
Montreal and Quebec. This struggle is now in full force, so far as the grain 
trade is concerned, and it is likely to grow keener. The quantity of grain 
passed down the whole length of the St. Lawrence navigation to Montreal 
increased from about 450,000 tons in 1906 to 685,000 tons in 1907, while the 
quantity carried to Montreal by the Canadian Pacific Railway was about 
387,000 tons for 1906 and 384,000 tons for 1907. On the other hand, the 
quantity carried by canals in the United States to New York fell from 
294,500 tons in 1906 to 230,800 tons in 1907. 
An important addition to the Canadian canal system has been proposed, 
and its execution will probably be undertaken when great works now in pro- 
gress have been completed. This route extends from Georgian Bay on Lake 
Huron to the St. Lawrence, and would utilise Lake Nipissing as well as 
the French and Ottawa rivers. The distance to be traversed would be 
450 miles less than that of the present all-water route. On the basis 
of careful surveys it has been estimated that a canal having 20 feet 
depth of water could be constructed at a cost of twelve millions sterling, 
upon which capital a reasonable dividend could be paid, even if the charges 
made for transport were one-third less than the lowest rates of freight pos- 
sible on United States routes to New York. It would, of course, be most 
advantageous to have the available depth of water increased from 14 to 
20 feet, thus making possible the employment of larger and deeper draught 
vessels between the Lakes and Montreal. Considerable economies in the 
ratio of working expenses to freight earnings would be effected, break of bulk 
in transit to the sea would be avoided, and the cost of transport greatly 
reduced. 
The magnitude of the grain trade and its growth may be illustrated by 
the following figures for recent years:—In 1897 the grain cargoes passed 
down the Welland Canal to the ports of Kingston and Prescott numbered 
377 and represented 515,000 tons; for 1907 the corresponding figures were 
518 cargoes, weighing 841,000 tons. As to the elevators and mechanical 
appliances for handling economically these huge quantities of grain, nothing 
can be said here, although they involve the solution of many difficult en- 
gineering problems and have been greatly simplified and improved as expe- 
rience has been gained. 
The bulk of the canal traffic, of course, moves eastwards and outwards from 
