ANNUAL ADDRESS. VII. 



of people are concerned, the Government of India holds a 

 monopoly. The only important exceptions are the guaran- 

 teed railways and the local works of some of the large 

 towns. 



Turning from India to Canada, we come to conditions in 

 many respects resembling those of Australia. The various 

 States which constitute the Dominion of Canada have their 

 separate Governments, which deal with State questions, 

 while the Dominion Parliament has powers closely corres- 

 ponding to those of the Federal Parliament of Australia. 

 While in the great extent of its territory, the nature of its 

 Government, and the British origin of the great majority 

 of its people, Canada bears close resemblance to Australia, 

 there are two important points in which there is a marked 

 contrast ; namely the climate and the natural features of 

 the country. 



The earliest engineering works of first class importance 

 in Canada were those for the improvement of inland navi- 

 gation, and they from first to last have been dealt with by 

 the Government. The enormous extent of the inland 

 waterways, and their vital importance to both the internal 

 and external trade of the country, classed their care and 

 development as a national question in the highest sense of 

 the term. In fact, for a long time the settlement of the 

 country was confined almost entirely to districts possessed 

 of water communication. When the construction of rail- 

 ways was taken in hand, the problem had soon to be solved 

 as to what was the best system for carrying the railways 

 through country that was either not taken up by settlers 

 or that was settled only to a very limited extent. To 

 induce companies to construct railways under such con- 

 ditions, extensive grants of land and also of funds were 

 made to them by the Dominion Government, as well as by 

 the Governments of the States. In the case of the Canadian 



