Of these 1,906.96 miles, sixty are not now (1862) in operation, viz: the Cobourg and Peterborough, Peterborough and Chemung, Erie and Ontario, and Preston and Berlin; of the remainder, the St. Lawrence and Industry, and Carillon and Grenville, are worked only in summer. WAYS IN 1860. (COMPILED FROM THE REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR OF RAILWAYS.) RAILWAYS OF CANADA.-STATEMENT SHOWING THE COST, STOCK, BONDS, LOANS, FLOATING DEBT, AND DIVIDEND ACCOUNTS, OF CANADIAN RAIL The total amount borrowed from the Province by the Great Western Railway, on account of the Guarantee Law was, $3,755,555.18. In July 1858, this company repaid $957,114.45 of this amount. NOTE-The length of roads for which there are no returns of cost in the above table is 172 miles, including eleven miles of Preston and Berlin, not RAILWAYS OF CANADA. STATEMENT SHOWING THE EARNINGS, EXPENSES, INCOME, MILEAGE, NO, OF EMPLOYES, AND NO. OF LOCOMOTIVES AND CARS ON CANADIAN RAILWAYS IN 1860. (COMPILED FROM REPORT OF INSPECTOR OF RAILWAYS.) The improvement in the gross receipts of the first three roads since 1860, is as follows: 1861. 1862. GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY. Canada had scarcely completed her magnificent system of canals when the rapid extension of the American railways, projected in all directions over the great grain region lying between the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the lakes, warned her that a new and formidable rival had appeared; and that further and greater exertions would be required-not merely to enable her to continue a com petitor for western trade with the whole Union, but to maintain her own proper status in comparison with the individual commonwealths of the North. Stretching for nearly one thousand miles along the frontier of a nation ten times more numerous-herself the chief representative on this continent of the first empire in the world—this province has had imposed upon her duties and temptations, far greater in proportion than those of the most important of the associated States commercially opposed to her. Without a perennial seaport, and with her early trade restricted by imperial navigation-laws and custom regulations, she had no foreign commerce accumulating capital; and wanting this commerce and this capital, and confined to her own market, as well as discouraged by the traditionary colonial policy of the mother country, besides being always overstocked with the products of cheaper labor and capital, she could have no manufactures, and consequently no capital for investment in railways. Moreover, she did not possess that trade and travel which could make railways profitable, and thus invite external aid. But, noblesse oblige--the force of position made railways a necessity, if their construction could in any legitimate way be brought about; the more so, because it would have been impossible without them to have kept at home her most valuable population-the young, vigorous, and ambitious natives, "to the manner born, while in sight of a people speaking the same language, and having abundant facilities for developing an almost unbounded fertility, open to all comers. When Montreal, therefore, was arrested half-way in her single-handed attempt to push a railway to Portland, and even the Great Western, which had been years under con tract, could not move, the legislature, on the 30th of May, 1849, passed an act by which the province guaranteed (as a loan) the interest only, on the sum required to complete any railroad of seventy-five miles or more in length, of which one-half had been already made by the proprietors.* This act, which was of material service to the Portland and Great Western railways in their preliminary stages, was insufficient, and did not produce any commencement of the intermediate sections of the Trunk line between Montreal and Hamilton. In 1851 a bill was passed, providing for the construction of a main trunk line, and restricting provincial aid to the same. This act of 1851 looked to possible aid from the imperial government, in the form of a guaranteed loan-an offer having previously been made by Earl Grey to assist the colonies in that manner, to the extent required to construct a military line between Halifax and Quebec. A proposition was to be made to extend this boon to the continuation between Quebec and Hamilton, in order that Canada as well as the lower colonies might be traversed by the road built with Imperial aid; and in this event the trunk line was to be undertaken by the province as a public work-or so much of it as the Imperial guarantee might be obtained for. The bill provided, in the second place, that if this guarantee were not obtained, the province would undertake the work on her own credit, provided the municipalities would bear half the expense; and This step was a repetition of the legislation of Upper Canada in 1837, before the Union-that province having voted the Great Western Railway £3 for every £1 of private stock subscribed, to the extent of £200,000. In default of repayment, the receiver-general could levy on the Gore and Western Districts. |