The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-15 00:00:00

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tITE EUROPEAN AND NORI7I AllitlaCAN

RAIL WAY.

The follosvine letter has been addressed to the Editor
of the ilnp?o- A merfcan Times:—
SIP.,-1 read with much interest the article in a
late number of the Anglo-American calling the atten-
tion of your readers to the European and North
American Railroad, now in process of construction,
and more than half completed, between 'Halifax and
Nova Scotia, and Bangor, iu the State of Maine,
United States of America. As I have been over
that ground several times as far as Shesine, and
up the north shore to Chatham and Newcastle on
the Miramichi R ver, allow me to add a few obser-
vations, by way of expanding somewhat your c)gent
article. The distance between Halifax and Bangor
is, as you state, 45S miles. The road for more than
one half of this distance is now completed, and
trains of carriages running regularly over it, and all
but about one hundred wiles will be finished by
next autumn, and the remainder is under contract,
and will be pushed to completion early in the com-
ing year, 1870, when there will be a continuous
line of railroad frotu Halifax, the most easterly
available point on the Atlantic Ocean, stretching
across the American continent for over -1,000 miles
to San Francisco on the shore of the Pacific Ocean.
The completion of this road will reduce the sea voy-
age from the shore of the old world to the shore of
the new from nearly 3,000 to about 1,700 miles,
and will save over 30 hours, two business days, in
time. In au international point of view, as a means
of bringing two great and enli;htenel nations into
more close relations with each other, and as a
means of more rapid transit of the mails, pas-
sengers, and light valuable freight to their
several places of destination the enterprise is
one of an exceedingly interesting and important
character,-and highly worthy, on this international
ground, of the- encouragement and support of the
people of the two countries in preference to enter-
prizes having a mere local interest. But aside from
this broader view, which should not for a moment
be .lost sight of, the enterprise is one of strong local
interest, and one which promises to be amply re-
munerative to its stock and bond holders. The
people of the United States and the people of
Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince
Edward's Island are now closely connected by fre-
quent personal and social intercourse, and by a
large trade and commerce. This trade and com-
merce, it may be said with the utmost certainty,
is sure to increase, and become more and more im-
portant to each of these countries as they increase
in population and their resources become more and
more developed in each succeeding year. The latest
statistics on this subject within my reach are those
of 1867. During that year the United States re-
ceived, at a specie valuation, products of the British
North American Provinces to the amount of
$33,600,000, and sent to them nearly an equivalent
value, making the trade of these provinces with
the United States about $60,000,000 per annum,
while their entire trade with each other, back and
forth, for the year 1865, the last return I have
seen, was but $5,670,340. About one half the
trade which these province): have with all nations
and people is transacted with the United States,
where they find their nearest and best market. When
a treaty of true reciprocity is again established, and
such a treaty is sure to be formed at no distant day,
this trade will increase far more rapidly than it
has under the discouragement of the last few years.
Canada and New Brunswick lie contiguous to the
United States, Nova Scotia is separated from theta
by New Brunswick, and Prince Edward's Island
lies along the eastern coast of the latter. For a
large percentage of what these provinces have to
export, the United States is, and will long continue
to be, their only market. Tne number of Ameri-
rican vessels which cleared front American ports
for ports in tha " British North American Posses-
sions," during the ye it 1837, was 5,135. Tneir
tonnage was 1,625,515 tons. The number of Ame-
rican vessels which arrived from ports in these pos-
sessions during the same year was 4,609 ; their ton-
nage was 1,497,935 tons, waking an aggregate of
9,741 American vessels, and 3,123,450 tons of
American shipping, which catered from and cleared
to provincial ports with cargoes in one year. But
large as the trade carried on by American shipping
is, it does not show tic tr one half the actual trade
between the United States and these provinces,
because by far the largest portion of it is carried on
by provincial vessels. This already large and con-
stantly accumulating trade between the United
States and these provinces has led to frequent per-
sonal intercommunication between their citizens,
and consequent demand, on both sides of the line,
for the best facilities for the transit of passengers
and freight that modern invention has discovered,
and enterprize and science have proved well adapted
to this purpose. Communication between the
United States and New Brunswick, Nova Scotia,
and Prince Edward's Island is now carried on by
steam and sailing vessels, and by stage coaches,
&c. ; also by other wheeled vehicles to New Bruns-
wick. Lines of first-class passenger and freight
steamers are now running from Boston and Port-
land to St. John, N. 8., conveying over 2,000 pas-
sengers per week, besides large quantities of freight.
In the spring and summer these steamers carry
large quantities of fresh salmon packed in ice.
They are principally taken on the East coast, as
far north as Miramichi. They are now carted to
Shediac, from whence they are sent by railroad to
St. John, and by steamers to the States. The
head.of the Bay of Chaleur and the Restigauche
River, sixty miles north of the Miramichi, is pro-
bably the beat salmon fishery to be found on the
Atlantic coast of the American continent. They
are so abundant in those waters, heretofore com-
paratively but little disturbed by net or line, that
they are taken by Indians with spears by torch
light in the night. When the " Intercolonial Rail-
road" penetrates that region of country, quite a
trade in fresh salmon will be opened from there,
which, united with that from Miramichi and along
the east coast of New Brunswick, will give many
tons of freight each day to the European and North
American Railroad. I have particularized the
salmon fisheries because of its unusual character,
and will afford quite an item of through freight to
the road. The exchangeable products of these
lower or " maritime provinces " are raw material,
such as lumber, bituminous coals, gypsum, or plaister
of paris, grindstones, lime, a rine brown building
stone, ship timber, fresh, pickled, and dried fish,
potatoes, oats, hay, &c. These products they ex-
change for flour, Indian corn, groceries, dry goods,
books, implements of agriculture, &c. &c. A rail-
road connecting Halifax, the large and prosperous
country lying around the head of the Bay of Funday,
Shesine, Manhattan, St. John, Frederickton,
Woodstock, Calais, Holturn, and other interme-
diate commercial centres and prominent places along
the eastern boundary of Maine, and in the " mari-
time provinces," with all parts of the United States
and Upper and Lower Canada, and shortening by
some 30 or 40 hours the sea voyage to and from
Europe, has been talked of and looked forward to
with confidence by the people on both sides of the
line for the last twenty years. The full realization
of these anticipations is close at hand. Business
travellers and pleasure seekers will soon be accom-
modated with railroad facilities, and stockholders
gratified lders
gratified with satisfactory dividends on their in-
vestments. The transportation of the mails, pas-
sengers, and light and valuable freight to and from Europe, via Halifax, will form quite
will a large itemfe of
t
revenue to the road ; then therebe,
'Phis will be a
through business, and . will be
and the United States and
large from the start,
Canada. and passenger traffic between their low
the
erovrinces
and constantlyincreasuw.
Add to this the way travel
a portion of the way,
east, which of itsees
and freight through.thelfStf' aotre of Maine, from Bangor
will
alone support a road,
pecially as it will be fed by
the State of Maine and
several branch linweshiou both
then can doubt but that this
the Provinces.
and long-desired railroad will take its
ci
much-needed
the anroost useful
lad best paying roads
in the United States. It is fortunate for the pre-
lieon
sent generation that we live n !
an age when good
i
amid wise men are labouring to bind nations and
peoples more closely together, and increasing their
respect
for, and interest in, each other by seeking
a more close and harmonious union through all the
ties of literature, social intercourse, and trade. I
need but refer to the interesting character of the
European and North American Railroad as a sec-
tion of, or link in, the great future international, -
postal, passenger, and commercial route around the
globe. This is a fact too plain for argument, and
one that all must see after a glance at the map of
the world.