, 1861-04-05
THlE STRUGGLE FOR THE CARRY.
:,.> IN TRADE OF THE W HEST.
n q.
Prop osition to Deepen tie st Law
III IT, renee River and tho Canadian
Nst.. Canals. - ~ <~ 4,
sPEksH or NON. Mr.. AaERkiIT IN 1aE CANA.
k<:f.,:,' DIAN PAatlAMEAT, !

Hon. MIR. Merritt then rose to move tha an:
pointment Of Committee to investigate thu
course Of trade from the West to the seaboard
,vd said: The st. lawrence used to command
tile trade Of the West, and even Of the south
ah.1re Of Lake Ontario. The trade Of every
tributary of the s.. lawrence went up and
down il, and he Whe1e trsde ofthe Iakeswith
Great Britain went by this channel Since that
time, however, almost the whole Of The trade
of the West hid been diverted. and now
went down The Hudson ITO New York The
COMMITTEES heW:Sated was lor the purpose of
chanre.s Tie WellNbd canal, commenced in
1924, was for time .,necessfnl IN regafnlng the
trade. but when tile ETfe Canal was completed,
It Was lost again. Eng u1r1es INTO the EHusB of
this had often been made IN 1849 B. 1comr1is=
sion was appointed TO inv estigate IT, ;1n 1850
In 1847 there were q, GOO ensjgrants handed at
the port Of Quebec; Whlle ut New York there
were only S8, 8,000, whereas in three years the
number at New York increased to 300, 600
and. decreased at Quebec to g, COO There
must be some striking cause to produce SO
striking an effect. In his former Investigation
he had the advice, Of the Boards Of Trade Of
ceiVe that reason- He Was now; however, con.
vinced that the CAUSE was this: The Cunatd
line, when first established,' went to Halifax-
and; Boston, and did not affect our trade with
the West, because neither Of those places were
on the river leading up to it, But the Collins
York merchants with the aid q Government
subsidy Of $500, and. Mr.. Cupard then
found that he had to 60 there-tpo#Theae
two lines Of steamers, displaced tue packet
ships which had formerly been in| the first
c}ass passenger trade, and threw: Them into
the euigrant business. But as thefeWere no
emigrants back I'd Europe, they took. freight,
att very cheap rate, as low indeed as Sd Of ID
per bushe for grain, and this gaTe the command
Of the trade to NeH. urs-- :. It remained 10 be
seen what further diversion the Galway 1Ine
would: effect, and On that score he believed the
Government had made representations and
done al they reasonably could be expected to
which was q proof that VIC could get 1t again
Nobody could deny that the st, Lawrence was
the natural channel for the trade df; the West
A report had been made by Mr. Thna, Keefer
In 1859, and another by Mr. Samuel tKeefer, in
which they entered fully into the subject of
tlemen would hardly believe that there were
only three rapids between Lake Ontario aud
tide-Water. There were the Coteau rapids, the
Cedars and the Gallops-besides a small rapid
at Lachine, and the whole Of these could be
removed for the tri1ing sum Of &30000 or
35o,000 ut most, 80 that . vessel drawing
ten and half feet could come from Lake On
tario to Quebec without any Obstacle what.
ever. The Board Of Works Report last
year gaye the cost Of deepening 1the canals
It Was stated that the Reauharnois canal could
be deepened for e250, 900, and that was the
only one they wanted deepened now. There
was no. doubt whatever that these works
should be undertaken at once. But there Wss
another recent improvement in the matter Of
transportation. Canals were at one time indiS-
pensab1e. Now We had railways too. Canals
were still necessary for some descriptions Of
traffic; railways for another. The americans
had Just become sensible That for railways to
compete with canals, under ordinary circum-
stances, was E failure, and had just put fifty
per cent. on their tolls, which would enable rs
to put tolls on our c.nals again, and get 9
revenue to pay the subsidy to the Canadian
line Of steamers. d daily line was what VIC
wanted. Our mail line now carried only
1900 bushels Of wheat. If they we're to run
Q daily line they could carry 6,000, 900 bushels.
Even this ao re- nn not enough Quebec ought to ex
pert Il, goo geo. With Necessary preparat:ons
She could handle all thai, carae down the TT:
Lawrence He would now show the plan that
be proposed to adopt. ALL were aware what
Toledo Was. It was . city into which three
separate lines of railway ran-oue from the
Valley Of the Wabash, one from that of the
Ohio, and one from that of the Illinois. He
proposed to establish a line from Toledo to
quebec, and be would read the following state.
1nent:
The amount Of Capital required to Establish Line
Of Steam Communication from Toledo over
Welland Railway to Quebec:
1-Already expended on constructing the
Wsland Railway Is miles in length is 81 ,soo, 600
Remaining to be provided propellers
Of 1000 tons burthen, with speed Of
II miles Per hour from Port Dalho1-
eel, onI ke Ontario, to Quebec, 6oQ
miles, at s30;0o0 10000
Contingencies -. ......-............ 10000
Tota, ,uland can1to1 - .... s1-son ncn