The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1869-03-03
The Territory of the Hudson
Bay Company and the North
West Passage.


receiving subsidy from the Central Gov
eminent, which joins the Valley Of the
Mississippi to that Of the Red River, in
Minnesota. An American steamer is now
running on the Red River as far as Fort
Garry, and thus an uninterrupted line of
communication by railway and steamer
connects all the English establishments on
the Red River to the United States, and
keeps them entirely separated from Canada
These are the complaints made by the
Colonial TO the Home Government. and in
favor of which they bring forward some
good, as well as some exaggerated, argu-
ments If Canada were united to British
Columbia by railroad, then would the dis
lance from Europe to China and Japan
be lessened 5000 miles the western coast
of America, New Zealand. Australia, and
even the East Indies, would be nearer to
England, while Port Esquimault becoming,
as a natural result, the most important
naval station in the world, Victoria would
grow to be the largest commercial empo-
rum of either hemisphere But the Brit
ish Columbians ought to consider the other
side of the question, and see what Difficult
ties would attend the realization Of their
sanguine hopes. They do not stop to
consider whether the country to the north
ward Of Lake Superior is as densely pop
ulated as the valley of the Mississippi, or
whether Fort William is able to compete
with such city as st. Louis They seem
to lose sight Of the fact that the country
extending from Lake Superior to Cariboo
is vast solitude, and that all the practi-
cable routes across the Rocky Mountains
terminate in the valley of the Columbia,
that is to say, within United States terri
tory.
At all times, the Colonies have enter
tanned the idea that the glory of the
Empire was dependent on the active de-
velopment of their resources. and in Brit
ish Columbia, the selfishness of the Colo
nists has acquired large proportions, owing
to their rapid success in the present, and
to the uncertainty of the future. 1t is
matter of doubt whether or not the miser-
able state of agriculture is to be attributed
TO the want of proper means of communi-
cation rather than to the absence Of
fertile soil, suitable for agricultural pur-
suits; but it is certain that road from
British Columbia to Fort Garry, (which is
the terminus of the American steamers
and railways,| would not be directly useful
to English interests, but would serve to
transport to New York a great part of the
trade of Victoria. But it must be ad-
mitted as an unquestionable fact that Eng
land does not act towards her American
Colonies as the United States do towards
their newly acquired territories. If Eng
land has now altered her colonial policy so
far as to be considered the most liberal
minded motherland in the world, yet she
does not deem it absolutely necessary, be-
cause she has, in former times, lost thirteen
Colonies, for having attempted to tax
them too heavily for the benefit of the
Empire, to levy higher taxes on the inhab-
itants of Great Britain for the sake of the
Colonies, which may, one day, square their
accounts by Declaration of Independ-
ence. She believes she has done her duty
by her Colonies when she grants them the |
liberty of regulating, at their pleasure,
their own imposts and expenses, and takes
charge of what are termed the " Imperial"
Expenses, that is, the military and naval
expenditures. Very different is the policy
of the United States towards their new
territories. The Central Government
causes roads to be made, public establish
ments to be built, schools, libraries, insane
asylums, to be constructed, and gets back,
in time, the money thus advanced, from
the sale of the public lands, the value of
which has been enhanced by those accom-
modations and public works. In geo.
graphical point of view, the situation of
England on the American Continent is
not so favorable as that of the United
States her possessions begin only at the
49th degree of latitude, and in the pres
ence of all these disadvantages, there is
no wonder that the English Government
does not show more energetic sympathy
for their American Colonies On the 4th
of June, 1862, the Duke of Newcastle,
successor to Mr.. Bulwer, in the Colonial
Department, said in Parliament, "that it
was not, perhaps, impossible to establish a
way of communication between Canada
and British Columbia, but that it seemed
advisable that the latter should bear the
expenses Of the road in its own territory,
and that the former should consent to con-
tinue and finish it at its own expense" It
appears undeniable, therefore, that if Eng
land loses her American possessions, it
win be through not having opened roads
in good time.
If we shift the scene from the western
to the eastern side of the Continent, from
the auriferous to the agricultural Colony,