Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-06-30
The Caughnawaga ship Canal.
MEETING OF THE BURLINGTON BOARD
OF TRADE.

MEETING OF THE BURLINGTON BOARD
OF TRADE. .'-.-.
On Thursday, June %, by the invita-.
ton of the Burlington Board of Trade, q
large and enthusiastic meeting was held
at the City Hall in Burlington to consid-
er the project of building the Caughna-
waga ship canal, uniting Lake Champlain
and the st. Lawrence river by short
link of canal, and taking also within its
scope the enlargement of the Welland and
Champlain canals. The city of Burling-
ton on this occasion made extensive and
perfect arrangements for the meeting,
manifesting thereby the deep interest
they felt in the success of the enterprise.
1t is an important movement for the flu
ture of Burlington. 1t is also of great
moment to Rutland and the Rutland rail-
road and all the other railway lines cen
tering at this point. 1t is project of vast
consideration to Vermont as State and
should receive aid and encouragement
from the people, thai its construction may
be ensured at an early date without any
contingency. We trust hat at an early
day this project may be brought directly
home to our people in public meeting,
that they may fully understand the SUBJ
ject in all its bearings upon our business
interests. We therefore, in consideration
of its Importance to Rutland as central
point, need make no apology for publish
ing entire the proceedings of and the doc
uments presented at the Burlington meet
ing This would have been made before
but for the absence of the editor, who was
present at the meeting, and the ipressure
OF other matter upon our columns.
The meeting was called to order at two
o'clock p M, by Hon. Levi underwood,
President of the Board of Trade Among
the prominent gentlemen occupying a
place on the platform, were ex-Gov. John
B. Page, of Rutland Hon. John w. Stew
art, of Middlebury; Hon. John Young,
Oh Montreal; Hon. L. s. Huntington, a
member of the Dominion Parliament /; j.
B. Mills, Esq, of Peekskill, N. Y; Sam
uel w. Foster, Esq, of Knowlton, P. @. i
Hon.. Torrey E. Wales, acting Mayor of
Burlington Hon. E. Haskell Derby, of
Boston Lawrence Barnes, Esq, of Bur-
lington, and Hon. f. @. Kennedy, of Col
chester.
The attendance was large, the City
Hall being full, embracing many of the
active business men of Burlington, with
representatives from Whitehall, Platts-
burgh, and the lake towns, and from Mas
sachusetts and Canada Rutland was re-
presented by Gov. Page, z, v. K. Wilson,
John Baxter, d. E. Nicholson, and Henry
Clark, and Brandon by Hon. E. n. Briggs.
Gov. Underwood in opening the meet
ting recited the leading features of the
project and the advantages to be derived
from its construction.
GOV. UNDERwooD's REMARKS.
This meeting is called in the interests
of the Burlington Board of Trade to con-
slider the means whereby New England
can be benefited in her means of transpor-
tation. She has lost enough already fo1
the want of transportation, and this great
want must be supplied. She must not be
populated-losing those of her sons
who seek more advantageous felds-by a
lack of facilities for commercial inter.
course with the great West. The great
question in the growth of country is
transportation. In so much as you pay
little heed to this, in just so much do you
cease to be prosperous. Ii we cannot at
ford TO send our commodities to a certain
country, we certainly ought not to be able
to bring them from there. There should
be an interchange Of cargo. A new route
to New England, by the enlargement 0;
the Welland Canal, and then building :
canal from the st. Lawrence to Lake
Champlain, was proposed by the Hon
John Young more than twenty five year.
ago. By this ronte $500 barrels of fioul
can be delivered here at half the usua
rate and in halt the time. The Atlantic
States are looking to the West for theil
breadstuffs, and they in turn look to us,
turn look TO us, in a great degree, for the
results Of our manufacturing and meohan.
ical skill. We should SO arrange oul
transporting interests that these common
wants could be readily and economically
supplied. Our industries and manufac.
lures must purchase our bread from the
West. The work to be accomplish in the
interests of the Caughnawaga Canal il
progressing rapidly, and it remains for
those interested here to take hold OF the
matter and push it to completion. 1t will
make Burlington the place of tranship-
ment for the vast products of the West
Burlington ought TO feel deep interest
in pushing forward work OF this char
acter.
Gov. Underwood said that the plan for
construction of this work is not new.
More than twenty years ago, it was I'M
dertaken.. But the Montreal interest
killed it, by fixing an impracticable route
in the charter. During the last winter
another effort was made to procure a
charter which was successful. A liberal
charter was obtained, which permits
capital to build where it chooses. A
company has been Professionally formed
for the prosecution of the work. By the
projectors, it is deemed best to follow the
line located by J. B. Mills, of Peekskill,
N. Y, the engineer who was employed to
survey the route twenty years ago. The
canal will be thirty miles long. Upon
the st. Lawrence it would strike the
river at Caughnawaga, nine miles above
Montreal and above the Lachine Rapids
Upon the Chambly canal on the Sore
river, it strikes at st. Johns. In this dis
lance there are but twenty-five feet ele
walton with only two locks. The work is
one of sufficient size to admit the passage
of vessels of $50 tons,-a ship canal 1t
was estimated by the engineers that the
canal could be built for from two and a
half to three million of dollars. It was