Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-14

lease. For the first seven years the company
is to pay no interest and for the next forty
three years 1t Is to pay annually to the DO
minion government, by way OF rental, a
sum equal to three per cent year on the
cost of construction of the line. At the ex-
piration of the lease the company has the
privilege of extending it for like period
unless the government wants to run the
road itself The entire line is to be COM
pleted December 81, 1911. The road west
from Winnipeg Is to be built by the Grand
Trunk Pacific itself. the government guar
anteeing the first mortgage bonds. principal
and interest up to $4,000 a mile on the
prairie section and $4,000 a mile on the
mountain division which will begin at the
foothills on the eastern slope and end at a
point on the Pacific coast in northern Brit
ish Columbia.
This guarantee by the government has, of
course, helped a whole lot. mainly in en-
abling the road to secure money at reason
able rates.
Wheat 1000 Miles by Rail.
OF course. the Great Lakes will have
no competition at any time, as the best
freight route from the west to t1dewater
but when Jack Frost comes along and
makes skating ponds Of them they go out
OF business as a commercial proposition.
And when the lakes are frozen eacn wear
there will always be millions of bushels of
wheat awaiting shipment in the west All
railroad men and a good many of the lay
brethren. know that in order to haul wheat
at profit 2 coo miles from the wheat fields
to the Atlantic 1t is absolutely necessary
that the road be a low grade, compare
lively curveless affair. And this is just
what the G. 7. P. Is going to be, unless the
engineers who have been doing the field
work are all dipry. 1t has been estimated
that on the new road between Moncton and
Winnipeg any modern locomotive will be
able to handle forty-two cars. Which will
help some to keep expenses down.
a al lnt 20 10 I>,,;I -
railway through great lone land-a land
such as Canada country bigger than the
United States by $4,000 square miles, and
yet with population not quite twice as
great as that of the city of New York.
When the government railway commission
had been selected and Hugh d. Lumsden
one of the foremost of Canadian engineers,
had been placed in charge, then. and only
then. did the real work begin. 1t was
necessary to find assistant engineers, dis
trict engineers, party engineers. transit
men, Jewelers. topographers. rodmen, chain
men, picket men. axmen and teamsters.
teamsters. storekeepers, cooks and cookies.
They had to find among the short. dark
children Of the forest reliable guides and
haif-caste courriers de bois. Some Of these
others will stick to the work through thick
and thin. and when it is finished, some
seven years from now, these faithful work
ers will have opened to the traveller the
AdsI WuuSEuesSs anu tO tie WOrlQ the last
west.
The Great Wilderness.
Eastern Quebec and the maritime prov-
inces are fairly well known. but when the
first railroad pathfinder forged ahead into
the wilderness that begins almost outside
of Quebec on the west twas just as If he
had jumped down a well. He simply dis
appeared, and the national transcontinental
construction commission up at Ottawa, the
dominion capital, were sure of the fact
that there was an energetic engineer out
there in the woods somewhere, and that
was all.
The doubling Thomas who may wonder
how the railroads new line Is going to pay
expenses after 1t is built and ready to
operate can find many answers. One Of
them Is that on moro than one occasion
last year the daily receipts of wheat at
Winnipeg exceeded the total received at
Duluth. Minneapolis and Chicago combined.
That's the one big reason why this city Of
Winnipeg. is growing in population at the
rate OF 10000 q year. and building at the
rate Of a million dollars month. And
all this taken together IL the reason why
the first G. T. p. bonds were subscribed for
about ten times over.
Over vast areas that were untouched a
few years ago Jack Frost lay low in the
wild grass and shortened the season. He
held on like grim death. Blu. nowadays the
mean temperature OF the whole country Is
being gradually changed by the breaking
up Of this virgin land. The fear OF JACK
Frost has passed from Portage Plains to
Manitoba, as 1t passed q year ago from the
Red River valley, and as IL 10 disappearing