Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-09-16
Every Mile Is Difficult.

Other construction difficulties of sim
liar character are found every mile of
the distance. The valley of the Nelson
river-one of the largest rivers in the
word-which must be followed is inter
sected by steams which must be bridged
every few miles
channel must be dredged the entire
distance from Fort Churchill to Hudson
strait. because at present there is only
about fifteen feet of water and often
less. This channel must be lighted and
buoyed. and navigation protected in some
way from the almost continuous fogs.
which are caused by the meeting of the
soft. warm winds from the prairies and
ice-laden breezes from the Arctic circle
over the waters of the bay The dredg-
ing of the channel must be repeated an
nualiy because of shifting bars which
cannot be controlled by any human power
Ships must be specially constructed for
this service to withstand the ice and
would not be Of use elsewhere, so that
they would have to be laid up seven
months of the year, and the interest on
the cost OF their construction will be
entirely wasted. Thus, when the road
Is completed the work is only half done
and the most difficult tasks remain to he
overcome. The records of the Hudson
Bay Company show that for a century
the longest season of navigation a Fort
Churchill occurred In 1916, when the bay
was open five months and eighteen days
The shortest season was in 1898, when
it was open four months and eight days.
During the last ten years the average
period of navigation has been four
months and twenty-fOur DAYS
Hold Wheat a Year.
BY the time harvest is over navigation
is closed, and wheat shipped to Hudson
bay must lie all winter in the elevators.
l hot Fol
ing June. The farmer would thus lose
his interest on the value of the grain
and at the same time be compelled to pay
insurance and storage charges, but he pro-
poses that the government shall protect
him against both by providing elevators
and practically buying his wheat and
grain and his beef and mutton also by
issuing against it negotiable certificates
equal to its full value at the time il
reaches the elevator, and thus assume the
risk of any fall in prices.
BY the time the road is built. if the
present rate of increase continues,
Canada will produce a thousand million
bushels of wheat This year the crop
is expected to be not less than two hun
dred million bushels. A slight calcua-
ton will show that dozen railways and
a thousand ships would be necessary to
handle the crop if it went by that route
The Canadian government has certain
ly been more generous than any other
tHhI was ever Known III promoting COM
mercial enterprises and means of trans
portation both by land and sea- It has
strained its resources to the utmost and
has mortgaged the revenues of future
generations to subsidze and build rail
way lines. BY the terms of the confeder-
alton 1t was bound to unite the mari
time provinces of Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick with British Columbia and
the settlements on the Pacific coast, and
by an expenditure of half billion dollars
N nd dc hof will ha
twice fulfilled within a few years
1t is now expanding 300,OOO.OOO to COM
plete the Grand Trunk from ocean to
ocean. 1t has given most generous con-
cesstons of land and money to the Cana
dian Northern, and has recently given
new concession to that company for
1.:OO miles of feeders on both sides of its
main line The provincial government of
British Columbia at the same time has
offered a guarantee of per cent on
GOO miles of road from Victoria and
Vancouver northeastward. at the rate of
$50 q mile.