HUDSON BAY RAILWAY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 11 March 1926, Page 9

HUDSON BAY RAILWAY.

COMPLETION UNDERTA KEN

NEW TRADE ROUTE TO .EUROPE*.

GREAT NATURAL DIFFICULTIES

The Canadian Government has announced its determination to complete the Hudson May railway and thus open a now traffic route to Europe. Its accomplishment will be an event as epochal as was the building of the first t: anscoiitinontal railway, the tion of the Panama Canal, or the dredging and cana'isation. still incomplete, of tile great St. Lawrence waterway (says a Canadian correspondent of the Auckland ‘Herald.) Without- consulting an atlas it is impossible to realise the significance of liie Hudson Bay route. But one glance at a map reveals three surprising facts: that the harbours on the west coast of Hudson Bay are as close to Europe as most of the ports oil the Atlantic Coast; that they are 1000 miles closer to the wheat fields of Western Canada : and that they are in about the same latitude as the south of Scotland and much more southerly than important Scandinavian and Russian ports. As long ago as 1908 the Canadian Government, under Sir Wilfrid Laurier, decided to hui'il the Hudson Ray railway, t;? bridge the 4.00 or. 500 mile span through a .wilderness between northern Manitoba and the great inland salt-water sea. The work proceeded. though without great enthusiasm. under successive Governments until war put a stop to mast productive i nterprises. WORK NEGLECTED FOR TEN YEARS. Some 330 miles of track were laid, ending 90 miles short ol the objective on the sea. All told .£4.000,000 was spent on railway .construction and in work on the proposed terminal at Port Nelson on Hudson Bay. For a decade the rails have been rusting, and the route has been reverting to wilderness conditions. The roadbed is sinking in the muskeg and the harbour at Port Nelson is silting up again. Recently some attempt lias he'n made t.o sa’vnge the original capital expenditure, and small sums have been spent on upkeep. A -service of sorts lias been established bv the Canadian National Railway System, which, of course, must-also take this duckling under its wing, but it is perhaps the most hectic railway service t'-- Im* found anywhere in flic world. Once a week a train runs as far as Mile 81, when* there is a mining camp, and there is a twice a week service to Mile til4. Beyond Mile 214 only light gas cars .can operate, and transportation in this .section is so exciting that the railway demands from passengers before entraining a release- ftom al 1 liability. VALUE OF THE RAILWAY.

Eastern Canadian sentiment, without thinking much about it. lias regarded the scheme as a Western whim, extravagant and impracticable. Powerful interests are antagonistic. But- the West has never modified its insistence that the route must he completed. The West believes that- the Hudson Bay route wil’ save 15 cents a bushel (the rate from Fort William to Montreal) on every bushel of grain it ships to Europe —an addition on this year’s wheat crop alone of £8,000,000 to. the pockets of the Western farmer. It is claimed also that the building of the rai’wav *is* necessary for the development of Canada. The railway will tap large pulpwood areas; it will make accessible important mineral deposits. Surprisingly, also, it promises to open up new* agricultural lands. Experimental stations have been established at Mile 137 and Mile 185, and there this year the new early-ripening Garnet wheat was successfully harvested. Large areas would restore free homestead land, in recent years extinct, and attract’thousands of settlers. A superfluity of water power has great potentialities. And. finally, the untotd wealth of Hudson Bay itself, in. fisheries and in minerals, would he made accessible. Fabulous -stories are to'd of deposits of iron and of precious minerals to be found on the islands and coastline of Hudson Bay. THE NAVIGATION PROBLEM.

Opposition to th*. route, powerful though it is, would not long prevail if it eou'd be demonstrated that Hudson Hay navigation is practicable. That is the dominating factor in the situation. There are two critical points in the route as projected : Hudson Straits, which connect the landlocked sea with the Atlantic, and Port Nelson, the terminal toward which the'railway is headed. Hudson Bay itself, despite its proximity to polar regions, is always open water. Some claim that Hudson Straits are not clear of ice for more than two months in the year, from August lb to October 15. and that even these may lie precarious. Other authorities extend the limit to four months.

As for Port Nelson harbour, great controversy rages. It is at the mouth: of the mighty Nelson River and tides and river combine to form treacherous sandbars. But it is declared that the true channel of the outgoing river current wi'l furnish a safe channel. At Fort Churchill it is agreed that there is an ideal harbour, not a, mere roadstead like Nelson, but a real harbour requiring no dredging, with 40ft draft and open all the. year round. _ But Churchil' is 140 miles north of Nelson. Most advocates of the route are at, present content with having the railway completed to Nelson, no doubt hoping that if the harbour there is really practicable. the road then can be extended io Churchil'. The real practicability of the route tan only be demonstrated by experience. and to the great experiment the Government has definitely committed the country.