THE “ALL RED” ROUTE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1666, 3 February 1904, Page 46 (Supplement)

THE “ALL RED” ROUTE.

The arnials of the British Empire show no greater record from an engineering or a commercial point of .view than the building of the CanadianPacific Railway. The United States, which is supposed to be the home of “ big things,” has nothing which affords comparison with it, as while in that country there are five or six railways between the Pacific and the Atlantic, and nearly all built through settled districts and to take care of a large population, the-sister country of ranada had to build the railway as a promise of federation. In 1867, when the confederation of the various provinces was brought forward, the conditions upon which British Columbia became a part of it was that a railway should be built to the Pacific, to connect it with the other parts of the country. In order to accomplish this the line had to be constructed for 2500 miles through a country that was practically uninhabited, a good part of which was thought to be inaccessible, and over several ranges of mountains over which it was considered impossible to build a railway. The syndicate which undertook this herculean task were all men of British birth, and how well they performed the task, and the rapid and astonishing development of Canada since the Pacific was joined to the Atlantic, only .those who have crossed the American Continent can tell. Between Vancouver and the plains, a distance of almost 600 miles, there were four ranges of mountains, beyond a thousand miles of prairie, followed by nearly a thousand miles of a country of deep forests, black ravines, rushing rivers, and what would be called mountains in any other country, but which after the noble ranges of the Rockies are rather belittled in comparison. Some few years elapsed before the new Government’ were in a position to enter into the contract, but when iii 1880 the syndicate undertook tbe work the Government bound them down to complete. it within ten years. The construction was pushed forward with the utmost rapidity, and in the summer of 1886 the final bolt was driven by the Governor-General of Canada. It may be remembered that at this period the population of the country was not five millions, while the United

’ States, which had ten times the number of people, had only got to San Francisco a few years before. v- : In everything that adds to safe travelling and comfort the Canadian-Pacific Company have been the pioneers, and no railway of its "enormous extent shows such a record for freedom from accident. In fact such care was taken in the working of the line that they held a record for many years of hot having lost a passenger, U. and even now, considering . that it is moving an enormous number of people yearly, few railways can . compare with it for safety. The line is now the great tourest route of the world, and travellers from all climes can be seen at the various resorts in the mountains. It was only opened to the Pacific but a year or two. when communication .was established to China . and Japan, and a; year or so later to Australia and Newi Zealand,. So popular has it become as a -route to • England .that people of the Southern Hemisphere are 1 met at all points; each one vicing, with the other, in • seeing what there is to be ' seen, and;all full of praise for,” the excellence of the arrangements ■ which enables a journey to be made with such safety and com- ; fort,' and at an expense : which puts the trip within breach of every one. .

GREAT GLACIER.—One of the world's .greatest glaciera - a wonderful sea of ice. It is a mile and a half from the railway station and hotel 4500 feet above the sea. The Glacier is easily reached from the hotel by a road made by the railway company, and visitors can mount the grimy ice cliffs and wander as as they will over the crumbling surface. The hotel by mountain monarchs, all of them in the-deadly embrace of glaciers, one of them-Sir Donald-the grandest of all peaks an acute pyaramid of naked rock , shooting up a mile and a half above the railway line. Vast' forests clothe the lower slopes, and the valleys are filled with game. Cascades enabling thousands of feet and glaciers, covering miles of area, with gleaming ice and lofty peaks, pre-eminently appeal to every traveller.