HOW CANADA SELLS NATIONAL RIGHTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 5892, 7 May 1906, Page 3

HOW CANADA SELLS NATIONAL RIGHTS.

Mr J. A. Hobson, the well-known writer on economic subjects, writing in the ‘'Daily Chronicle’ 1 on the future of Canada, says:— Tho example of the United States in lavishing her rich natural resources upon importunate companies and private adventurers has been imitated by Canada. The “Cream” of the country r has been handed over to tho Canadian Pacific Railroad in land grants, some 20.000. acres, of which 12,000,000 in tho North-West are now offered for sale at prices varying. from 3.50 dels, to 10 dels, an acre. The entire land grants to railroads amount to over 30.000. acres. Nor are railroads tho only beneficiaries. One-twentieth of tho entire North-AVost was assigned to tho Hudson Bay Company in extinction of its claims when the Dominion took over the North-West Territories. Most of the rich mining lands, especially coal, have been given away, or sold for a mere song, to a few big capitalists. Tho best coal lands in Nova Scotia and New r Brunswick have gone; the rich deposits of Vancouver Island are chiefly under the control of Dunsmuirs; the Dominion Coal Company .and the Nova Scotia Steol and Coal Company own virtually tho -whole of the Sydney coal fields: the best coal lands in Alberta belong to the O.P.R.

A perhaps still greater menace to tho future independence of the Canadian people is the. alienation of the valuable water j>owers which she possesses in such great abundance. In the electric ago on which wo are entering this water power may become the cliief factor in the industrial development of Canada, and its owners may control the ’ destinies of the nation. For lighting, transport, and for certain industrial uses in Canadian cities water power is already used. The province of Quebec has already committed the folly of selling outright, mostly to Americans, her best powers, and though Ontario is now awakening to a wiser state of mind, much has been already lost. The case of the Ottawa waters, lying between Quebec and Ontario, is typical: a few great pulpmills, electric power, and str.eet railroad companies have secured by free charters virtually the whole water power, so much that even the city water works is in danger of being denuded of its pumping power by dams and channels made by these companies. The forests of Canada are, of course, one of her greatest assets. ' In Quebec alone tho public forest domain extends over 74,000,000 acres. Nevertheless, concessions of valuable forest lands, amounting to several thousands of square miles are held by great firms, who buy up huge tracts with the same avidity which linglish landlords displayed in tho “good old days” of the Corn Laws. This widespread reckless alienation of land, mines, forests, and water powers has virtually handed over -the control of the future of Canada to a group of economic potentates similar to those who to-day rule the destinies of the great American Republic. The same triangle of capitalist 1 forces is seen, railroads, financial companies, industrial trusts, and the greatest of these is tho railroads. It requires little study of tho map of Canada to perceive that tho railroad is there a more potent ruler than in any other country of the world. Tho whole M Canada to-day is a thin trickle of population and of industry along a long drawn out railroad. The Canadian Pacific Railroad is by far tho greatest institution in the country. It is rightly known as “the government on wheels.” In one sense it . deserves the power it wields. Its investors had the courage and the faith to> stake their money on the future of tho country at a time when the Government quailed before tho risk and the expense. For this lack of courage and of faith the people of Canada will pay a heavy price:—tho price of their economic liberty.

The O.P.R. is not merely the only road from'East to West, but it is by far the richest landowner in the country. It advertises for sale “12,000,000 acres of' choice lands in Manitoba, Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, and Alberta” ; it owns the chief telegraphic system of Canada; its fleets of steamers cross the Atlantic, plying between Montreal and Liverpool; while its fast service on the Pacific forms the shortest and best route to Japan and China, another line connecting with Australia; it owns a score of the finest hotels in Canada. In order to live conveniently in Canada, you must continually buy permissions from the C.P.R. At present the C.P.R. is an amiable despot; . its interests dictate a certain generosity; it must facilitate and encourage immigration, settlement, and industrial development. Not until the major part <ff its lands are sold, and thriving cities have sprung up along its lines, involving a great carrying trade,, will tho real menace of the greatest railroad monopoly in the world emerge. It is true that by that time there will bo other transcontinental roads, - the Grand Trunk (which, though failing to extort the huge land grants given to its precursor, has entrenched itself behind immensely valuable public subsidies) and possibly two other companies. But oven if these systems remain separate as financial units, their competition, save at certain points, must remain utterly ineffective. The owners and controllers of these railroads will be tho masters of Canada; the real government of the country, so far as the prime welfare of' tho people is concerned, will' be theirs; whenever they need the assistance of tho State instruments these will be at their disposal. Have the people any real security that the interests of profit-peeking railroads shall continue to be, the interests of the great mass of working and consuming citizens, that a sufficient “natural harmony” exists between the production of railroad dividends and the progress and welfare of a nation?