VISIT OF THE PRESS DELEGATES TO NIAGARA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14579, 19 July 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

VISIT OF THE PRESS DELEGATES TO NIAGARA

OF THE GRAND TRUNK 1 RAILWAY CO.. AND NIAGARA PARK COMMISSIONERS. j (Fiiost Ouu SrKci.u. Reportm.) | Gn tho 16th May wo left Toronto at' 9.45 a.m. for a day's, tiip to Niagara.! Wo are ibe guests of the Grand Trunk : Railway Company, which haw most, courteously placed at our disposal a' luxurious special car named " Violet," j whose scheme of appointments and furnish-' ings J will not attempt to describe. It, i.°. tho special car of tho president of j this graat railway system, which is the j pioneer railway of Canada, and has a total j mileage of 4645, has 803 locomotives, and ! 31,428 ears. Wo parsed tho town of • Hamilton, a great manufacturing centre ] and the scat of tli,e Mas-ey-Harri.s Com-! pany's great reaper and binder works and ; also Ilia Canadian works of Hkj Inter- j national HiiitcsUi' Company of the ! United Stairs. Our route is through a j rich and fertile fruit-growing area. The i spring is a lale one. and the trees in the j extensive orchards are just coming into ■ blossom. The pink flowers of the peach ( rem in- long rows—acres of them—were quite a beautiful eight, From here hundreds of tons of fruit are sent annually to Toronto and other great centres in tho eastern States. We reached Niagara after an extraordinarily rapid trip of lhr 53min, and found that the ice had practically disappeared from the river, A few weeks l>2foro it had drifted down the river to such an extent that the great falls were for a short time practically useless for power purposes. Wo learned that the supposition that the river itself had' frozen over ab:)va the foils was not. correct, the troublo having. arisen from the vast aetuiiiu.'aliouof ico that had drifted down tin river from Lake Fric. Luncheon had been provided for us at Clifton Mouse, our hosts being tho Niagara Park Ce-ininbsioiiers, a body of capable and intelligent men, to whom has been cr.li u?t«d the control of the park lands oh the Canadian side of the river. Lunch having been partaken of, and the usual toast of welcomo to tho visitors proposed a.iid honoured, wo were taken in tho electric tram to the great central powerhouse and tho Rapids, the latter second only to the great (tills themselves in their awe-inspiring effect' on tho visitor. It may bo here mentioned that it is estimated that a portion ol tlw rocky face over which Hie great hills thunder is wearing away at the rate of sft per annum. We have many striking views of the great body of wafer whose thunderous roar is ever in our oars, and are then taken by electric car- to fee the nionunrait to Brock, who repsl-led an invasion of United States troops in the historic days of long ago when covetous eyes were cast on British North America by her southern neighbour. Tho park lands in j which the. monument is situated are j beautifully kept by the commissioners, and present a striking contrast to the alienaled lands on the American side of the j river, where great factories and business ventures of one kind or another rear their heads, and where great volumes of water stream out of tunnel mouths, having dona their work in the generation of power for industrial purposes. The spkr.did si-eel aich bridge which I has taken the place of, Ihe old suspen--1 siun brides that spanned the river below i tho falls is a striking object. Tho span j bat ween tho piers is 550 ft, and at its higlic.it point it is 226 ft above the water. The. total length of tlw bridge with its approach?; is over 1100 ft. It has two decks or floors, the upper one occupied by tho double trick of the Grand Trunk railway, the low.;r comprising a broad carriage way in tho centre with footwalks outsit!:, linking a total width of 57ft. It cast £100,033. and was formally dedicated io the public service about 12 years since. We kft Niagara at 6 p.m. for Toronto, and had dinner on th-3 train—a well-served meal with the usual exhilarating accompaniments. Tho toast of "The Drawl Pacific Railway Company" was lustily honoured, and in g;.e-J. time we reached oar (bvtina.'io!!. and transferred to tho C.l'.U. car in which we were to continue our journey to Monlioal.