CANADA'S PROGRESS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10300, 7 March 1905, Page 4

CANADA'S PROGRESS.

MANITOBA AND THE NORTH-WEST.

Mr T. Clarkson, writing, in the Duuedin Star, says: — The twentieth century is to be Canada's century. If you doubt it, ask any Canadian, and for preference one living on the west of Lake Superior. I talked to a news-paper man m Winniipeg, and the following are extracts from his conversation : "I know a farmer ia Manitoba who got 32d0l au acre from his farm tliis year, and I could buy similar land m the same locality for 14dol an acre. Any good farming land can be made to produce at this .year's prices anywhere from 20dol to 25d0l to the acre. The average crop m Manitoba for twelve years his been over 20 bushels, and it has sold this year at an average of 85 cents. My father-an-law ha« 3CO acres south of Win- | nipeg, and his average was 26 busliels. We nnd rust for the first time m twenty years m Manitoba, otherwise the crop would have been the best mi twenty-five years. Listen ! In Manitoba alone there are forty incorporated towns which, were not m existence m 1896. Ins'ido three years ago I stood on the site of the present town of Rosthern. There was noth. ing to be seen but the level grade of the railway train that swept through the prairie. On my return journey there were three shanties. Now it h-i,s 2000 people, three banks, and seven grain eflevators. What has taken place there is happening all over this country. In 1895 the immigration to this country only totalled 15,000. Last year it was nearly 150,000; next year it will be 175,000.'" I •qlwtted with a representative of the Standard Oil Company, who, though Canadian-born, had spent most of his life m the United State's. He had been four months prospecting on behalf of the big. gest oil company m the world m afll parts of the Canadian North-west. His enthusiasm, could scarcely be translated into words. One might have thought he had discovered a new hemisphere. Yet he declared that before going North-west he had been decidedly sceptical concerning the reports of its coming greatness. Important information he gave me was that there is a likelihood of enormous oil wells being discovered m various parts of the country. At Medicine Hat. on. the Cana. dian Pacific Transcontinental line, a mag. nificent flow of natural gas has been found, and is being utilised bp the residents for lighting n.nd heating purposes. The Western Canadian believes that the future of the Canadian nation is mainly dependent upon* the resources and immen. sity of the West. He knows, because it is his own country, that Western Canada possesses all the elements that go to make up a nation economically great. The Canadian West is empire-like m extent. Manitoba alotne Liis an area of 47,188,480 acres, and of this area it is estimated that there are available far fai*mii\g purposes fully 25.000,000. But even this tremendous area of arable land is but a fraction of the vast. area lying between the Great Lakes and the Rocky Mountains. For 609 miles from north to -south amd for 1200 miles from east to west, within, the limits of Manitoba, and the three territories of Assiniboia, Alberta, and Saskat. chewan Valley, the whole comprising what is popularly known as "the North-west. " is an area, of 372,112 square miles, of which 135,000,000 acres are said .to be good farm land. Of this, less than 3,500,000 acres is yet under cultivation. An. idea of the extent of these grain and grazing lands comprised m the Canadian Northwest can be best gained by comparison. Its total area is 3_ times that of the whole of New Zealand. But even this does mot constitute the whole of Western Canada. Beyond Manitoba and the Territories, not including Bri.ti.sh Columbia and the Yukon, are vast unorganised ter. ritories, only partially explored, but yet sufficiently known to give assurance of great agricultural possibilities, and valuable forest and mineral resources. The aggregate area of the greater Canadian West is 2,226,281 square miles, whicli is more tlian twenty times the area, of New Zealand. RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. Already Western Canada has nearly 6000 miles of railroad, and a few years will see this quantity doubled. The year 1904 has brought the Dominion's commit, ment to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, whicli is to extend right across the Canadian continent from Monckton. ia New Brunswick, to some point on the Pacific Coast — probably Port Simpson. A thou, sand miles of this new railway will be m the wheat country, and will give access to millions of acres that are now too far from the railway to be profitably cultivated. Lying from 100 to 200 miles to the north of the Canadian Pacific* line, il entirely avoids the desert aTca. that every other transcontinental raiiliroad m the United States and Canada encounters to o greater or less extent. From Winnipeg to Edmonton (900 miles) the new road will pass through a continuous wheat country, into which settlers ;ire now flock, ing by thousands, snapping up every homestead within twenty-five or thirty miles of the line or where they believe it is going to run. Meantime the Canadian Paoific Company is making the most of its opportunity ia being first m the field, and is issuing branch lines from its transcontinental to secure the trade of the newly-settled territories. The Canadian Northern is driving its maim line across the prairies to Edmonston, 1500 miiles from its eastern terminus at Port Arthur on Lake Superior. Thus, although the Grand Trunk line will not be started till next spring, the Canadian West is at the present time getting three new miles of railway every day. The Canadian Paqific Company is* spending £5,000,000 m reducing curves and grades on its main track and m other improvements. It can afford to do this, for its earnings during 1904 totalled £9,000,000, to say nothing of its income from immense land grants. Altogether 1800 miles of railway are now going down m the prairies* and mountains of Western and Pacific Canada as fast as nioney amd men can do the work, and there are 3000 miles more definitely decided upon, not counting the long-talked, of railway to Hudson Bay from the wheat-fields, which, rumor' aisserts*, tlie Canadian Northern will build as soon as its engines are Whistling for Edmonton.' By the Hudson Bay route the distance from the wheatfields of Western Canada to Liverpool will be reduced a thousand miles. Those who believe m this route declare that the time is coming when the bulk of the wheat of Canada, and even some from the Northern States of America, will go to Europe via nn inland sea. that is to-day visited only by Hudson Bay Company supply boatis and American whalers.