39

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Zealand took thirty-eight days. With such a service the time would be cut down to twenty-four days at most. For Australia there would be no gain of this kind, but she would have the advantage of an alternate route. He admitted that there were difficulties, confined, however, chiefly to the Atlantic. With a twenty-four-knot service, allowing four hours for delay in getting away, he calculated the time from Liverpool to Halifax at four days and 12 hours ; Liverpool to Quebec, via Cape Race, five days 6 hours, as compared with the " Lusitania's " first record-breaking trip of 5 days 18 hours and 46 minutes. There would thus, on the Halifax-Liverpool route, be a gain over New York of a full day and six hours, with less gains by the other route. He assured the House that he had had a definite offer from a reliable steamship company to build a vessel of 20,000 tons, equipped in the same style as the " Lusitania," and with twenty-five-knot speed. This, he said, was an important point, as it would not pay to put a vessel of the size of the " Lusitania " on the Canadian route. There was hostility to the project, but he ascribed it largely to the insurance underwriters. Their objections were to the dangers of the Canadian route from fog and ice. But the reports of the American hydrographic survey showed that the. average fog on the route to Canada was 3J per cent., and on the New York route 8 per cent., the densest fog being just outside of New York. Taking the voyage as a whole, the New York maximum of fog was 16 per cent., and the Canadian maximum 11 per cent. These calculations did not include the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but the Canadian geographer was collating information on this body of water, and from a recent conversation with that official he believed that the fog in the gulf would not be found to total up a large percentage. The opinion in London was that the further north you went the more fog you got, while the contrary was the truth. As to the danger from ice, the captain of the " Empress of Ireland " had given it as his opinion that the only inconvenience was the necessity of taking a somewhat more southerly course from December to May. As the result of a careful examination of the British Board of Trade returns by Mr. White, the Canadian geographer, it had been discovered that the unfavourable insurance statistics were due to the inclusion in the Canadian figures of all wrecks of coasting steamers of 200 tons and upwards, which were not counted in the statistics relating to other countries. Of passenger-steamers, with which alone they were concerned, from 1880 to 1907 there had been only five vessels lost on the Liverpool-Quebec and the Liverpool-Halifax routes. Three of these wrecks were known to have been due to lack of experience or care and two to failure to take proper soundings ; only one in the twenty-seven years might be fairly said to be due to the dangers of the route. The total subsidy which would be required he estimated at £1,000,000. This might be paid as follows : Australia, £75,000 ; New Zealand, £100,000 ; Canada, £325,000 ; Great Britain, £500,000. He thought it might safely be said that New Zealand was willing to give the £100,000. As to Australia it was not so clear what her present position was. Great Britain awaited a definite proposal from the colonies concerned. They might therefore say that it was for the Government and Parliament of Canada to take definite action with a view to securing the co-operation of New Zealand and Australia, and then presenting a definite proposition to the Government of Great Britain. At present Canada paid about £136,000 a year for the CanadianAustralian service. Thus by the proposed distribution she would pay from £180,000 to £190,000 more. The growth of the several countries concerned had now reached a stage which justified their people in concluding that they were entitled to the best service that modern skill and modern science could procure. They were all great, all wealthy, all increasing in prosperity, and had united themselves together in an Imperial organization —because at the Imperial Conference they did unite themselves into an Imperial organization the significance of which it was hardly possible to overestimate, and which was not less significant because it was more or less loose in its character. So far as travel and transportation were concerned Canada was on a side street instead of on the main thoroughfare. What this proposition meant was that Canada should be put upon the thoroughfare. There had been, and there would be, objections of a serious and difficult character to overcome. He had seen statements made, f h instance, by men connected with the Canadian Pacific Railway that indicated some degree of hostility to the project. But companies had been opposed to things in Canada before, and these things had nevertheless come to pass. Thus they could not always look for guidance to the gentlemen who control these great companies. He hoped that if the Governments of the colonies concerned agreed with the Government of Great Britain upon a proper basis, some means could be devised whereby the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Grand Trunk Railway, the Canadian Northern, and the Intercolonial Railway would all join to make the scheme the great success it ought to be, and if they did this he had no doubt that there would be very little difficulty in making it a success. In conclusion he expressed the hope that the Government might feel itself justified at an early date in taking up a decided position in connection with this project.

No. 109. Royal Colonial Institute. The Institute as a body is not responsible either for the statements made or for the opinions expressed by authors of papers, &c. Paper to be read at a meeting of the Royal Colonial Institute, to be held at the Whitehall Rooms, Hotel Metropole, on Tuesday, 7th April, 1908, at 8 p.m., the Right Hon. the Earl of Derby, K.G., G.C.8., G.C.V.0., in the Chair. THE ALL-RED ROUTE. By the Right Hon. Lord Strathcona, G.C.M.G. (High Commissioner for Canada). The Fellows of the Royal Colonial Institute always take a deep interest in matters of Imperial importance—in all questions that are connected with the progress and development of the different parts of our great Empire; and it is for that reason I have ventured to take advantage of a suggestion made to me to read a paper to-night with reference to the " all-red " route.