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Leader (1850-1860), 31st May 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 510

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      years' experience has convinced us that , notwithstanding the privations to which new nettlers are exposed , diligence and perseverance must ensure success . " " " « Was that settlement in the middle of the forest , or ¦ was it one of those settlements on the bank of the river ? ' 'It was in the forest , upon the line of road between Fredrichton and St . Andrew's . ' * * " ' Could that settlement have existed without that road ? ' * It could not have been formed . ' * * * " * You nave given an example of the progress of the Harvey settlement , which was an English settlement : can you give the committee a similar example with respect to an Irish settlement ? ' 'I can mention the which Irish settlement

      ' Teetotal settlement , ' was an , formed by people of Cork and Kerry . It was formed in 1842 , under the same commissioner , by a party of destitute emigrants frorn the south of Ireland . In a report from the commissioner , dated 25 th of January , 1844 , it is thus stated : — ' The results of the second effort in which I have been engaged in forming settlements in the wilderness have afforded me the most unmingled satisfaction . Where but two years ago stood a dense forest , there have been gathered by thirty-five settlers , during the past autumn , 7236 bushels of grain , potatoes , and turnips . The accompanying return shows an estimated balance of £ 1137 in buildings and clearings ; and when there is added to this the market value of the crop ,

      exceeding £ 800 , we have about £ 2000 return ( exclusive of the making four and a quarter miles of road ) from a tract of land which in its wilderness » tate would not in the same time have produced a shilling . I cannot now consider the successful occupation of our wild lands by associated bodies of settlers , having the privilege of making their own roads at a reasonable rate , as a doubtful experiment . No antagonist theory can prevail against the practical experience which can now be referred to . Similar management must produce similar results : and I am well persuaded that no other system is so well calculated to promote the improvement of our millions of wilderness acres , and thus to advance the population and commerce of the province . ' "

      Without these roads the settlers could not have obtained access to the land ; without assistance the roads could not have been made ; and without the roads the emigration to the colony would have been sensibly less . For instance , in 1846 grants to the amount of £ 40 , 000 were made by the Legislature of New Brunswick for the purpose of making public roads ; and the number of emigrants was 9690 , while in 1844 the number was only 2489 . These emigrants found employment upon the public works of the colony in the summer months ,

      and in the winter they hired themselves out to work in the woods at good wages , which provided them in many instances with funds for future settlement upon the land . The great advantage of providing employment for emigrants upon public roads is thus shown . The emigrant has neither to look for work nor land : he finds both ready for him . A double process thus goes on : the roads are made , and the land cleared almost simultaneously ; the labourer has a direct interest in the completion of the road , because he may become a holder , perhaps an owner , of land along its course .

      It has been further established by Mr . Cunard that the English and Irish are about on a par in respect to their capacity for becoming good settlers . He has had large experience on Prince . Edward Island ; and in his plan of settlement roadmaking was one of the principal features . It is found that * while Irishmen on railways and in large towns are always in a state of riot , when once they get upon the land they become peaceable and industrious members of society . They seem to have a natural attraction to the land ; vtiih a chance of becoming landowners or occupiers they save money , are temperate , laborious , easily governed , and , in the long run , make good tenants . The evidence taken before Lord Monteagle ' s committee establishes the fact that settlements in our

      North American colonies increase in proportion to the increase of roads . So they do in the United States . The Erie Canal only dates its existence from 1825 , and now youpaiss through a line of citieB upon its banks . This fact once ascertained , it was felt that a railway would be much more effective as a means of peopling wilderness land than common roads . The idea was no sooner conceived and mado public than it seized on the colonial mind with a completeness "which neither delay nor official thwarting him been able to

      shake . It waf proposed to construct a grand trunk line from Halifax , witli its capacious harbour , to Quebec , with its increasing transit trade ; to be fed by branch lines from the outlying towns , and thus to tie the three provinces together , peopling the forests of Now . Brunswick , developing ( lie trade of Cunada , and giving an impetus to the commercial interests of Nova Scotia . Hitherto the wuntol road has pio < luced feelings of provincialism and narrow local vieww of public interest , not . only between the colon eft but in the separate sections of the same colony . Upon this point Sir Edmund Head observes : —

      " It is evident , in the meantime , th ^ t every judicious adviincf mudc in connecting by transverse liin-s of rondo and settlement our ( draggling elements of population , must , no far aa it goes , tend to remove these moral renults of mi imperfect physical development . Hence the importance of rurul emigration to the province , and the neocHrtiiy for the labour of that emigration bring ho directed as , by improvement of the roi » d « , to give lrcrth value to the labour and capital already expended in

      » parate sections . Of all the colonies of England which present any field for settlement . New Brunswick is accessible at the cheapest rate . Its climate is vigorou but perfectly healthy . No emigrant brought here with his family could complain on that score . The sum required to take a man with his wife and two children to Australia would far more than defray his passage hither , and give him a fair start on his own resources , with a log hut , and a crop in the ground . I am supposing that by an arrangement which , in connection with a railroad , could be made on a large scale , a certain number of

      rough log huts were built , and a certain number of patches of ground tilled and planted , in the spring before the emigrant arrived , so that he might derive from the crop thus raised the means of living through the first winter . Fuel is at his door ; and , though hard work and hard fare would be his lot , it is evident that , if he were thus able to wait for the commencement of railroad work in the following year , he would have a clear course before him . The annexed memorandum , marked A , contains a rough estimate of the probable cost of making the preparations necessary for receiving and housing an emigrant family in the first winter . "

      The memorandum referred to is as follows : — " Average produce of an acre of potatoes , first year of clearing , planted among the stumps ? The land being good , well cleared , and cropped , 200 bushels might be looked for . 41 Average cost of clearing half an acre , burning the rough wood , and fitting the land for planting ? Good hard woodland would take ten or eleven d ays to prepare it for a crop , and if done by the job would cost from £ 3 10 s . lOd . to £ 3 15 s . per acre . 41 Quantity of seed for half an acre of potatoes ? The seed being carefully planted , ten bushels would be required at , say 2 s . Id . per bushel . " Rate per day of labour , if hired ? For a short period 3 s . 4 d . without board , and 2 s . 34 d . with board .

      41 Average cost of rough log huts ? A log hut 18 feet by 12 feet shingled , but without chimney or flooring , would cost £ 8 6 s . 8 d ., including two windows and one door : a hut of the same dimensions , with a chimney , double flooring , and ceiling , and a cellar , would probably cost £ 15 or £ 16 13 s . 4 d . " The idea of a railway was eagerly caught up , and as early as 1844 a Commission of Inquiry was sent by the Railway Board to examine and report upon the feasibility of connecting our British North American possessions by a grand trunk line . They made a report upon the proposed line from Halifax to Quebec , and decided that , though it would certainly be advantageous to the colonies , yet , as a

      commercial speculation , it would not " pay . ' This report , says Sir Edmund Head , " conveyed a sort of impression that the prospects of the great line from Halifax to Quebec were utterly desperate , " and in connection with comparatively free trade in timber , which came into operation about the time the report was published , made the colonists feel somewhat indignant with the mother-country . In 1846 the colonial Legislatures united in making provision for a survey between Halifax and Quebec , by Major Robinson , who showed , in a report , that a great trunk line was quite practicable ; and that it would probably add 400 , 000

      settlers to the colonies . But the estimated expense rendered the execution of the project impossible , according to the avowed opinion of the New Brunswick Legislature , without large aids from the Imperial Government . At the same time ( March , 1849 ) they deliberately expressed an opinion that unless this railway were made , and the North American colonies consolidated , their 4 I position as colonies would be of short duration . " This opinion they emphatically reiterated , in another passage of the report from which we are quoting ; adding , that

      if England wished to retain her North American possessions , the trunk railway "was " indispensable . " The Assembly of New Brunswick pledged themselves to grant . £ 20 , 000 a year out of the revenues to aid in paying for the construction ot the line , and 2 , 000 , 000 acres of ungranted land along its course , ' available for settlement and colonization . " In May , 1850 , Sir Edmund Head transmitted an address of the New Brunswick Assembly to the Queen , praying that her Majesty ' s Government would recommend Parliament to make a " grant of £ 1 , 000 , 000 sterling in aid of the undertaking . "

      In carrying on the negotiations with the Colonialoffice , perhaps , the mo . st important steps were taken by the Assembly of Nova Scotia . There public feeling in favour of the railway runs very high ; and the Lieutenant-Governor , Sir John Harvey , warmly ndvocntes the projeet . The Assembly resolved to make the necessary grant of lands , and to pledge the colonial revenues for the payment of her portion of the interest ; making also an application to the Home Government to guarantee the payment of the interest upon a loan of £ 800 , 000 to be raised and

      cmployed in constituting that part of the line running through Nova Scotia . In () i tober , 18 / 50 , it was further resolved to Fend over here Mr . Joseph Howe , described by Sir John Harvey , in hi « letter of introduction to Earl Grey , as a gentleman of 44 local information , experience , nnd sound judgment , " and capable of affording the " most correct views of tho state of public feeling in Noyo Scotia . " Mr . Howe arrived in Ki ^ lnm ! in November , 18 / 50 . The result of liis negotiations we shall presently Htate . Meanwhile memorials from Nova Scotia were transmitted

      to the Queen and Lord John Russell respectively , urging them to make the requisite guarantees for the construction of the line . Canada was not backward in supporting her sister colonies in effecting what Lord Elgin justly called "that national and important work , the railway from Quebec to Halifax . " The Assembly passed resolutions conditionally pledging their revenues , and granting land for the purposes of constructing their portion of the proposed railway . The result of these negotiations between the Colonial-office , and Mr . Howe , Sir Edmund Head , Lord Elgin , and Sir John Harvey , on behalf of the threo provinces , is as follows : —

      Lord Grey declares himself to be duly impressed with the great importance of the enterprise " to the whole empire ; " he sees that it would provide important means of military communication ; he also sees that it would decidedly stimulate emigration and benefit the North American colonies generally , and pave the way for that period when colonial government shall be paid for out of colonial revenue . But what is he prepared to do ? In a letter dated " Downing-street , March 10 , 1851 , " addressed to Mr . Joseph . Howe , and signed "B . Hawes , " the government plan of assistance is sketched out . Lord Grey is ready to recommend to Parliament that the payment of the

      interest of the loan of £ 800 , 000 , applied for by Nova Scotia , should be guaranteed by the Imperial Treasury , and that "like assistance" should be rendered to New Brunswick and Canada , in obtaining loans upon more favourable terms than would be otherwise required by the lenders , for the construction of their respective portions of the work ; conditionally , that no part of the work shall be begun until all the necessary arrangements have been made between the three provinces for apportioning expenses and traffic returns , and rendering the completion of the line certain . Further , it will be required that the loans shall be made a " first charge upon the provincial revenues , " after all payments on account of the Civil List shall have been made ; that permanent taxes shall be

      imposed , " to provide for the interest and sinking fund of the loans , " after discharging the above prior claims ; and that the expenditure of the money raised under the guarantee of the Imperial Paliament shall be superintended by Government commissioners . It is obvious at a glance that if one of the provinces reject the proposition made by the Colonialoffice the execution of the project will be indefinitely postponed ; and so far as we can learn it has been but indifferently received . It is reported that New Brunswickhas rejected the offer ; that Canada will most likely reject it ; though the partizans of the Government are getting up a petition to the Assembly for the acceptance of Earl Grey ' s plan ; and that Nova Scotia will wait until Mr . Howe returns , to decide upon what course she will pursue . There the matter stands for the present .

      Meanwhile , it is to be remarked that the people of the United States have seized upon the idea of a great colonizing railway , and actually adopted Asa Whitney ' s gigantic scheme for a line 2000 miles long , from Michigan to California . The object of this railway is not only to afford transit for existing commerce and facilities of locomotion to existing settlements , but it is projected as the most effective means of transforming a vast tract of forest and wilderness into a cultivated territory . It will be constructed ten miles at -a time , and opened as soon as constructed . There has not been for many years a more magnificent , and , at the same time , more practicable scheme of almost international communication and colonization proposed than that of Asa Whitney ' s Atlantic and Pacific Railway .

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      MISCELLANEOUS . Among the many notabilia of this remarkable year we must not forget to mention the chess tournament . Th « i St . George Club were the first to originate the idea , and put themflelvcs in communication with their elder rivals the London Club . Unfortunately , however , from some c&usc or other , the combination , in this case so much to be desired , could not be attained , and the onus of working out the details so as to make the tournament alike worthy of the game and the occasion rested with the original promoters . The patrons of this noble game responded with such prompt liberality as to enable the committee to offer several prizes , the chief of which is the not inconsiderate sum of £ 300 . On Tuesday sixteen gentlemen , who may be taken as a fair average of the beat players of the flame , whether " Britiah or foreign , " commenced the tourney . " Palmum qui meruit fecit , " ko oaith the adage , and we will merely add tho hope that the pulm will not leave the country . The Harwich election has ended in the return of Mr . Crawford , by nix vot < -n over his opponent Mr . PrinHep ; ; . nd Mr . Dawea , the Free-trade Candidate for the I « le of Wight , hus been * eturned by a majority of twenty-aeven over Mr- Hammond . The numbers ware , 478 to 451 . A meeting of the members of the Canterbury Association was held on Wednesday at their rooms , Adelphiterrace , at which Lord Lyttelton and a numerous body of the members attended , to hear the despatches and private letters read which announced the arrival of the colonists at tho nr \ r Hcttlcnu-nt , The letters of the coloihhIh were of the moot favourable nature . Awry large meeting of the inhabitants of Kensington

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      510 Jfffte He ail tt . [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 31, 1851, page 510, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1885/page/10/