CANADIAN BUDGET.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1390, 16 March 1912, Page 5

CANADIAN BUDGET.

TWENTY MILLIONS FOR RAILWAYS. Bj Teleerapli—Preaa Association—Oopyrieus Ottawa, March U. In the Dominion House of Commons, tho Budget was introduced to-day. It shows a surplus of twenty-nine million dollars (.£5,400,000). No tariff changes are proposed, and there is no resolution regarding, the steel bounties. Another hundred million dollars (.£20,000,000) is to be spent in Government aid to the National Transcontinental Railway, the bargain concerning which the Laurier Government made. > A VAST ENTERPRISE. NEW ROUTE ACROSS CANADA. Tho Canadian National Transcontinental Railway is a huge enterprise which is being carried out conjointly by tho Canadian Government and the Grand. Trunk Pacific Company. The line begins at Moncton, tho second town of New Brunswick, and will traverse tho provinces of New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. It will open a vast country rich in agricultural, timber, and mineral resources, and will provide an additional outlet for the enormous grain-crops of tho Canadian North-West, as well as create a new market for the manufactured products of Eastern Canada. It will bo a shorter route by several hundred miles than any now existing between Europo and the Far East. For purposes of construction tho railway is divided.into two great sections; the Eastern Division, extending from the Atlantic to Winnipeg, and the Western Division, reaching from Winnipeg to the Pacific. Tho Eastern Division will be built at tho cost of tho Canadian Government and leased to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company for a period of 50 years, at an annual rent (after tho first seven years) of 3 per cent, on tho cost of construction. The Western Division will be built, at the cost of tho company, with the aid of a Government guarantee of its first mortgage bonds. The total cost of tho .company's share of the undertaking is estimated at 123,500,000 ' dollars (•£21,700,000). As at present contemplated, the railway will run from Moncton across New Brunswick in a north-westerly direction, and then traverse, tho province of Quebec to Lcvis. At Chaudicre Junction, five miles above Quebec, tlio lino will cross the St. Lawrence bv the largest cantilever bridge in the world, 3-sths of a milo long and 150 ft. above high-water. . It will then run back, along the north bank of the St. Lawrence, to Quebec. From this point the railway will run in an almost direct lino to Winnipeg, ISOO miles from Moncton, passing near Lake Abitibi and Lake Nipigoii. This part of its course will be from 80 miles to 120 miles to the north of that of tho Canadian Pacific Railway. Branch lines will be constructed from points on the F.astern Division between Quebec and Winnipeg to Montreal, to North Bay, and to Port Arthur and Fort William. The Western Division is subdivided into the prairio section, extendins to tho foot of tho Rocky Mountains (1100 miles from Winnipeg, and tho mountain section, reaching thenco to the Pacific Coast. The country traversed by the prairio section comprises the great agricultural region of the North-West, which, it is estimated, contains ii wheat-growing area largely in excess of that of the United States. From Winnipeg the railway runs at first almost duo west, paralleling- the Canadian Pacific ■Railway, but after throwing off a short spur-lino to Brandon, it bends to tho north-west. The next branch-lino runs to Rcgina. From a point near Battleford one branch will run to the north-east to Prince Albert, whilo another will run to tho south-west to Calgary. Edmonton will bo an important, divisional point on tho railway. It is intended to construct a branch-line running to the north-west to Dawson (80D miles) in tho Yukon. Tho terminus on the Pacific Coast is situated on the Chini-sy-an Peninsula, about 25 miles to the south of Port Simpson nnd the Alaska boundary. It is named Princo Rupert, after tho brilliant nephew of Charles I, who was the first governor of tho Hudson Bay Company (Ili7(t), whilo for at least a century thereafter the great North-West of Canada was known as ItuportiJaud.