CANADIAN AND AUSTRALIAN RAILWAYS—THE RAILWAYS OF OTHER BRITISH COLONIES.
The progress of Canada—we speak of the whole dominion recently created
by the confederation of Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, and New
Brunswick[110]—has been marvellous, and in no respect, perhaps, has
the growth of the country shown itself in a more marked manner than
in the development of its railway system. It was in 1848, or almost
immediately after the completion of the magnificent canal system of
Canada proper, and by which vessels of 800 tons could pass from the
ocean to Lake Ontario, and _vice versâ_, that the Canadians discovered
it was necessary, notwithstanding their unrivalled inland navigation,
to combine with it an equally good railway communication—that was
if they were to continue to be the carriers of the products of the
western states through the valley of the St. Lawrence. They found
that their neighbours to the south had commenced their railways in
all directions, but more particularly to connect the cities on the
Atlantic Coast with the Western Lakes, and accordingly in 1849 an Act
was passed by the Canadian Government pledging a 6 per cent. guarantee
on one-half the cost of all railways made under its provisions. Under
this Act, the Northern Railway, which runs from Toronto to Collingwood,
the Great Western Railway, which runs from Windsor on the Detroit
River (opposite Detroit) to the Niagara River, and the St. Lawrence
and Atlantic, now forming part of the Grand Trunk line, running from
Montreal to Portland, were commenced. In 1852, however, the Government,
fearing the effect of an indiscriminate guarantee, repealed the law
of 1849, and passed an Act guaranteeing one-half of the cost of one
main trunk line of railway throughout the province, and it was under
this Act that the Grand Trunk Railway was projected. These terms were
subsequently modified by granting a fixed sum of £3,000 per mile of
railway forming part of the main trunk line. It is true that prior
to these dates railways existed in Canada. There was, for example,
the horse railway from La Prairie, nine miles above Montreal, to St.
John’s, on the Richelieu River, which was opened in July, 1836, and
was first worked with locomotives in 1837. There was also the horse
railway between Queenstown and Chippewa, which was opened in 1839; but
with these exceptions and the length of the Lachine Railway, a line
running from Montreal for seven miles to the westward, the railway
system of Canada cannot be said to have commenced until after the
passing of the Railway Act in 1849, and even then it was not for about
a year that any substantial progress was made. But after that date the
works of the several lines were pushed forward rapidly, and in 1853 the
lines from Montreal to Sherbrooke, from Toronto to Bradford, and from
Hamilton to Suspension Bridge were opened. In 1854 the line between
Montreal and Quebec was opened, the first train having carried Lord
Elgin, who was then _en route_ to England. In the same year the Great
Western Railway[111] was finished to Windsor, and in the two following
years the whole line from Montreal to Toronto, and thence to London
was constructed, and in 1859 the entire Canadian Railway system was
completed, including the keystone of its arch, the Victoria Bridge,
the details of the construction of which will he found in a subsequent
page.
Whilst, as has been already explained, the Government of Canada owns
no portion of the 2,148 miles of railroad now constructed, although
the moneys granted in their aid amount to upwards of £6,000,000,
Nova Scotia has built and owns all the railways constructed in that
province. They consist of a trunk line from Halifax on the Atlantic,
by way of Truro, to Pictou, in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, with a
branch line to Windsor, in the Bay of Fundy. The distance from Halifax
to Truro is sixty miles, and from the main line to Windsor thirty-three
miles. From Truro to Pictou the distance is also about sixty miles. The
railways to both these points were completed in 1858; the total cost of
construction, including the extension to Pictou, being a little over
£8,000,000. The line from Halifax to Pictou was originally intended to
form part of the European and British North American Railway, running
from Halifax to the Great Lakes through British territory, and this has
now all been accomplished, with the exception of the intermediate link
through New Brunswick, from the St. Lawrence River to the Bay of Fundy.
This incompleted section, the projected Intercolonial Railway will now
fill in, so that within three years from the present time the dominion
of Canada will have direct railway communication between its extreme
limits—that is to say, the iron road will be laid between the ocean and
the Great Lakes.
New Brunswick, like her sister maritime province, also owns a railway,
being the line from St. John to Shediac—a distance of 108 miles. It
is called the European and North American, and it is intended to
extend the line westwards from St. John to the boundary line of the
State of Maine, the present railways of that State being in like
manner extended until a junction is effected between the two systems.
With the completion of these extensions and the construction of the
Intercolonial Railway, a passenger landing at Halifax will be able
to take his train to any city in the States or in the Dominions. In
addition to the European and North American Railway, New Brunswick
possesses two other lines—the New Brunswick and Canada, eighty-eight
miles long, running from St. Andrews to Woodstock, and the St.
Stephen’s branch railway, a short line of eighteen miles in length. It
is not unlikely that some portion of the Woodstock line may be utilised
as part of the Intercolonial Railway; but, until the route of the
latter is finally settled, it is impossible to say whether this will be
so or not.
From the foregoing figures it will be seen that, whilst in 1852 Canada
could only boast of thirty miles of railway, she has now, including the
railways of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, 2,495 miles. The population
of the dominion is estimated at 4,000,000, so that, with the exception
of the United States, which possess a little more than a mile of
railway for about every thousand inhabitants, the rate of Canada, which
is nearly five-eighths of a mile for the same proportion of population,
shows a greater mileage system per head of population than any other
country.
The following is the length and cost of the several railways in the
dominion:—
Name. Length in miles. Cost.
Grand Trunk 1,377 £16,583,033
Great Western 345 4,901,892
Northern 97 1,121,462
Brockville and Ottawa 86½ 534,657
Prescott and Ottawa 54 412,808
Port Hope, Lindsay, and Beaverton 43 327,437
Port Hope and Peterboro’ 13 82,191
Cobourg and Peterboro’ 14 184,931
London and Port Stanley 24½ 212,229
Welland 25½ 333,460
Carillon and Grenville 13 19,536
St. Lawrence and Industrie 12 11,116
Stanstead, Shefford, and Chambly 44 249,862
Nova Scotia 133 1,300,000
New Brunswick 214 1,700,000
—————— ————————————
2,495½ £27,974,614
The magnificent harbour of Halifax—than which there is none finer in
the world—will, on the completion of the Intercolonial Railway, be the
Atlantic terminus of the Canadian system of railways—a system that
will yet extend across the Rocky Mountains to British Columbia; and
there, ere long, will be seen the lumber from New Brunswick, Maine, and
Canada, the beef, pork, wheat, flour, and corn of Western Canada and
the Western States, with the other products—
From the forests and the prairies,
From the great lakes of the northland,
From the land of the Ojibways,
From the land of the Dacotahs,
From the mountains, moors, and fenlands,
all being transhipped for consumption in our Cis-Atlantic markets.
Australia has not made as rapid progress in respect of the construction
of railways as might perhaps be expected. She has not, however, been
altogether unmindful of her interests in this respect. Of the four
great modern divisions of the Australian Continent, New South Wales
had, at the commencement of the present year, 263 miles, and the
expenditure upon them had been £2,746,373; Victoria, 272, with an
expenditure of £9,905,634; Queensland, 78, with an expenditure of
£617,658; and South Australia, 56. The expenditure for railways in this
last-named colony is not stated in the returns before us. It will thus
be seen that the aggregate length of the Australian railways is 669
miles.
In the New South Wales Province there are three main lines, all of
which commence at Sydney—the Great Southern, the Great Western, and
the Great Northern. The first is to extend through Goulburn to the
Murray River at Albury. Although some of the works on this line
are very heavy, and there is a long tunnel to complete through the
Gibraltar Mountains, it is, nevertheless, expected that the line will
be completed in 1868. The Great Northern will extend to Muswell Brook
on the Hunter River, sixty miles north-west of Maitland, and 153 miles
from Sydney. The third, or Great Western Line, is to extend to Bathurst
on the Macquarie River, 122 miles from Sydney. New South Wales has
its Windsor and its Richmond, and these places are accommodated with
railway communication from Sydney. When the several lines now open, and
those now in process of construction, are completed, the Colony will
have 500 miles of railway within its limits.[112]
The Victorian railways consist of two main lines, one from Melboure
to Castlemain (Mount Alexander Goldfields) and Sandhurst (Bendigo
Goldfields), 101 miles long, and the other from Melbourne to Geelong
and Ballarat, with a branch to Williamstown (the Port of Melbourne).
The total length of this second line is ninety-six miles. The Geelong
and Melbourne Railway was purchased from the shareholders by the
Government in 1860. An extension from Sandhurst to the Murray River at
Echuca, fifty-six miles long, is in progress, and will be opened next
year. Echuca is 150 miles distant from Albury, the terminus on the
Murray River of the intended southern extension of the New South Wales
Railways. There will, therefore, not be direct railway communication
between Sydney and Melbourne, at all events for the present. The gauge
of the New South Wales and Victorian Railways is 5 feet 3 inches.
The railways of Queensland consist of two main trunk lines, one for
the southern districts from Brisbane, at the head of the Moreton Bay
Navigation, and one for the northern districts from Rockhampton, at the
head of the navigation at Keppel Bay, running nearly due west into the
interior, passing through Westwood and other townships, and traversing
the extensive Leichhardt district, whence it will be eventually
extended to Claremont, a township of the Peak Downs, distant 220 miles
from Rockhampton. This extension, when completed, will open out a vast
territory, and will give the same facilities for the inhabitants of the
province to transport their enormous yields of wool to the sea-board as
India now possesses for its cotton. The first section of this railway
from Rockhampton is on the eve of completion.
As regards the Southern line, it has been open more than a year from
Brisbane to Ipswich. Its extension to Toowoomba (sixty-two miles) will,
it is expected, be ready for traffic early next year; and later, two
forks, one extending north-west towards Dalby, and the other south-west
to Warwick, in the direction of Dumaresq River, which forms the
boundary between the southern inhabited portion of Queensland and the
northern of New South Wales, will be completed.
The gauge of the Queensland railways is 3 feet 6 inches, and the reason
for its adoption in these narrow proportions was to save the great
additional cost which construction on a wider gauge would have entailed
in passing through the extremely difficult country between Ipswich and
Toowoomba. Two ridges of hills have to be crossed, one 700 feet and
the other 1,400 feet above the level of the land at their bases. The
main range incline is sixteen miles long, and upon it there are eleven
tunnels, the longest of which is over three-quarters of a mile, all of
which require lining with stone or brick. The total number of bridges
is 47; their total length is 5,196 feet, or 84 feet less than a mile.
In one locality they are so crowded together, that there are eight in
three-quarters of a mile. The longest is 535 feet, the greatest in
height is 73 feet over the rails. The steepest gradient is 1 in 50; the
longest at that rate of inclination is 1,820 yards; the total length of
1 in 50 is 4 miles 280 yards. The average gradient of both inclines is
1 in 70.
On the lesser range there are two tunnels, one of 586 yards, and the
other 120 yards, on a curve of 120 yards, or five chains radius.
The low-lying country at the base of these two mountain ranges
is intersected by streams and water-courses, which in the wet
season become roaring torrents, overflowing their banks, and thus
necessitating an amount of bridging and water-ways as great as, for a
like distance, in any other country of the world. Notwithstanding these
heavy works, the passages through the mountain have been constructed
at a cost of about £15,000 a mile. On the lengths presenting only
ordinary difficulties they have been made at about £6,000 a mile.
The South Australian Railway extends from Adelaide in the direction
towards Murray River, not far from where it flows into Lake Alexandra.
The number of passengers conveyed on Victorian lines in 1866 was
very great—3,361,312. They also transported 482,314 tons of goods.
The number of passengers carried on the New South Wales railways was
751,587; but the amount of goods was nearly equal to that on the
Victorian lines—416,707. The South Australian carried on its fifty-six
miles of railway 402,550 passengers and 261,183 tons of goods.[113]
Owing to the failure of the harvest, there has been a considerable
falling off in the business of the South Australian railways in 1866.
New Zealand opened its first railway—from Christchurch to
Lyttelton—six miles in length, in the summer of 1867. Further reference
will be made to this railway in a subsequent page. Tasmania is also
becoming alive to the importance of its having railways running from
its sea-boards to the interior.
Railways have made progress in some of the other colonies of great
Britain. The oldest British railway, out of the United Kingdom, is
the Demerara Railway. The company was constituted so far back as 1844
for the construction of various lines, including one from George Town
to Mahaica, a length of twenty miles. This is the only railway as yet
open in the colony. It is, however, prospering, the receipts having
increased very much during late years. Its total cost has been about
£320,000; £115,000 is 6 per cent. preference capital. The ordinary
capital now earns a dividend of 3 per cent.
The Jamaica Railway Company is entitled to be spoken of with respect,
for it stands in the unique position of having “its capital closed, no
money has been borrowed, and the railway is entirely free from debt.”
The capital upon which dividend is payable is £150,000; but, owing to
the discount at which nearly half the share capital was issued, the
actual money received was only £96,675. The railway was opened for
traffic in 1850. Its length is sixteen miles. It runs from Kingston
to Spanish Town, the seat of the Colonial Government, and thence to
the Angels. At Kingston the company possesses a wharf suitable for
receiving the largest vessels alongside it. The dividends have never
exceeded £1. 10s. per cent. per annum; they are usually not more than
half that amount.
Notwithstanding that the Secretary of State for the Colonies has
sanctioned a guarantee of 6 per cent. on £300,000 by the Colonial
Government for the construction of a railway through the isle of
Trinidad, no progress has been made with the works, and the line is in
abeyance for the present.
Central American Honduras—not a British Colony, notwithstanding that
its imports and exports appear in the statistical abstract of the
Board of Trade “for the several Colonies and other Possessions of the
United Kingdom”—is about to have a railway constructed immediately
across its territory, from the Carribean Sea to the Pacific Ocean.
For this purpose the Honduras Government has recently introduced with
success on the London and Paris markets a loan for £1,000,000 sterling,
under special treaties between England, France, and the United States.
The line (about 150 miles long) has been surveyed, on the part of
the British Government, by Colonel Stanton and a detachment of the
Royal Engineers, sent out from England for the purpose. As regards
interoceanic communication, the line will be of great importance, as it
will effect a saving of 1,300 miles, or five days, between the Atlantic
and Pacific ports, as compared with the Panama route. The harbours at
the respective termini—viz., Puerto Caballos on the Carribean Sea, and
the Bay of Fonseca on the Pacific, are capacious and safe, affording
every facility for direct embarkation and disembarkation.
Proceeding to Africa, we have the Cape Railway, the terminus of
which is at Cape Town. The total length of its lines in operation is
sixty-three miles. The Cape of Good Hope Government guarantees 6 per
cent. upon a sum not exceeding £500,000, and “it is to be considered
as a rate in aid towards making a dividend of 6 per cent.” The net
dividend and the guarantee combined only yield 4 per cent. on the gross
capital, which, at the date of the last report issued by the company
in October, 1867, was £746,722. This railway has suffered severely in
its traffic, in consequence of the great commercial depression in the
colony during the last two years, but its prospects are now reviving.
The Directors have recently completed arrangements with the Colonial
Government for the construction of further extensions.
The young and enterprising colony of Natal contemplates (as yet it has
done nothing more) two lines of railway, one from Durban to Maritzburg,
which will be about sixty-nine miles long, and a mineral line from
Durban to Zuguela. Its length would be sixty-nine miles, and it would
run through districts said to abound in fine coal, limestone, and iron.
The Island of Mauritius has a railway consisting of two portions, each
having its terminus in common at Port Louis. The northern line is 36½
miles long, and the Midland 34 miles. They are now both open in their
entire lengths. The traffic is reported to be highly satisfactory, and
in advance of the expectations which had been formed of it. The cost of
the whole 70½ miles has been about £1,300,000, of which the Government
advanced £300,000 out of its accumulated surplus revenue. The balance
of the capital has been principally found in England.
Shortly after the British Government took possession of Ceylon, at
the invitations of the native chiefs, the formation of a large system
of roads through the principal parts of the island was decided upon.
These, as well as several canals, were constructed at heavy cost, for
the country is extremely difficult and mountainous in several parts.
Now the railway is beginning to supersede the old roads, and in a few
years more there will be a tolerably comprehensive net-work throughout
the island. From Colombo, its capital, situated on the west-coast of
the island, to the foot of the incline over the Allagalla Mountain, the
peak of which is 8,400 feet above the level of the sea, the line has
been opened since the early part of 1867. Its length is fifty-three
miles, and it is expected that before the close of the year the whole
line to Candy will be completed. The railway will subsequently be
extended from Candy to Trincomalee.
Of the small islands in the vicinity of the British coast, the only
one which as yet has railways, is the beautiful little Isle of Wight,
the climate of which is said to be the most salubrious of any part
of Great Britain. It is, at its nearest point, about 85 miles from
London, and, thanks to express trains and rapid steamboats, it is not
farther in time than three hours, _viâ_ Portsmouth or Stokes Bay, to
Ryde, or _viâ_ Southampton and the Solent, to Cowes. For an island,
the length of which is only 22 miles, and the extreme breadth (as
nearly as possible at its centre) 13 miles, the whole of which is
necessarily, from its picturesque character, extremely undulating, it
is very abundantly supplied with railways. The most important, and the
most costly is the Isle of Wight Railway, running from Ryde to Ventnor,
with its long tunnel near the latter place. The length of this railway
is 12 miles, and the last section (through the tunnel) was opened for
traffic in October 1866. By recent enactments, the company has obtained
powers to construct 26 miles of extensions, so as, by means of them,
to connect with the Newport and Cowes Line (5¼ miles long), and thus
to establish a sufficient net-work of railways over the frequented
portions of the island.
The Isle of Man is about to construct a railway, which is to run from
Douglas, its capital, into the interior of the island.
There are no railways in Jersey or Guernsey, although possibly one may
be soon made in the former island, from St. Helier’s to St. Aubin’s.
Its length would be five or six miles, and, from a cursory inspection
of it on the occasion of a visit we made to the island a couple of
years ago, there appear to be abundant elements for traffic, if the
line were cheaply constructed. The expense of carrying it farther from
the capital would not be justifiable, both on account of the expensive
works that would be necessary, and the comparatively small traffic,
except during the tourist season. Then it is very considerable.
We have now brought our Rambles on British Railways to a conclusion.