CANADIAN NORTHERN RAILWAY. The Canadian Northern Railway system may be said to have had its origin in the construction in 1896 by Mackenzie and Mann, contractors, of a line of railway between Gladstone and Dauphin, in Manitoba, under the charter of the Lake Manitoba Railway and Canal Com pany. During the next few years construction was carried on under a variety of company names, but by virtue of an order in council, passed 13 Jan. 1899, the Canadian Northern Railway Company was brought into existence. In'that year there were 252.6 miles in operation. In 1901 the lines of the Northern Pacific and Manitoba Railway Company in the province of Manitoba were leased for a very long term of years, and on 1 Jan. 1902, the last spike was driven upon a line connecting Winnipeg and Port Arthur, on Lake Superior, giving the Canadian Northern its own independent outlet from the wheat fields of the prairies to the cargo carriers of the Great Lakes. Since then the lines have been extended over the Prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Al berta, to the Pacific at Vancouver and Victoria, and to the principal centres of Ontario and Quebec, while in Nova Scotia, Canadian North ern lines serve the Atlantic shore from Halifax to Yarmouth, and cut across the province to the Bay of Fundy side. To-day the system com prises more than 9,000 miles of line. It con nects Atlantic and Pacific ports and serves centres containing 60 per cent of the population and producing 70 per cent of the manufactured products of the provinces of Ontario and Que bec; 97 per cent of the urban population of Manitoba; 97 per cent of that in Saskatchewan, and 90 per cent in Alberta; in British Columbia it opens up the North Thompson Valley to set tlement, and serves anew the old places such as Kamloops, Ashcroft, Yale, Hope, New West minster, Vancouver and Victoria— in all 78 per cent of the urban population of the prov ince. It has contributed measurably to the prosperity of the Dominion through opening up vast areas to settlement, by encouraging immigrants to make the new country their home and by opening up timber and mineral bearing lands to development. The possibilities for economical operation in the future are exemplified by the •fact that this transcon tinental line possesses the easiest gradient of any of the great systems on the continent of North America.
Collecting elevators for grain having 26 per cent of the total capacity of western Canada are served by the Canadian Northern Railway; licensed terminal elevators having 47 per cent of the total capacity in Canada are on the Ca nadian Northern Railway lines. Flour mills
having 51 per cent of the total daily capacity of Canada are on the lines of the Canadian Northern Railway. In British Columbia the Canadian Northern Railway proportion is 90 per cent; in Alberta 44 per cent; in Saskatche wan 74 per cent; in Manitoba 81 per cent ; in Ontario 34 per cent; in Quebec 90 per cent; in Nova Scotia 15 per cent. Lumber mills produc ing 30 per cent of the total output in Canada are served by the Canadian Northern Railway, while 32 per cent of the total is marketed by water. In British Columbia the Canadian Northern proportion is 34 per cent; in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba 70 per cent; in Ontario 33 per cent; in Quebec 28 per cent; in Nova Scotia 28 per cent. Pulp and paper plants having 53 per cent of the capacity of Canada are served by the Canadian Northern Railway lines. In Ontario the Canadian North ern proportion is 60 per cent, in Quebec 64 per cent and in Nova Scotia 50 per cent. The company owns 3,245,987 acres of land, 843,127 of which are prairie land.
Its grain elevator at Port Arthur is the largest consolidated grain elevator plant in the world — capacity 10,000,000 bushels. Its coal docks at Port Arthur, Ontario, have a storage capacity of 660,000 tons, an unloading capacity of 700 tons per hour and an annual capacity of over 1,000,000 tons. The shipping capacity of the Canadian Northern Railway ore docks at Key Harbor, on Georgian Bay, is 8,000 tons of ore daily.
The lines of the system are located as fol lows: Nova Scotia, 369.90 miles; Quebec, 626.77 miles; Ontario, 2,219.10 miles; Manitoba, 1,989.10 miles; Saskatchewan, 2,178.10 miles; Alberta, 1,181.21 miles; British Columbia, 516.40 miles; State of Minnesota, 215.42 miles; a total of 9,296 miles.
During the fiscal year ended 30 June 1916, the Canadian Northern Railway system carried 9,384,056 passengers, and 13,353,381 tons of freight. The gross earnings for that period were $35,476,275.06, the expenses $26,102,744.52, and the net earnings $9,373,530.54. There has been expended upon the construction of the sys tem $433,918,288.18, and upon equipment $W, 844,201.16, a total of $494,762,489.34. The head office is located at Toronto. In 1917 a measure passed the Dominion Parliament providing for government ownership and operation of the Canadian Northern systems.