CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY, The. A Canadian railway running across the con tinent from Saint John, N. B., on the Atlantic, to Vancouver, B. C., on the Pacific, with lines owned or leased, running from Montreal to Quebec, Ottawa, Toronto, London and Windsor, on the Detroit River, and branch lines through out the provinces of Ontario and Quebec; with other branch lines to various points in New Brunswick; with a network of lines throughout the Canadian West and British Columbia, in cluding the Souris branch, the Manitoba South Western the Manitoba & North Western, the Great North West Central, the Crow's Nest Pass and Columbia & Kootenay lines, the Calgary & Edmonton, the Columbia & Western and many others; making a total mileage of 12,917 covered by the traffic returns of 30 June 1915. Other lines worked by the railway at that date aggregated 383 miles, and there were under construction 60 miles, while the mileage of the Minneapolis, Saint Paul & Sault Sainte Marie Railway and the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railway (lines controlled by the Cana dian Pacific) was 4,103 and 626 miles, re spectively; a grand total of 18,090 miles of road built, acquired, leased or controlled since the company was chartered early in 1881. Con struction of the main line was commenced in June 1::1 and completed on 7 Nov. 1885.
By the terms of the government contract with a company whose directorate included George Stephen (now Lord Mount Stephen), Donald A. Smith (afterward Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal), Richard B. Angus, and others, it was agreed to build a railway from Callander, in northern Ontario; to the Pacific, for a consideration of $25,000,000 in money and 25,000,000 acres of selected land, together with various privileges as to right of way, etc.
The original share capital of the company was $5,000,000, increased in 1882 to $25,000,000 and then to $100,000,000, of which $35,000,006 was canceled in 1885. Various financial changes and difficulties occurred during construction, and it became necessary to secure government loans of $30,000,000 in 1884, and $5,000,000 in 1885; these loans were repaid in full and the efforts of the promoters and management of the railway were eventually crowned with success.
By owning and operating all of the ad juncts of the railway service—telegraphs, ex press, sleeping cars, dining cars, grain elevators, as well as hotels at the leading points, steam ship lines on the lakes and on the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the Canadian Pacific adopted special methods of management which have worked out to the material advantage of the company.
According to its statement of 30 June 1911, the cost of the railway and equipment was $503,584,724 and of its various steamship lines $24,208,595. It then held in Manitoba, Western provinces and in British Columbia 8,214,186 acres of land. Its capital stock was $200,000,000, receiving dividends at the rate of 10 per cent per annum; its 4 per cent preference stock, $80,681,921; its 4 per cent consolidated deben ture stock, $176,284,882; its bonded debt, $6,399, 180; 6 per cent note certificates, $52,000,000.
The company issued $25,000,000 5 per cent land grant bonds in 1881, which have been paid off. In 1:•:: a further issue of $15,000,000 334 per cent land bonds was made, and of these $3,500,000 had been provided for at 30 June 1904 by payment of that amount to the in ment out of the proceeds of land sales n terms of the mortgage, leaving $11,500,000 outstanding. These were afterward paid off.
The following table illustrates the diversified nature of its traffic during the three years, each ending June 30: The gross earnings of the system for the year ending 30 June 1915 were $98,865,209, and the working expenses $65,290,582, with net earnings of $33,574,627.
Lord Mount Stephen, the first president of the company, resigned from that office in 1888 and was succeeded by Sir William C. Van Horne, who retired in 1899, when Lord Shaugh nessy, K.C.V.O., the present president and chairman of the company, became his successor. The general offices of the company are at Montreal, Canada.