Total value of imports to Great Britain ... Aggregate exports and imports The trade of Halifax with other portions of the Dominion in flour, coal, fish, lumber, and agricultural productions during the last fiscal year may be estimated at Making the total trade of the city for that year 2,731, 042 977, 335 237,631 1,214, 966 1,478, 223 999, 002 10, 808, −38 4,000,000 14, 808, 838 Number of vessels with their tonnage and crews which arrived at and departed from Halifax (not including coastwise) during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1-81, showing steamers and sailing vessels. Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, and the leading city of the British maritime provinces, is the extreme eastern terminus of the railway system of Canada, and the principal connecting link between Great Britain and the Dominion. It is also the last port of call for steamers and sailing vessels crossing the Atlantic. It has long been known as the chief military and naval station of Great Britain on this continent, while for its commercial importance it is conspicuous among the cities of British North America. MORTIMER M. JACKSON, UNITED STATES CONSULATE GENERAL, Halifax, December 20, 1881. MANITOBA. Annnal report by Consul Taylor for the year ending June 30, 1881. UNITED STATES CONSULATE, The commerce of this consular district has received a great impulse during the season just closed, not only sharing the general prosperity of the United States and Canada, but accelerated by the consummation of two important public measures, viz, a material enlargement of the boundaries of the province of Manitoba and the transfer by the Dominion of Canada of the enterprise of a Canadian Pacific Railway to a private company. The area of Manitoba, as defined at the creation of the province in 1870, was 14,340 square miles, comprised within latitudes 49° to 50° 30′, and longitudes 96° to 99. With the late enlargement of boundaries, the area will be 130,000 square miles, extending from longitude 91° to 102°, and from latitude 49° to 53°. There is some dispute in regard to the western boundary of the province of Ontario, with the probability that it will finally be fixed on longitude 88° 58' west of Greenwich, a point near but east of Thunder Bay on Lake Superior, and, if so, the territory between longitude 91° or the eastern boundary of Manitoba and the western boundary of Ontario as above indicated, will unquestionably be added to Manitoba. With this addition, estimated at 30,000 square miles, the total area of Manitoba will be 160,000 square miles. But without this addition, and as now constituted, New Manitoba exceeds by 30,000 square miles, the entire area of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, but is within the proportions of the other provinces, which are as follows: Quebec 210,000, Ontaria 180,000, British Columbia 315,000 square miles. Referring to my dispatch of June 6, 1880, for details of the new or ganization for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, I would further state that the summer of 1881 witnessed remarkable progress in the work of construction, with still greater development of all business interests. The Pembina branch of the Canadian Pacific, or the link of 80 miles south of Selkirk-the head of sloop navigation on Lake Winnipeg and below the rapids of Red River-to the Minnesota railway system at the international frontier, has been supplied with iron bridges and other permanent structures; 180 miles of track have been completed west of Winnipeg, with 45 miles beyond fully graded and ready for the superstructure, while upon a branch of 63 miles along the west bank of Red River to the international boundary, 45 miles have been graded, and also 30 miles of a spur line westward to the vicinity of Pembina and Turtle Mountains. Other railway organizations have not been inactive. The Manitoba Southwestern Colonization Railway, aided by New York capital, has been vigorously prosecuted during the last three months, and will probably be constructed fifty miles southwest of Winnipeg before midsummer next year, while ground has been broken and considerable grading accomplished on a line from Portage la Prairie, 60 miles west of Winnipeg, northwestwardly on a proposed route through districts of territory between Lakes Manitoba and Winnipegoosis and the Saskatchewan River. At a recent banquet in Winnipeg to the governor-general of Canada, Mr. Donald A. Smith, a director of the Canadian Pacific Railway, expressed confidence that a further westward construction of 60 miles on the main line of that road will be accomplished during 1882; and, in that event, the base of the Rocky Mountains in latitude 51° will doubtless be reached during the following year, thus fulfilling the obligation of the syndicate to construct 1,000 miles west of Winnipeg in three years. There will then remain the further obligations to construct 600 miles from the vicinity of Thunder Bay on the northwest coast of Lake Superior, north of Lakes Superior and Huron, to Lake Nipissing and the Ottawa Valley, and 300 miles through the Rocky Mountains, connecting with a division of 150 miles from Puget's Sound, which the Government of Canada undertakes to complete, the whole to be finished in 1890, with an additional obligation to operate the entire transcontinental line the next following ten years, or until A. D. 1900. The subsidies by the Government of Canada will consist of twenty-five million Canadian debentures, twenty-five million acres of land, and 650 miles of railway. Of this railway bonus the division of 420 miles from Lake Superior to Red River is confidently expected to be finished by August, 1882. It will require an additional year to fully organize it for business, and by that time, or the spring of 1884, it is reasonably certain that the great interior section of the Canadian Pacific Railway (nearly 1,500 miles in length) will be in successful operation. It is in anticipation of such a system of internal communications and of liberal stipulations by the Dominion Government in aid of provincial administration and the interests of settlers, that a remarkable impulse to business and the value of property is everywhere visible. Town lots in Winnipeg sell readily at the current rates in Saint Paul, and Minneapolis unimproved land, of good average quality, commands corresponding prices; the demand and wages of labor are fully equivalent, and the importations for the year ending June 30 exhibit a marked increase beyond former reports from this consulate. Appended is table A of leading articles of foreign importations and a summary of quantities not exceeding 1,000, of which the following is an abstract: Table B of exports from this consulate is also inclosed. The shipment of undressed furs exceeds half a million of invoice values, of which ninetenths are exported by the Hudson Bay Company; the export of buffalo robes has diminished from $55,512 in 1880 to $2,398 in 1881; and the only other noteworthy incident is a shipment to Minneapolis from the Mennonite settlements near the international border of 14,793 bushels of flaxseed, a production for which the soil and climate of Manitoba are well adapted. The total exports of 1881 were $636,197 against $518,665 last year, the bulk of which (the fur product) went mostly to England. The exportation to the United States was $127,436. The total commerce of this consulate for 1881 has been as follows: This aggregate is fully ten-fold the trade of 1870, and, with present railway prospects, will probably reach eighty millions in 1890. The immigration has not exceeded 20,000 during the year. I estimate, with the efficient agencies now organizing, that it will be doubled in 1882, and by 1885 will reach 100,000 per annum. In that event, if the railway line from Lake Superior to Puget's Sound is fully constructed and in successful operation in 1890, a million civilized inhabitants will probably be in possession of districts of Northwest British America, where at present such a population does not exceed 100,000. The tour of the governor-general of Canada through the valleys of the Assinniboine and Saskatchewan Rivers, from July to October, was admirably organized with a view to arouse an interest in Great Britain and Ireland for the speedy settlement of Central and Western Canada. The advantages of soil and climate have been further demonstrated in the progress of railway explorations and government surveys to be ample for the erection of four provinces of the enlarged area of Manitoba; and the only hazard to the great leading staple of wheat from frosts about the middle of August can be obviated, as shown by simultaneous experiments at various and remote localities, not only by plowing in the autumn, but by seeding in the last days of October. The only instances of injury to the wheat crop on the Saskatchewan and Peace Rivers from summer frosts are where invaluable time was lost in the spring by a neglect of the practice now universal in Minnesota and Dakota, of fully preparing the ground for the seed in the autumn, which is now supplemented in Manitoba, with entire success, by sowing spring wheat subsequent to the 15th of October. In this connection, I recur to the transmission by me to the Department of State early in August last of heads of wheat of unusual size and quality from seed of spring wheat sown in Manitoba on the 2d of November, 1880, which, after resting in the ground through the constant winter of this latitude without injury, germinated at the earliest possible moment last spring, and was harvested August 8, 1881. In addition to the westward extension of railways, arrangements on an ample scale are completed for regular and frequent steamboat navigation next summer on Lake Winnipeg and both branches of the Saskatchewan River. UNITED STATES CONSULATE, JAMES W. TAYLOR, Winnipeg, November 22, 1881. Consul. |