The construction of railways in Canada has, in recent years, proceeded at
a rapid pace. We found that the mileage had doubled since the beginning
of the present century, due, to a large extent, to the construction of
two new Trans-Continental lines. The grain-growing districts of the
prairie provinces, south of latitude 54 degrees, are now covered with a
network of railways, and British Columbia has three through routes to
Eastern Canada.
The enterprise of the principal Canadian railway companies is remarkable.
They own and operate not only railways, but also hotels, ferry services,
grain elevators, lake and coast steamers, as well as Trans-Atlantic and
Trans-Pacific steamers. One company also has irrigation works, and ready-
made farms for settlers in the prairie provinces. But Canada lies so
near to us, and in the British Press its railways receive such constant
attention, that I need not descant further upon them.
In South Africa, with the exception of about 500 miles mainly in the Cape
Province, the railways are all Government owned, and are worked as one
unified system. The Act of Union (1909) prescribed that the railways and
the harbours (which are also Government owned and worked) were to be
administered on business principles, and that the total earnings should
not exceed the necessary expenditure for working and for interest on
capital.
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