The Canadian Pacific Railroad Company, Which Was Given By Government
25,000,000 Acres, Besides The 25,000,000 Dollars
To make the line
across the country from Thunder Bay on Lake Superior to the Rockies,
sell their land (which
Is on odd-numbered sections of every township
for twenty-four miles on each side of the track, with the exception of
the two sections, 11 and 29, reserved for school-lands) for two
dollars fifty cents, or ten shillings per acre, to be paid by
instalments, giving a rebate of one dollar twenty-five cents, or five
shillings per acre, if the land is brought into cultivation within the
three or five years after purchase.
A man occupying a "homestead" is exempt from seizure for debt,
also his ordinary furniture, tools, and farm implements in use,
one cow, two oxen, one horse, four sheep, two pigs, and food for
the same for thirty days; and his land cultivated, provided it is
not more than the 160 acres; also his house, stables, barns and
fences; so that if a man has bad luck, he has a chance of
recovering his misfortunes.
In one of your letters you ask if a poor man coming out as labourer,
and perhaps eventually taking up land as a homestead or otherwise,
would encounter many difficulties. I fancy not, as both the English
and Canadian Governments are affording every facility to emigrants,
who can get through tickets from London, Liverpool, or Ireland at even
a lower rate than the ordinary steerage passenger. They can have
themselves and their families booked all the way, the fares varying
from nine pounds five to the twenty-eight pounds paid by the saloon.
On board ship the steerage have to find their own bedding and
certain utensils for use; otherwise everything else is provided,
and, I am told, the food is both good and plenty of it. Regular
authorised officers of the Dominion Government are stationed at
all the principal places in Canada, to furnish information on
arrival. They will also receive and forward money and letters; and
everyone should be warned and put on their guard against the
fictitious agents and rogues that infest every place, who try to
persuade the new-comers into purchase of lands or higher rates of
wage.
We heard the other day of an English gentlemen being taken in by
one of these scoundrels, and giving a lot of money for land which
on examination proved to be worthless. Luckily for him, there was
some flaw in his agreement, and his purchase was cancelled. Men
who intend buying land should be in no great hurry about their
investments; the banks give a fair percentage on deposits, and it
is always so much more satisfactory to look around before
settling.
E - - has been very busy arranging the garden; a most fatiguing
process, as she has to cart all her own sods to make a foundation
and then heap soil on to them; but having brought a quantity of seeds
from England she feels bound to sow them, and hopes they will make a
grand show later on, and the place quite gay. You should have seen the
beam of delight which shone on the countenance of a stranger who had
come out from Winnipeg for the night, when on arrival he was
immediately pressed into E - - 's service to carry water for these said
seeds. The temperature is now at 64 degrees, and, as things grow as if
by magic, we hope they will soon put in an appearance. Oats planted
only a week ago are now an inch above ground. We have had a nice
breeze the last two or three days, so that the mosquitoes have not
worried us so much.
The prettiest things to see here are the prairie fires at night.
The grass is burnt in spring and autumn so as to kill off the old
tufts and allow of the new shoots growing for hay. The fires look
like one long streak of quivering flame, the forked tips of which
flash and quiver in the horizon, magnified by refraction, and on a
dark night are lovely. In the day-time one only sees volumes of
smoke which break the monotony of the landscape, though I don't
know that it is picturesque. With a slight breeze the fires spread
in a marvellous way, even at the rate of eight or nine miles an
hour. The other day A - - and Mr. H - - , whilst putting up their
tent, did not perceive how near a fire they themselves had lighted
at some distance was getting, until it was upon them. They then
had to seize hold of everything, pull up the tent pegs as best
they could, and make a rush through the flames, singeing their
clothes and boots a good deal.
The pastures on the burnt prairie are good the whole summer, and
animals will always select them in preference to any other. The
wild ponies, be the snow in winter ever so deep, by pawing it
away, subsist on these young shoots and leaves of grasses, which
are very nutritious and apparently suffer little by the frost,
which only kills the upper leaves but does not injure what is
below. The mirage is also very curious; the air is so clear that
one often sees reflected, some way above the horizon, objects like
the river, trees, and even the town of Winnipeg, which we could
not otherwise see; we could actually one evening, at sunset,
distinguish the gas-lights.
* * * * *
Sunday.
This is a real day of rest, and the men really do deserve it. We
all have a respite, as regards breakfast, it being at 9 o'clock
instead of 6.30; and do we not appreciate the extra forty winks!
The whole day is spent more or less in loafing, we having no regular
church nearer than Winnipeg, sixteen miles, though an occasional
service is given at Headingley, eight miles off.
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