On The Other Hand, Subject To The Aid Of Canada And British Columbia, Your Company Were To Extend, Or Obtain The Extension Of, A Telegraph From The Sault By Lake Superior To Fort Garry, And Another By Jasper House To Fort Langley.

All these telegraphs were to be completed by October, 1865.

The Montreal Company were also to obtain the extension of the Minnesota telegraph to your boundary near Pembina, you extending your telegraph to that point. Thus, assuming the Fort Carry and Jasper House telegraph to be completed by October, 1864, and knowing that this, and the telegraph from Fort Langley to Jasper House, could be finished as easily, a complete and independent Atlantic and Pacific telegraph, stretching for more than 1,000 miles through your territory, might have been secured, - always assuming that this season of 1863 were saved, which was the great practical object before me. I obtained, as a condition, that in dividing the rates paid for messages, your telegraphs should have a bonus of 33 per cent. so long as your capital did not pay a clear 10 per cent. dividend.

"To this end, I advised you to confirm the order of 175 tons of charcoal wire and of the insulators, post pins, batteries, and instruments needed for the length between Fort Garry and Jasper House (the wire from England, and the other material from Canada and the United States), at a total cost, already given you in complete detail, estimated, when delivered at Fort Garry, as not to exceed 10,000l.. This statement of cost, and a reference to my past statements, will answer the question in Mr. Fraser's letter of the 13th, as to whether I had calculated the heavy expense of carriage - 20l. per ton to Fort Garry. The question shows that it had not been calculated in Fenchurch Street that the poles and timber would be got in the country, and that the whole weight of material to be sent to Fort Garry was about 200 tons at the most.

"I may pause, however, in answer to another similar question, about the relative prices of American and English wire, &c., to say, that the best market for wire is England; and the best market for the less important articles is the United States, while the proper prices chargeable for the best article by the best houses are known to all practical men. I may add, as I am asked what is the weight per mile of telegraphic wire, that 'best charcoal No. 9 electric wire' is 320 lbs. to the mile of 1,760 yards.

"On leaving this subject, I may add, that if on further consideration you determine to store the material above named (cost and carriage 10,000l.) at Fort Garry, there is yet time to get it out to St. Paul, and some, if not all, may go through to Fort Gany. There is a post three days per week to Fort Garry, and posts go through all parts of your own territory regularly, the 'Winter Express' leaving Fort Garry on Christmas Day.

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