le was the
growth of this section of the Dominion that in 1905 it was found
necessary to form two new provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, from the
North-West Territories, the area of each being 275,000 sq. m. Each
province has a lieutenant-governor and a single legislative chamber,
with a representation of four members in the Senate and five in the
House of Commons of the Dominion parliament. The control of the public
lands is retained by the general government on the ground that it has
been responsible for the development of the country by railway
construction and emigration. With the rapid increase of population,
production in Canada also greatly increased; exports, imports and
revenue constantly expanded, and capital, finding abundant and
profitable employment, began to flow freely into the country for further
industrial development. New and great railway undertakings were a marked
feature of this period. The Canadian Pacific system was extended until
it included 12,000 m. of line. The Canadian Northern railway, already
constructed from the Great Lakes westward to the neighbourhood of the
Rockies, and with water and rail connexions reaching eastward to Quebec,
began to transform itself into a complete transcontinental system, with
an extension to the Hudson Bay. That this line owed its inception and
construction chiefly to the joint enterprise of two private individuals,
Messrs Mackenzie and Mann, was a striking proof of the industrial
capacities of the country. To a still more ambitious line, the Grand
Trunk Pacific, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, aiming at
extensive steamship connexion on both oceans, and closely associated
with the Grand Trunk system of Ontario and Quebec, the government of
Canada gave liberal support as a national undertaking. The eastern
section of 1875 m., extending from Winnipeg to Moncton, where connexion
is secured with the winter ports of Halifax and St John, was, under the
act of incorporation, to be built by the government, and then leased for
fifty years, under certain conditions, to the Grand Trunk Pacific
Company. The western portion, of 1480 m., from Winnipeg to the Pacific,
was to be built, owned and operated by the company itself, the
government guaranteeing bonds to the extent of 75% of the whole cost of
construction. The discovery of large deposits of nickel at Sudbury; of
extremely rich gold mines on the head-waters of the Yukon, in a region
previously considered wel