and pounds but the
export duties reached almost twenty thousand pounds.

{INTERCOLONIAL RAILWAY}

The Intercolonial Railway still continued to engage the attention of the
legislature, and correspondence with the secretary of state, with the
government of Canada, and with the government of Nova Scotia, in regard
to this great work, was laid before the House soon after the session
opened. The government of New Brunswick consulted with the governments
of Canada and Nova Scotia as to what assistance should be given by the
imperial government towards the construction of the Intercolonial
Railway from Halifax to Quebec, in the form of a guarantee of interest.
The British government professed to feel a strong sense of the
importance of the object, but thought they would not be justified in
applying to parliament for the required guarantee, because the heavy
expenditures to which Great Britain had been subjected did not leave
them at liberty to pledge its revenue for the purpose of assisting in
the construction of public works of this description, however desirable
in themselves. The correspondence on the subject of the Intercolonial
Railway extended over a period of more than twenty years and grew to
enormous proportions, but it is safe to assert that this line of railway
would not have been constructed in the nineteenth century but for the
fact that it was undertaken by the Canadian Dominion as a work which had
to be built for the purpose of carrying out the terms of confederation
as set out in the British North America Act (section 145).

The railway to Shediac was finally completed and opened for traffic on
August 5th, 1860, its length being one hundred and eight miles. The
nineteen miles between Pointe du Chene and Moncton had been open as
early as August, 1857, and the nine miles from St. John to Rothesay, on
June 1st, 1858. The railway was opened from St. John to Hampton in June,
1859, and to Sussex in November of the same year. Although the people of
the province had abated something of their enthusiasm for railways by
the time the St. John and Shediac line was finished, still its opening
was a great event, because it was the commencement of a new era in
transportation and gave St. John access to the north shore, from which
it had previously been practically shut out. Goods could now be sent by
means of railway and steamer to Prince Edward Island, and to the New
Brunswick ports on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and a commu