departments many different accounts of the Peace River country, some of them
extending back over fifty years. Many of them are most interesting, but they all deal.
with the same theme—namely, the wealth of that country. I have yet to hear one
single word that has been said in favour of the development of this zone without
haying that word associated with the building of a railway. It is this that the
Government now proposes to provide. We have watched with increasing interest the
settlement of the Peace River country, and we are advised on authority that in one
part of it several hundred people settled there this year. We hear from reliable
sources at Edmonton that people are going into that part of the country not in
hundreds, but in thousands. It is common knowledge that there is a very consider-
able settlement there to-day. It is equally well known that, with a view to having
their share in the benefits to be derived, the Government of Alberta has very heavily
assisted a road from Edmonton, whose terminal will be located in the Peace River
country, and whose operations must be designed to perform a very wholesome work
in the expansion of that portion of Alberta and northern British Columbia. Unques-
tionably, the Edmonton merchant is alive to the business of the Peace River country,
and he has every right to be. He would not be entitled to a part in the business
unless he were a man fully alive to the possibilities of the right kind that might offer.

“This is the reason why we should be spurred on to action. We should
conceive it to be in the general public interest that the Province of British Columbia
should not be behind in the march of progress, and should attack without delay the
proposal to build a standard-gauge road into the Peace River country, and give to
the people of Vancouver and Victoria and the other southern sections of the country
every advantage that the pioneer section of British Columbia has a right to expect
from the growth of the new and great North.

“The stories that come to us with regard to the Peace River country make
most interesting reading, but I would be trespassing upon the time of the House
if I attempted to relate any of them. I wish to say, however, that they have a
tremendous bearing upon the issue. The coalfields of the Peace River country to be
traversed by this road are of undoubted yalue and considerable extent, and upon
proper development they promise to give to the world the greatest producing coal-
mines extant. The quality of the product is not surpassed anywhere, and our infor-
mation is to the effect that there is an abundance of it.

We are advised, too, that the iron-deposits of British Columbia are of an excellent
commercial quality. Reports have come in recently which go to show that almost
along the tracks of the line there are almost illimitable iron-deposits, from which the
mineral may be brought presently to a point where, with fuel conditions warranting,
we shall be able to turn out an iron product second to none on the Continent of
America.

“But, in addition to coal and ore deposits, we have extensive grazing lands,
wonderful timber belts, and vast waterways. AJ] of these things seem to me to offer
an irresistible case that would more than justify the project.”

VICTORIA, B.C.:
Printed by Witutiam H. CUuLLin, Printer to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.
1914.

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