The Tunnel
on the alignment of the Tunnel, 6 on the New Brunswick and 4 on the Island side. Advantage was also taken of a shaft 400 feet deep, on the Island, to examine the structure therein exposed. The cores from these borings are preserved at Ottawa, in the Geological Bureau, and verify splendidly the work of the geologists. Other borings might be made, it is true, for greater accuracy and to ensure closer competition in contracting; but, to all intents and purposes, enough data is at hand to justify Sir Douglas Fox, in his report of 1891, in saying that absolutely no difficulty menaced the work of a submarine tunnel; that the structure through which it must pass, undisturbed by upheaval, is eminently suitable for tunnelling, and that, in five years, and for ten millions of dollars such tunnel could be built easily. Since that report tunnelling has cheapened at least 40%; the time necessary for construction has been decreased by half.
The Northumberland Tunnel would he pushed through a stratum of clay and shale easily perforated, and impervious to water. Prince Edward Island is the centre of a great Geosynclinal basin, and the course of its anticlinal, which makes between Tryon and Tormentine, happily gives the tunnel this clay and shale stratum of 200 feet, for the most part; and the easiest gradients to be found on any road, 1 in 100, much easier than the N. B. or P. E. I. roads. The approaches on the N. B. side are practically done away with; and on the Island side, 14 miles will be the outside length. That the mechanical side of the problem is not appalling may be gleaned from the fact that, at Ottawa the other day, M. J. Haney, a great contractor, well acquainted with the structure of the Island. having done large works here, and believing in the sufficiency of the reports already available, went before the Government with the Island Delegation; and, advised by Mr. Butler, of the G. T. P. staff, made a bona fide offer to put up the necessary security and build the tunnel in six years, for ten million dollars. The writer was one of that delegation and knows whereof he speaks. We are confident, too, that this tunnel is a paying contract at a million a mile, i. e., a fraction over 5 million in all.
Now, then, besides the moral obligation imposed upon the Dominion to give us continuous communication as contained in the bond, what have we as a province to say in the way of justifying such expenditure from the purely business view-point? We have a right to the tunnel as the only fulfillment of the terms of union, everyone knows; but we would hesitate to exact it. perhaps, on purely moral grounds. But it will pay the Dominion splendidly and save us as a province from further loss and ultimate extinction. It is a grand bargain at the outside figure of ten million dollars.
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