Even after its enlargement, no vessel drawing more than 10 feet of water, or over 150 feet in length, could pass through the Welland Canal. Increased accommodation being needed, a larger canal with a new set of locks was commenced in 1873, and completed in 1881. This canal branches off from the old canal 19 miles from Lake Erie, and rejoins it again at Lake Ontario. The old canal was deepened from Lake Erie to its junction, with the new canal, so that vessels having a draught of less than 12 feet can pass from one lake to the other. The new canal is 100 feet wide at the bottom, 12 feet in depth, and has side slopes of 2 to 1; but the excavation through rock has been carried down to 14 feet in depth, to facilitate the deepening of the canal if required in the future. It is 13 miles long, and cost 3,840,000l. The difference in level is 313 feet, which is surmounted by twenty-five locks, with lifts ranging between 12 to 16 feet. Regulating weirs have also been built, some attaining a width of 300 feet; the flow of water through them is regulated by sluice-gates, formed of sheet iron, which are raised and lowered by screws. The locks are 40 feet 4 inches wide, and have a length of 270 feet between the sills. The side walls are 29 feet high, with a batter of 1 in 24; they are built of limestone ashlar, and are strengthened by counterforts. The lock floor is planked with pine timber, and the gates are constructed of white oak. The gates are moved by chains, guided by rollers and winding round drums, and one man is able to move a gate. The sluice-gates are raised by lifting a small shutter (½ foot by 1 foot), which allows the current to work a small turbine, whose revolutions set in motion a screw which raises and lowers the sluice-gate. The rate of motion transmitted by the turbine is so much reduced in passing through a train of wheels and a revolving nut that 212 revolutions of the turbine are required to raise the sluice-gate 1 inch. The sluice-gates are 5 feet by 1½ foot, and are raised in two minutes.
It has been doubted by many men who have carefully studied the question whether the very large expenditure that has been incurred over the Welland Canal will ever be justified by the result. The canal is, of course, the main connecting link between the great lakes of the south and south-west and the principal maritime outlets of the Dominion, and the Dominion Government has no doubt been animated by the belief that the time would come when the great commerce that now passes from Duluth, Chicago, and other ports in the United States to New York, and thence to Europe, would take the Welland Canal route, instead of the Erie Canal, thereby making Montreal the chief port on the American continent. This impression has been supported by the consideration that Montreal is nearly 300 miles nearer to Liverpool than New York.
It is, no doubt, of the greatest possible consequence to Great Britain, to the United States, and last, but not least, to the Dominion of Canada, to consider how the immense traffic which is now carried on between the great North-western States and the markets of Europe is to be carried in the time to come.
At the present time we receive from the United States about thirty millions of cwts. of wheat per annum, of which two-thirds are brought to us from ports on the Atlantic, and one-third from ports on the Pacific. We also receive between twelve and fifteen million cwts. of wheat meal and flour, and ten to twelve million cwts. of maize or Indian corn, in addition to smaller quantities of barley and other cereals.
The great bulk of this immense traffic is transported from Chicago, which is the great gathering ground, to New York, which is the great distributing centre. There is no traffic in the world that is more fiercely competed for. Everything is done that can be done to draw it on to the railways on the one hand, and on to the waterways on the other, and as a consequence the rates of freight, as we have seen, are on both systems reduced to the lowest attainable limit. The Transatlantic traffic is competed for quite as keenly, so that grain has been carried between Chicago and the markets of Great Britain, a distance of over four thousand miles, for less than 20s. per ton, including a railway journey of 950 miles, or a lake and canal journey of 1200 miles, in addition to the ocean voyage.
It is, however, beginning to be felt that even this extraordinary outcome of the development of the means of efficient transportation may be threatened with successful rivalry. There are those who argue that the natural outlet for the grain grown in the North-west is not New York, but Montreal, which is 270 miles, or a day’s steaming, nearer to Liverpool than New York.
The grain traffic is sent from Chicago to Buffalo in either case. But from Buffalo to Liverpool by way of the Erie Canal and New York is 3450 miles, while by way of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Montreal it is only 3180 miles. In both cases, the grain is carried by water, so that there is practically no difference in point of cost at the port of departure.
It has been found necessary in Canada, with a view to meeting the competition of the Erie Canal route, to reduce the canal tolls and harbour dues. Prior to 1884, the rate of tolls on the grain shipped by way of the Welland Canal was 20 cents per ton, which allowed a vessel to pass through the St. Lawrence Canal without additional payment. But, as the tolls on the Erie Canal were abolished in 1883, it became increasingly difficult for the Montreal route to compete with that viâ the enfranchised Erie Canal to New York.
A remission of one-half of the tolls on grain has, therefore, since 1884 been allowed on the Welland Canal, so that the present rate is only 10 cents, or 5d. per ton. Other concessions have been made in the interval, until now the rate is only 2 cents per ton on grain passing eastwards to Canadian ports. This has had the effect of greatly stimulating the canal traffic. The quantity of grain carried into Montreal by railway was, in 1885, about 3½ million bushels more than that carried by canal. In 1886, however, the canal carried nearly five millions of bushels more than the railway.[121]
The Canadian port, however, notwithstanding its advantages in point of nearer proximity to Liverpool, and its equally good if not superior navigation from Buffalo, is very far behind that viâ New York. The receipts of grain at New York in some recent years have amounted to as much as 175 millions of bushels, or fully nine times as much as the quantity received at Montreal in 1886. It is manifest, therefore, that Montreal, whatever its geographical advantages, has not secured that share of this immense trade to which it has considered itself to be entitled. This fact is probably due to a variety of causes, one of which, the impediments in the way of the navigation of the St. Lawrence, the Canadian Government have recently been attempting to overcome. But the most serious drawback to Montreal is, no doubt, the climate, which closes up the navigation entirely for a great part of the year, while that of New York is always open.