An obstacle to the settlement of the plans lay in the indeterminate nature of the claims of the Hudson's Bay Company to the territory over which the means of communication should pass, and the Canadian government declined to participate in the project while these claims remained unsettled. They opened correspondence with the British government with the view to determine the questions in dispute, maintaining at the same time the right of Canada to take over all that portion of central British America which was in the possession of the French at the period of the session in 1763.[321] The question of postal communication was as a consequence postponed to the larger question of Canada's acquiring these territories, and this was not settled until 1870.
In 1865, the Hudson's Bay Company sent Dr. John Rae, the Arctic explorer, to ascertain the practicability of establishing communication by telegraph across the continent. His report was favourable, and the company went so far into the scheme as to send a quantity of telegraph wire into the territory. But as their continued ownership and monopoly of the territory became increasingly uncertain, the company suspended operations, and these were not resumed.
In April 1862 the governor and council of Assiniboia by an ordinance established a postal system in the settlement. James Ross was appointed postmaster in the middle section of the settlement, with a salary of £10 per annum; and Thomas Sinclair, postmaster of the lower section, with a salary of £6 per annum. A mail was to be carried between the settlement and Pembina at the public expense, in connection with the United States mail to Pembina. The postal charges between the settlement and Pembina were fixed at a penny per half ounce for letters, twopence for each magazine or review, and one-halfpenny for each newspaper. For books, the charges were fivepence for half a pound or under, one shilling for one and a half pounds, and twopence for each additional half pound.[322]
This embryo system was in operation when Sir Adams Archibald arrived in the new province as lieutenant governor. He lost no time in putting the system on as efficient a footing as the circumstances permitted, and in incorporating it into the postal system of the dominion.
The postmaster general arranged with the post office department of the United States for the transmission across its territory by way of Chicago and St. Paul, of mails between Windsor, Ontario and Winnipeg. The postal rates in force in the dominion were applied to the new province; and in November the post offices were provided with Canadian postage stamps, to replace those of the United States, which had been used until that time.
The means of transportation through the United States was gradually improved, and advantage was taken of these ameliorations to improve the communication of Manitoba. In 1879 the completion of the railway between the Pembina and Winnipeg left little to be desired in the facilities enjoyed by the province for the exchange of correspondence. But it was still dependent on the good will of the United States for these facilities. It was not until 1884 that the completion of the Canadian Pacific railway between Winnipeg and eastern Canada provided a connection across Canadian territory.
The need for a regular postal service in British Columbia did not arise until 1858, the year in which the gold discoveries in the mainland brought large numbers of miners to seek their fortunes in that country. The colony of Vancouver Island had been in the process of settlement by the Hudson's Bay Company since 1849, but the success of the company had been but moderate. The whole population in 1856—scarcely equal to that of a small town—was gathered together in Victoria and its environs, and their requirements as regards correspondence were limited to a communication with Great Britain.
The home government gave early attention to the question of providing these means. On August 3, 1858, the day after the act providing for the government of the new colony had been adopted, the colonial secretary wrote to the treasury, pointing out that the establishment of the new colony, and the large influx of immigrants thereto, made it desirable that some safe and regular communication should be formed between the colony and the kingdom, and asking that the lords commissioners should consider the possibility of such a suggestion.[323]
The treasury consulted the admiralty and the post office. Neither department could suggest a scheme which would not involve an outlay much beyond the ideas of the treasury as to the importance of the objects to be attained. The post office proposed sending mails to Colon, at the entrance to the Panama railway by the steamers of the Royal Mail Packet Company, thence to Panama by railway. The voyage occupied from sixteen to twenty days and the passage across the isthmus about five hours.