ROBERT MILLAR COULTER M.D., C.M.G.
(Deputy Postmaster General since 1897)
On the formation of the present department, there were 3477 post offices in the system. In 1914 this number had been increased to 13,811. The expansion of the lines of the service in the four older provinces, though considerable, is not comparable with that in the provinces comprehended in the territories west of the Great Lakes. In Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the better settled parts of Quebec and Ontario, the characteristic of the increase is the greater frequency of travel on already established roads, and, particularly, the acceleration of correspondence by the introduction of railways into the parts of the provinces.
In 1867 there were but 2278 miles of railway in Canada. In the forty-seven years which followed this mileage was augmented to 30,795.
The narrow line of settlement in Ontario from the Quebec boundary to Toronto had expanded to a breadth, covering the extent of country from lake Ontario to the watershed, dividing the waters flowing south from those running into Hudson's Bay.
But the great expansion has taken place in the provinces on the plains between the Great Lakes and the Rocky Mountains—in the New Canada beyond the Great Lakes. On entering Confederation, the postal arrangements in this vast territory comprised but six post offices, with a system of mail service of no more than 145 miles. Since 1867 a system has been created in these western provinces containing in 1914 over 42,000 miles, of which 16,500 miles are of railroad. The number of post offices in this year was 3402.
The expansion in British Columbia if not equal in magnitude to that in the prairie and grain-growing provinces, keeps full pace with the requirements of that province. There were thirty post offices in the province in 1871 when the colony entered Confederation. These had increased to 799 in 1914. The system in the earlier period comprised 3412 miles. This had increased to over 12,000 miles in 1914; of these 3200 were by railroad, and 5000 by steam or sailing vessel.
The outstanding feature of the interchange of correspondence between the several provinces at the time they entered Confederation is the dependence on the postal service of the United States for the means by which it was carried on. As between the old province of Canada and the Maritime provinces, there was indeed a mail service by coach between Truro, sixty miles west of Halifax, and Riviere du Loup, 120 miles east of Quebec. But, apart from the fact that the trips were made no more frequently than three times a week, the utter inadequacy of such a mode of conveyance over a route 485 miles in length was obvious to those who could use the railways of the United States for the same purpose.
The provinces had been united politically for nine years before the completion of the inter-colonial railway provided the means of direct communication between them. Until 1876 the usual course for the mails between the Maritime provinces and the old province of Canada was by railway from St. John, New Brunswick to Bangor, Maine, thence to Portland, where connection was made with the Grand Trunk system.