Circumstances, incident to the expansion of settlement or the providing of new facilities, are constantly arising, which compel the department to embark on expenditures from which adequate returns can be expected only in the distant future.
As instances, when Manitoba and the north-west territories were added to the dominion, one of the early measures of the department was to establish a line of mail route from Winnipeg to Edmonton, at a cost of $10,000, while the receipts from the whole north-west territories was considerably less than $100. The completion of the Canadian Pacific railway to Vancouver in 1885 involved the department in outlays, which exceeded the revenues by over $200,000 a year.
Nor has it been only by the weight of unavoidable expenditure that the department has been impeded in its efforts to make ends meet. The policy of the government has also operated to deprive it of what in all other countries is regarded as a source of legitimate revenue.
Newspapers have always been circulated through Canada by the post office on terms most advantageous to the public. In 1875 publishers were permitted to send their papers to subscribers at the rate of one cent per pound. Even this small charge was removed in 1882, and for the following seventeen years newspapers addressed to subscribers were exempt from all charges.
In 1899 a small charge was imposed, which, after some variations, was fixed at a quarter cent per pound. As the cost to the post office of handling and transmitting newspapers is estimated as from four cents to six cents per pound, it is clear that the loss to the department on this head reaches a large amount each year. In spite of these facts, however, the revenues of the department have steadily increased, and since 1903, when they first surpassed the outlay, they have maintained an ascendancy which it is improbable will be overcome.
FOOTNOTES:
[313] Sess. Papers, Canada, 1871, No. 20.
[314] Hargrave's Red River, p. 155.
[315] The Nor'-Wester, January 28, 1860.
[316] Minutes of evidence taken before the select committee on the Hudson's Bay Company, Ques. 4772 (House of Commons Papers, 1857).