October 26, 1867
NOVA SCOTIA MEMBERS TO TAKE COMMONS SEATS
The Anti-Confederate members of parliament from Nova Scotia have resolved to take their seats in the House of Commons when the Parliament meets in November. The decision was made by a vote of the members and their colleagues in the provincial assembly at the recent caucus meeting in Halifax, the result of which was thirty-three in favour and twenty-three opposed.
RAIL BETWEEN OTTAWA AND TORONTO
The Ottawa and Prescott Railroad will begin running three passengers trains a day between Ottawa and Toronto beginning on November 4th. Trains will arrive in Ottawa from Toronto by 9:30 pm. Return trains from Ottawa to Toronto will depart at 10:00 pm, arriving in Toronto by 1:00 pm the following day.
MACDONALD RETURNS FROM OTTAWA
The prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald has returned to Ottawa after an emergency trip to Montreal to meet with the Finance Minister, Hon. Alexander Galt. Galt remains in Montreal.
BANK RUNS TO CONCLUDE IN A FEW DAYS
The Globe reports that runs on the banks in Toronto have continued but shall be exhausted within a few days. They write:
The business community, it is hardly necessary to say, are perfectly steady and support the banks with all their influence. The applicants for gold are labourers, the least intelligent farmers, and ladies, who dear creatures, are quite certain that the end of the world — financially — has arrived. There is no use reasoning with these people. Let them have their gold and they will speedily bring it back.
NEW GAOL IN STRATFORD
The Guelph Mercury reports that plans to construct a new gaol in Stratford is moving ahead and a request for tenders is to be issued shortly for the construction to be completed by the end of next year at a cost of between $30,000 and $40,000.
TROUBLE IN RED RIVER
A report from the Red River, originally published in the Montreal Gazette and reproduced by the Globe describes a land without law, where the governor of the land, the Hudson’s Bay Company, professes an inability to protect the settlers, and appears interested in looking solely after its own interests. All the while, the settlers are denied both representation and the vote.
The correspondent pleads for the protection of two or three Companies of the Canadian Rifles, fearing that the settlement shall soon be over run by the Sioux, who are making common cause with their former enemies, the Saultaux and Bungays. The writer reports that their cattle are killed daily and they are unable to retaliate lest it provoke a massacre.
The settlers dare not interfere — that is the fact; their lives and property are in danger, and they are compelled to satisfy the insolent demands of the Indians to keep pace for a time, anxiously awaiting the result of any action the Confederate Parliament of British North America may take for their relief at the approaching session.
TOWNSHIP OF BETSIAMITES
The Province of Québec has created the township of Betsiatmites. The township is in the district of Saguenay and is bounded on the north-east by the Betsiamites River, on the south-west by the proposed township De La Tour; on the south-east by the St. Lawrence River, and on the north-west by the Crown Lands.
Two weeks prior to the creation of the township, the Cabinet approved $500 in aid for the Indians here, living, in the government’s words in “great destitution”.
SANDFIELD MACDONALD TO HAVE PORTRAIT DONE
The Ottawa Times reproduces correspondence between John MacDonnell of Cornwall and the premier of Ontario and Cornwall native, Hon. John Sandfield Macdonald. MacDonnell had been delegated by a group of Macdonald’s friends to seek the premier’s willingness to sit for a full length portrait, to hang in the Cornwall Court House. The premier has accepted the offer.
SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE PROVINCES
It was earlier reported that Dr. Charles Tupper, the lone supporter of Confederation from Nova Scotia in the House of Commons, has declined the position of Secretary of State for the Provinces. The Montreal Daily News suggests that the reason Tupper declined the post was out of a desire to respect the verdict of the elections in that province, feeling his appointment would be a demonstration of indifference. He is said to have suggested the prime minister offer the position to Joseph Howe instead and is believed to have returned to Halifax to make the offer.
The Halifax Citizen scoffs that the notion that Dr. Tupper would refuse “any place with a salary of six cents, — not to speak of six thousand dollars” as “the best joke of the season”. They suggest instead that the offer was never made to Tupper, though it may in fact be made to Howe. Though, they say, that it is being discussed openly in the press “shows how destitute the public men of Canada are, not only of the first principles of statesmanship, but of the first principles of political honesty.”
The Citizen says that only one reply can be forthcoming to such an offer until Nova Scotia has a fair hearing of its case for the repeal of Confederation before the government and Parliament of Great Britain.