Home | Articles | Documents | Events | Sources

Nova Scotia Government Railway

By John R. Cameron

In 1854, the then colony of Nova Scotia passed the first Railway Act, to authorize the construction of lines from Halifax to New Brunswick with branches to Pictou and Victoria Beach (a harbour in Annapolis County across Digby Gut from the Town of Digby) (c.1). The preamble recited the advantages to be gained, facilitating internal trade, developing resources, enlarging revenues and opening easier and more frequent communications with her neighbours. It bears the imprint of Howe's oratory. The first section established the principle that the railways to be constructed would be provincial public works, with routes and standards established by cabinet (governor in council) "as best adapted to promote the general interests".

The first line (s.2) would begin at Halifax harbour and run northerly, as a common trunk. Later routes would have to be approved by the legislature. A board of commissioners would build and operate the line on behalf of the government, with a chief engineer for technical advice and direction. Members of the legislature were barred from any contract. From this beginning, the lands needed for the railway and the cost of fencing were to be charged back to the counties and raised by local (property) taxation, even before the beginning of elected municipal governments. The commissioners were authorized to spend up to œ200,000 per year. Another statute (1854, c.2) authorized a loan for this amount, to be a charge on the tolls of the railway system. The City of Halifax was deemed to hold 10% of the stock and receive 10% of the net revenues, and was required to pay 10% of the cost. The currency had to be expanded to allow for the construction: c.3.

The Appropriations Act (c.43), apart from various smaller items such as twenty-five pounds to aid the packet between Horton and Parrsborough and Windsor and Parrsborough, contained an item for five hundred pounds to Sykes and Co. "for survey of railway line from Windsor to Victoria beach".

In the early 1860s, railways continued to be a preoccupation. Acts establishing customs duties (the main source of government revenue at the time) included in the list of exemptions "iron rails for railroads". See 1860, c.1 and 1863, c.1. Railway land damages (the free right of way) were a concern. The assessment in Colchester had to be validated (1860, c.16). The Appropriations Act (1860, c.41) included "Eight hundred dollars to John Canty, to reimburse him for a sawmill destroyed by fire, pursuant to the report of the Committee on Railways". Provisions were included in the Railway Act to set the number of railway commissioners at three, and deal with trespass on, and theft of, railway property (1861, c.13). Halifax had to be forced to pay its 10% share of railway interest, as "on the thirty-first day of December 1860, there had been expended on the construction of Railways within this province a sum exceeding four millions of dollars" (1861, c.40). The Appropriations Act of 1862 (c.34) allocated $100,000 "to provide for certain Railway expenses".

An ill-fated early attempt to establish the Intercolonial Railway was the subject of 1863, c.23, which includes as an appendix printed copies of relevant correspondence and agreements. The Nova Scotia government clearly expected the project to succeed.

The Pictou branch, or at least eleven miles of it, was authorized in 1863 (c.22), for at most $400,000.00. The Appropriations Act (c.38) provided $100,000 for railway expenses and $400,000 for railway construction. The Pictou Branch (all of it) received new legislative sanction in 1864 (c.6). A new government had been elected. The only stricture was that the line run as far as practicable on a common route for the line to New Brunswick. Borrowing of $1.6 million was authorized. The railway commissioners were empowered to take the land needed to connect Pictou and Fisher's Grant (1865, c.12).

The new government was an active railway promoter. In 1865 (c.13), railways from Truro to New Brunswick (slow to proceed because of the barrier posed by the Cobequid Mountains) and from Windsor to Annapolis (with the province bearing the high cost of the necessary bridge across the Avon River at Windsor) were authorized. The Act provided for significant subsidies, and envisaged private construction and ownership rather than government public works as the first railways had been. The Act did, though, allow the province to take over the railway upon payment of its value, a provision frequently referred to in the early 1880s when an attempt was made to consolidate the railway system. The Truro to New Brunswick section was dependent upon action by the New Brunswick government to ensure the existence of a continuation to the Saint John and Shediac line.

A problem had arisen with taxpayer resistance in Hants County (an opposition stronghold later represented by Howe) to the levy for railway lands. The Windsor branch ran through Hants and its right of way gave rise to the problem. The statutory correction (1865, c.14) provided for the collection, by seizure, and removal to adjacent counties for sale if necessary. This, presumably, would avoid interference in the judicial sale by irate locals, as seems to have occurred. The preamble to the statute notes only that a large part of the assessment "remains uncollected and unpaid, and difficulties have been found in the collection thereof".

[SOURCE: A Legislative History of Nova Scotia Railways, by John R. Cameron, 1999.]

[ Article Index ]