THE SASKATCHEWAN LAND COMPANY.
The only colonization scheme in Saskatchewan which was an unqualified
success from start to finish was that launched by the above company. It
was a success because there was the requisite combination of experience,
brains, capital, and careful, able management. The Prince Albert line
from Regina was opened for traffic in 1892. From the earliest days there
had been a cry for the railroad. The Government at Ottawa were by
no means enthusiastic in giving it assistance. One argument used was
that there was a big section of country between Qu'Appelle Valley and
Saskatoon which would never produce any revenue as it was unfit for
settlement. I have heard this stretch of country spoken of as the "desert."
I crossed it first in 1896 on a train, and that train was hauling its own
water. Behind the tender was a big water tank, and from this the boiler
was replenished by a hose. In four years the railroad had not been able
to get a supply of water. Nineteen hundred and one was a wet year with
an enormous crop. The "desert" was now covered with ponds, the grass
grew luxuriously. Colonel Davidson, an enterprising American from Min-
nesota, after whom the present town of Davidson is named, bought 500,000
acres of this erst-desert from the Canadian Government, and another
500,000 from the Qu'Appelle Long Lake and Saskatchewan Railroad Com-
pany, who held the odd sections as part of their land grant.
Mr. (now Sir) Clifford Sifton was Minister of Interior and the price
he set was one dollar an acre. The railroad company sold their lands at
the same price. Lands were being sold along the Soo Line in Southern
Saskatchewan by a well known big land company at a dollar and a dollar
and a half. Nevertheless at the next general election a hot attack was
made on the Government for selling the land at so low a price and there
were none too thinly veiled innuendoes that there was a gigantic graft be-
hind it all. There can be no doubt in any one's mind, at this distance of
time, that it was a perfectly clean and honorable proceeding, which has
rebounded greatly to the advantage of Saskatchewan. The fact that for
many years these lands could be had for nothing and nobody wanted them
seems pretty good proof that any cash price at all for them was a good
bargain for the vendors. And the conditions of the sale were even more
valuable than the half million of money, for the transfer of the land was
conditional on the S. L. C. placing sixteen bona fide settlers on each town-
ship. Associated with Colonel Davidson was Colonel McRae, who is now
a resident in Vancouver and the leader of the Independent Party in British
Columbia.
Bibliography follows:
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