Pioneers and Prominent People of Saskatchewan

 

 

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Telegraph line was completed from coast to coast, thus establishing telegraph communication over an entirely Canadian line. This was the subject of congratulatory messages between the Governor-General and Lieutenant-Governor Dewdney. In this year the Bell Telephone Company extended its operations into

the Territories.

In November the last spike in the Canadian Pacific Railway was driven by Sir Donald A. Smith, at Craigellachie, B.C., and the first through tram was run over the whole line from Montreal to Port Moody, on the Pacific.

On January 29th, 1885, the Dominion Parliament opened at Ottawa. During the Session-the longest ever held up to that time-questions relating to the Territories occupied much of the time. On March 26th scarcely two months after the opening of the House, the first shot in the Riel Rebellion was fired at Duck Lake. Four days later, on March 30th, a Commission was appointed to investigate the claims of the Half-breeds.

 

 

Though nearly forty years have passed since this most regrettable incident, it is yet too soon for history to decide definitely where, or on whom, the responsibility should be placed. It is still for the future to determine. In the Federal Parliament there was an attempt on the part of the Opposition to throw responsibility on the neglect and inaction of the Government, whose supporters, in turn, accused the opposition of having caused the trouble, more or less directly, by creating grievances and discontent in the minds of the people, by words and acts, for the purpose of embarrassing the administration.

 

Possibly the weight of argument will be with Doctor Oliver in his view that the rebellion of 1885 bulked too largely in the popular mind because it is the only dramatic incident in the history of the Territories, and that, while it is not without importance, it was

 

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Pioneers and Prominent People of Saskatchewan