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is a country which, from the very beginning, has presented great obstacles to the work of development. Rich as it is in agricultural resources, in the wealth of the sea, of the forest, and the mine, Nature has decreed that these riches should only be made available for the use of man by persistent and self-sacrificing effort. Canals were required to make the great waterways a highway of commerce, mighty rivers had to be bridged, mountains pierced and overcome, and great stretches of difficult country spanned by railways. Looking back now over the history of the past century, it may fairly be said that the Canadian people have never flinched from the gigantic tasks which were set them. With varying success and encouragement, but with unvarying determination, they have steadily pursued their purpose, until at the present time they are able to see, at no great distance, the complete triumph of their efforts.

The early history of the country is a tale of individual effort expended in performing the toilsome labour of the pioneer. To the first settlers who subdued the forests of the older provinces and built up civilized communities there succeeded, in due time, a generation of men who were taught by their leaders to 351