Messrs. James C. Pope, T. H. Haviland, and George W. Howlan having been
appointed delegates by the lieutenant-governor, proceeded to Ottawa for
the purpose of conferring with the Dominion government on the subject of
the proposed union. On the seventh of May they had an interview with the
governor-general on the subject of their mission, and immediately
afterwards they attended a formal meeting of the privy council. A
committee of the council, consisting of Sir John A. McDonald, the
Honorables Messieurs Tilley, Tupper, and Langevin were then appointed to
confer with the delegates, who had drawn up a memorandum which they
submitted to the committee. In that memorandum the delegates proposed to
accept, as the basis of union, the offer made in 1869 by the Dominion
government, namely, two hundred and forty-one thousand dollars a year
for revenue, provided the Dominion government would assume the cost of
the railway, as well as that of the proposed branch to Port Hill. These
terms were not acceptable to the committee of the privy council. A
compromise was, however, ultimately effected, and on the fifteenth of
May a memorandum, embodying terms mutually approved, was signed by the
committee and the delegates.
The delegates returned immediately to Charlottetown, and the terms and
conditions of the proposed union, which were substantially those
procured by Messrs. Haythorne and Laird, as agreed to at Ottawa, were
submitted to the house of assembly, then in session. The principal terms
and conditions were the following: that the island should, on entering
the union, be entitled to incur a debt equal to fifty dollars a head of
its population, as shown by the census returns of 1871; that is to say,
four millions seven hundred and one thousand and fifty dollars; that the
island, not having incurred debts equal to the sum just mentioned,
should be entitled to receive, by half-yearly payments in advance, from
the general government, interest at the rate of five per cent. per annum
on the difference, from time to time, between the actual amount of its
indebtedness and the amount of indebtedness authorised; that, as the
government of Prince Edward Island held no lands from the Crown, and
consequently enjoyed no revenue from that source for the construction
and maintenance of public works, the Dominion government should pay, by
half-yearly instalments, in advance, to the government of Prince Edward
Island, forty-five thousand dollars yearly, less five per cent. upon any
sum not exceeding eight hundred thousand dollars, which the Dominion
government might advance to the Prince Edward Island government for the
purchase of land now held by the large proprietors; that, in
consideration of the transfer to the parliament of Canada of the powers
of taxation, the following sums should be paid yearly by Canada to
Prince Edward Island, for the support of the government and legislature:
that is to say, thirty thousand dollars, and an annual grant equal to
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