In 1865, associated with his old friend William Ross, the firm opened a branch in Montreal. This was the commencement of the present Montreal firm. The business was now assuming large trading proportions with Great Britain, the United States, China, Japan, the West Indies and other foreign countries; nevertheless it soon began to confine itself more strictly to ocean shipping. The firm became agents and part owners of the Thomson and Donaldson lines. When the story of the growth of Canada’s shipping comes to be written the name of Robert Reford will loom up largely on its pages. Mr. Dillon severed his connection with Mr. Reford in the shipping business in 1897 and it was then that the present company, the Robert Reford Co., Ltd., was incorporated, with very extensive steamship services of six different lines to many of the world’s principal ports and with branch offices established in Quebec, Toronto, St. John, New Brunswick, and Portland, Maine. Canada owes not a little to Mr. Reford for contributing so materially to the opening up of new markets for her produce along the east coast of Great Britain, and also for the building up of further valuable trade connections by giving direct shipping communication between Canada and the Mediterranean ports. Every aspect of the carrying trade had been studied by him with that thoroughness and regard for detail which characterized the man in everything he undertook. His opinions and advice on shipping and on transportation generally were appreciated as those of an expert, and sought after by people from all over the Dominion. Apart from his shipping enterprises, which remained the main issue of his commercial life, the most important of his other business activities was his interest in the Mount Royal Milling and Manufacturing Company. Mr. Reford founded the company in 1882 for the milling of rice, with mills in Montreal and Victoria, British Columbia, and acted as its president up to the time of his death. He was also president for many years of the Charlemagne & Lac Ouareau Lumber Company, president of the York Lumber Company, president of the Crown Trust Company and vice president of the Labrador Company; and a director of the Bank of Toronto, of the Lake of the Woods Milling Company and of the Paton Manufacturing Company.