"The question of the future of our growing population has for some time enjoyed the earnest attention of all thoughtful men in this country, and has been the subject of serious solicitude. The fisheries being our main resource, and to a large extent the only dependence of the people, those periodic partial failures which are incident to such pursuits continue to be attended with recurring visitations of pauperism, and there seems no remedy to be found for this condition of things but that which may lie in varied and extensive pursuits.... Our fisheries have no doubt increased, but not in a measure corresponding to our measure of population; and even though they were capable of being expanded, that object would be largely neutralized by the decline in price which follows from a large catch, as no increase of markets can be found to give remunerative returns for an augmented supply." The Act was passed, which empowered the raising of a loan of L1,000,000 for the purpose of constructing the proposed railway. By November, 1884, the line was completed as far as Harbour Grace; by 1888 a further instalment of some twenty-seven miles was ready between Whitbourne and Placentia; soon afterwards it was decided to recommence building the line northwards from St. John's to Hall's Bay, which has been discontinued through the failure of the contractors, and to carry out the scheme the Reid Contract was entered into. We are now reaching a period when the leading parts are played by persons still or recently living, and the story must therefore be continued with the reserve proper to one who is not himself an inhabitant of Newfoundland. Particularly is this true of the much discussed Reid Contract, the circumstances of which are reserved, from their great importance, for a separate chapter.[46]