Annul the agreement.

The importance of amending the agreement between the Metropolitan Railway Company and the Corporation of Newmarket before any steps are allowed to be taken to extend the line through the Town, is emphasized by the fact that the Metropolitan does not stand in the same relation to the public as an ordinary street electric railway. The Telegram of Saturday points out this feature, in dealing with the proposed Toronto agreement, and clearly indicates the weakness of our Town agreement—which, up to the present time, has never been ratified either by the electorate or the Legislature. The Telegram says:—

"The facts of the case are these: The Metropolitan is not incorporated as an electric railway, but as a railway in the general sense of the word, and eminent legal authority agrees that the moment it crosses a Dominion line it becomes a Dominion line itself, and comes under the control of the Railway Committee of the Privy Council. Thus when the Metropolitan extends its line south across the C.P.R. it becomes at once a Dominion railway, and the control of that part of it passes out of the hands of the city and into the hands of the Railway Committee of the Privy Council. And, to go further, how long will it take the clever men behind the deal to prove that the Toronto Street Railway has been absorbed by the Metropolitan and is part of that system? That being the case, Toronto will awake to the fact that her street railway has passed from her control forever. And the street railway people will rejoice in the fact that the perpetual franchise for which they have longed is at last within their grasp."

Railways: Met.Ry.

Results