Third Report from the Select Committee Appointed to Examine and Enquire into the Management of the Welland Canal

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Publication Info

• Publisher: The House of Assembly
• Edition: n/a
• Date Published: 1836
• Place Published: Toronto
• ISBN: n/a

Details

• Condition: Good
• Signed: No
• Dust Jacket: No
• Jacket Condition: n/a
• Details:
  Appendix to the Journal of the House Assembly of Upper Canada, of the Second Session of the Thirteenth Provincial Parliament. VI William IV. Session 1836-7. Vol. 2. ix, 575 p. 30 cm. Rebound with burgundy leather spine and blue paper covered boards. Signature on front free endpaper. Library stamp on title page and reverse. Intermittent spotting. Title page and first few pages have chips and small tears. Title continues: "With power to send persons and papers, and also the Books of Account and other Records of the Canal company - and to take such steps as might be deemed necessary to enable the House to arrive at the knowledge of the actual state and condition of the past and present affairs of the Canal. Together with the Minutes of Evidence Taken Before the Committee, and an Appendix, containing various reports and other documents relating to the business and affairs of the canal." This committee was struck to investigate the canal's enormous cost overrun after the "Father of the Welland Canal," William Hamilton, was suspected of corruption. The most substantial report published on the construction of the canal. Printed by William Lyon Mackenzie, elected first mayor of the newly incorporated City of Toronto in 1835. He became a member of the Legislative Assembly for Upper Canada that same year, representing the County of York. Printed the year before the Rebellion of 1837 attempted to make good on Mackenzie's promises of reform; for him the end result was flight to the United States. The title page reminds us the Lieutenant Governor at the time was Sir Francis Bond Head who MacKenzie called "Sir Francis Bone Head." Includes a list of witnesses as well as their evidence on such details as: the Welland Canal Company; bank contracts; timber contracts; canal management; "costly favoritism," contractors; engineers salaries; leasing water power in New York; etc.