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June 22, 1871
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At the last meeting of the Mara Council a by-law was introduced, granting a bonus of $12,500 to the Midland Railway, to aid extension from Beaverton to Orillia. The by-law will doubtless be carried by a large majority. Our only surprise is that the Council and people of Mara should have hesitated so long in giving the small bonus required. A township with an assessed value of nearly three hundred thousand dollars, and containing sixty thousand acres of land, should not hesitate a moment in granting such a trifling bonus for nearly twenty miles of railway, within its own municipality.
A bonus averaging only about $900 a mile. To obtain five or six miles of railway, Thorah gave $50,000; and for the Narrow guage, Brock gave $50,000; Eldon, $44,000; and the small rocky township of Bexley, $25,000. What Brock is today, Mara, in population and wealth, with railway facilities, will be in a very short time.
To our friends in Mara, we most emphatically say vote for a railway. For a long number of years we have steadfastly advocated a railway from Whitby, North through the county. But, if that cannot be obtained at present, it is no good reason why Mara, should not have improved means of communication. It is a sure and easy way to make a township wealthy ad populous, by granting reasonable bonuses for that purpose.—-Whitby Chronicle.
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