102 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

front of the Colonial Building; this being the only military display in the city since the departure of the Regulars, quite a number of spectators assembled to witness their movements and greet their loyalty. A most important Act which passed the Legislature this session was the Loan Bill; a measure authoriz- ing the government to borrow a sum not exceeding £100,000 sterling, for the purpose of buying proprietary estates and making the tenants owners of the soil which they had redeemed from the wilderness. During the year a mail, freight and passenger Steamer was placed on the route between Summerside, Shediac, Pictou and Charlottetown, subsidized by the government, making two trips weekly to each port.

At the opening of Parliament in 1858, the City Guards, Captain Rankin, were again drawn up in front of the Colonial Building, and on His Excellency’s arrival he seemed well pleased with his reception, which he graciously acknowledged.

During July, 300 emigrants arrived from the Isle of Skye, most of whom became permanent settlers of the Island. In the autumn of 1858, the brig Prime Edward, sailed for New Zealand with a large number of passengers, chiefly Islanders, who intended to settle in that far off colony, where after a long passage they safely arrived.

The Reverend Dr. Kier, a Presbyterian Missionary who arrived from Scotland in 1808 and had settled in Princetown, where under his ministry in 1810, the first Presbyterian congregation on the Island became organized, celebrated his Jubilee, fourteen of his first congregation being present. Two months after the Jubilee in 1858, this venerable patriarch passed peacefully away; aged 79 years.

The first submarine telegraph cable, connecting America with Europe, was successfully laid this year between the coast of Ireland and that of Newfoundland. Thelcable was manufactured in England, in two equal parts, and placed on board of two war-ships, one of which carried the national flag of Great Britain, and the other that of the United States. In mid ocean the ends of the cable were skillfully spliced and rested on the bottom of the ocean. One ship sailing west the other east paying it out as they sailed towards their respective destinations.