Klondyke Nuggets | Page 5

the country and delivering at various points
along the river, without regard to the international boundary line or the
customs laws and regulations of Canada, such articles of commerce as
were required for the prosecution of the fur trade and latterly of placer
mining, these being the only two existing industries. With the discovery
of gold, however, came the organization of a competing company
known as the North American Transportation and Trading Company,
having its headquarters in Chicago and its chief trading and distributing
post at Cudahy. This company has been engaged in this trade for over
three years, and during the past season despatched two ocean steamers
from San Francisco to St. Michael, at the mouth of the Yukon, the
merchandise from which was, at the last mentioned point, transhipped
into river steamers and carried to points inland, but chiefly to the
company's distributing centre within Canadian territory. Importations
of considerable value, consisting of the immediately requisite supplies
of the miners, and their tools, also reach the Canadian portion of the
Yukon District from Juneau, in the United States, by way of the Taiya
Inlet, the mountain passes, and the chain of waterways leading
therefrom to Cudahy. Upon none of these importations had any duty
been collected, except a sum of $3,248.80 paid to Inspector
Constantine in 1894, by the North American Transportation and
Trading Company and others, and it is safe to conclude, especially
when it is remembered that the country produces none of the articles
consumed within it except fresh meat, that a large revenue was being
lost to the public exchequer under the then existing conditions.
"For the purpose of ascertaining officially and authoritatively the
condition of affairs to which the correspondence referred to in the next
preceding paragraph relates, the Honorable the President of the Privy

Council, during the spring of 1894, despatched Inspector Charles
Constantine, of the Northwest Mounted Police Force, accompanied by
Sergeant Brown, to Fort Cudahy and the mining camps in its vicinity.
The report made by Mr. Constantine on his return, established the
substantial accuracy of the representations already referred to. The
value of the total output of gold for the season of 1894 he estimated at
$300,000.
"The facts recited clearly establish--first, that the time had arrived when
it became the duty of the Government of Canada to make more
efficient provision for the maintenance of order, the enforcement of the
laws, and the administration of justice in the Yukon country, especially
in that section of it in which placer mining for gold is being prosecuted
upon such an extensive scale, situated near to the boundary separating
the Northwest Territories from the possessions of the United States in
Alaska; and, second, that while such measures as were necessary to that
end were called for in the interests of humanity, and particularly for the
security and safety of the lives and property of the Canadian subjects of
Her Majesty resident in that country who are engaged in legitimate
business pursuits, it was evident that the revenue justly due to the
Government of Canada, under its customs, excise and land laws, and
which would go a long way to pay the expenses of government, was
being lost for the want of adequate machinery for its collection.
"Accordingly in June last a detachment[1] of twenty members of the
Mounted Police Force including officers was detailed for service in that
portion of the Northwest Territories. The officer in command, in
addition to the magisterial and other duties he is required to perform by
virtue of his office and under instructions from the Department of
Mounted Police, was duly authorized to represent where necessary, and
until other arrangements can be made, all the departments of the
government having interests in that region. Particularly he is authorized
to perform the duties of Dominion lands agent, collector of customs,
and collector of inland revenue. At the same time instructions were
given Mr. William Ogilvie, the surveyor referred to as having, with Dr.
Dawson, been entrusted with the conduct of the first government
expedition to the Yukon, to proceed again to that district for the

purpose of continuing and extending the work of determining the 141st
meridian, of laying out building lots and mining claims, and generally
of performing such duties as may be entrusted to him from time to time.
Mr. Ogilvie's qualifications as a surveyor, and his previous experience
as explorer of this section of the Northwest, peculiarly fit him for the
task.
[Footnote 1: The detachment was made up as follows:--Inspector C.
Constantine, Officer Commanding Yukon Detachment N.W.M. Police;
Inspector, D.A.E. Strickland; Assistant Surgeon, A.E. Wills; 2 Staff
Sergeants; 2 Corporals; 13 Constables.]
"As it appears quite certain, from the report made by Mr. Ogilvie on his
return to Ottawa, in 1889, and from the report of