806 



YUKON, TERRITORY OF. 



Transportation. In the development of the 

 Yukon the question of transportation is the first 

 consideration. Four different routes into the gold- 

 fields over Canadian soil were surveyed. There is 

 now a railway from Skagway across the White 

 Pass down to White Horse Rapids about 150 

 miles. More important in some ways than this 

 line of road was the establishment of steamboat 

 navigation to the headwaters of Lewis river. In 

 1898 it was experimental, difficult, and dangerous. 

 To-day steamers come and go almost daily during 

 the season of navigation. Winter travel between 

 Dawson and the coast, which formerly was long 

 and arduous, is now comparatively pleasant. The 

 question of freight, however, remains a pressing 

 one for merchant and miner alike, and strong 

 protests have been made against the freigh>car- 

 riers, the chief offender being the White Pass and 

 Yukon Railway. Two-thirds of the business of 

 the Yukon formerly went to Seattle and* other 

 United States points. Since the railway was fin- 

 ished two-thirds of the business had gone to Brit- 

 ish Columbia. 



As time passed, agitation grew, until finally a 

 gathering of Dawson business men met the offi- 

 cials of the road and told them that their profits 

 made the payment of existing high rates impos- 

 sible. The increased facilities for handling goods, 

 the great saving of time over a year or two ago, 

 the lowering of prices for labor and supplies, the 

 practical monopoly of the trade of Dawson and 

 the Klondike, were reasons advanced for consid- 

 eration. Despite these improved conditions, it 

 was pointed out, the rates charged were now 

 higher than when the means of delivery were un- 

 certain. President Graves, of the railway, re- 

 fused to consider the demand for lower rates. 

 In 1900 the holdings of the company appreciated 

 70 per cent. With net earnings of $1,500,000, their 

 net profit for 1900 amounted to $1,000,000. They 

 were now buying the boat lines, and had raised 

 the average fare from Dawson to White Horse by 

 $25. In 1897 the rate for freight was $325 a ton. 

 Now it is from $80 to $125. A dredge that cost, 

 laid down in San Francisco, $20,000, will cost the 

 owner $100,000 laid down in Dawson, and $125,- 

 000 before it is in operation. The greatest volume 

 of freight ever brought into Dawson in a single 

 season was that of 1901. It surpassed the pre- 

 vious year by 4,483 tons. By the Upper Yukon, 

 according to Dawson customs office figures, 22,- 

 597 tons were received, and by the Lower Yukon 

 13,930 tons. This freight comprised an unusual 

 quantity of goods of Canadian manufacture, and 

 the estimate of those who could best form an 

 opinion before the details were officially published 

 was that more than 40 per cent, of the freight was 

 Canadian. 



Mining. The exact value of the gold produc- 

 tion in the Klondike, or British Yukon region, is 

 not ascertainable. The Post Intelligencer of 

 Seattle declared that in 1900, when the Canadian 

 officers in the Yukon reported royalties on $11,- 

 752,560 worth of gold, the records of Dawson Cus- 

 tom-House brought the total to $14,000,000 and 

 the Seattle figures to much more. " The fact now 

 appears that the Seattle assay office received from 

 Klondike $16,946,437, and sufficient bullion is 

 known to be now lying in safe deposit in this 

 city to advance the total to more than $20,000,- 

 000." The estimate for 1901 was $25,000,000. 

 This is all from the placer mines, but quartz mines 

 have been discovered, and these, with the new 

 creeks constantly opening and the new and cheap- 

 er processes of working the power claims, will tend 

 to give Dawson permanency. 



Early in January the Yukon council memorial- 



ized the Dominion Government for various re- 

 forms. It asked for free mining-machinery and 

 the repeal of the law forbidding Dominion officials 

 from holding any interest in mining properties; 

 for the extension of time to two years in which to 

 begin operations on bona fide hydraulic claims; 

 and for various changes in the law affecting min- 

 ing operations. A reduction of the royalty to 5 

 per cent, on the gross output was demanded; or, 

 if that were objectionable, the establishment of 

 a local assay office; or else the imposition of an 

 export duty on the gold and its treatment as an 

 ordinary article of commerce for which the person 

 carrying it would have to pay a tax. 



On March 12 it was announced at Ottawa that 

 the Yukon royalty on gold would be reduced to 

 5 per cent. The Crown claims, with specified 

 exceptions, were thrown open, and Dominion 

 orders in Council abolished the restrictions con- 

 fining a miner to one claim allowed him to stake 

 a claim wherever he chose and to abandon those 

 that did not suit him, whenever he felt inclined. 



The total gold production upon which royalty 

 was collected in 1898-'99 was $5,882,626, and the 

 exemptions $1,699,657. In 1899-1900 the figures 

 were respectively $7,307,720 and $2,501,744. 



The Assay Question. The Yukon shared in 

 the agitation of British Columbia for the estab- 

 lishment of a mint in Canada and of assay offices 

 in the mining provinces. It was urged that the 

 mint should be in Victoria or Vancouver. Fol- 

 lowing this action came a frequently expressed 

 wish that a branch mint or assay office should be 

 established in Dawson. As one of the chief ends 

 of such an office in one of the coast cities was 

 to handle the gold and trade of the Klondike, the 

 suggestion was naturally not popular there, and 

 the Vancouver World of March 1 declared that 

 such a policy would " absolutely destroy the 

 object aimed at," and leave the miners free to 

 trade as they pleased with American or Canadian 

 cities. The Victoria Colonist of April 9 argued 

 strongly for an assay office in Dawson. It recited 

 the varying value of gold-dust, the chances of 

 loss resulting from it, the necessity of the banks 

 protecting themselves, the high charges for ex- 

 change, and other obstacles in the way of busi- 

 ness. " The banks in Dawson must charge high 

 for remittances to the outside, for they have to 

 be at the expense of sending out the gold, which 

 is considerable. This expense the Government 

 would assume if it purchased the gold in Dawson, 

 and the Government could do it more cheaply 

 than the banks." Eventually one assay office was 

 established in Vancouver, and the branch mint at 

 Ottawa. 



The Labor Problem. In July a document 

 was published in Dawson and issued to the press 

 elsewhere, purporting to be an appeal to the 

 " laboring wage-workers, and to the laboring 

 people of the Pacific slope in the United States 

 and Canada especially." It pointed out considera- 

 tions said to affect seriously the working men's 

 position in the territory. In the first place, the , 

 $5 a day that had been established as the mini- 

 mum payable in the Yukon was the lowest pos- 

 sible living wage. The very greatest -length of 

 time in each year when a man could hope for em- 

 ployment was nine months, and the average was 

 much below that figure. During that period his 

 board averaged $25 a week. The cost of other ne- 

 cessities was excessive. Boots were from $10 to 

 $12, overalls from $2 to $4, shirts from $2.50 to $4, 

 tobacco from $1.50 to $2 a pound, beer or whisky 

 25 to 50 cents a glass, stage fare 50 cents a mile, 

 laundry 25 to 50 cents a piece, picks $4 and up, 

 shovels $5 and up. Wages were paid in gold-dust, 



