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 Wyaffi<4., )[^i? 
 
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 The Yukon Deal. 
 
 How the Senate Rescued the Canadian Gold Lands. 
 
 Among the schemes devised by the mem- 
 bers of the Dominion (Government, to make 
 their friends rich at the expense of the Cana- 
 dian public, the Yukon railway holds a high 
 place. This was a reckless contract on the 
 jart of the Minister who made the bargain, 
 but a safe and easy way to make a few mil- 
 lion dollars on the part of the favored con- 
 tractors. ' ^^ . . 
 
 "Had the Senate endorsed the contract 
 one-half of the gold lands in the Yukon, 
 with the exception of the claims located be- 
 fore 1898, would to-day be the property of 
 two enterprising friends of the Minister of 
 the Interior. Mr. Mackenzie and Mr. Mann 
 would have had the right to take and hold 
 alternate six mile blocks of gold lands wher- 
 ever they might choose them on any creek 
 where gold had been found, or mif ht in fu- 
 ture be found, by any prospector, until they 
 should hold 8,750,000 acres or 5,869 square 
 miles. As there Is nothing like that extent 
 of mineral land In the whole region the 
 contractors would practically be the owners 
 of one-half of the Yukon and of the neigh- 
 boring gold regions. 
 
 The value of such a concession almost 
 takes one's breath away. It may be judged 
 by the prices paid for single claims on some 
 of the rich creeks. But the actual value 
 would be much greater than an equal extent 
 of any private claim, for the fortunate con- 
 tractors we^e asked to pay only one-quarter 
 of the royalties which are collected from 
 other investors. 
 
 This concession of half the gold lands in 
 the Yukon was made at the time when tens 
 of thousands of minerb were flocking into 
 that country; when millions of dollars were 
 made yearly out of the claims on one small 
 creek; when British and foreign capitalists 
 would have given tens of millions for a 
 much more moderate allotment, paying the 
 ordinary royalty; when the country was 
 swarming with prospectors, every one of 
 whom, whether he liked It or not, would 
 have been giving his services for nothing 
 as a prospector for Mackenzie and Mann. 
 
 What were Mackenzie and Mann to give 
 for that concession? 
 
 They were to build IBO miles of narrow 
 gauge railway with light rails from Qlenora 
 on the Stlckeen River, about 130 miles from 
 the sea, to Teslln Lake, which ws hundreds 
 
 of miles from the Klondike. Passenger^ 
 and freight transported on the railway 
 to be transferred to small boats wliich 
 carry them through Lake Teslin and do 
 Hootalinqua and Lewis rivers to the 
 dike. These rivers are frozen up a 
 part of the year, and in the summei 
 are often so shallow as to make navii 
 even for small boats, difflcult. The Li 
 called the route all-Canadian because 
 railway would run entirely through 
 adian territory, but travellers could not 
 reach the railway without passing through 
 American territory. Although part xA the 
 Stlckeen river is in American territory, Cim- 
 adians have by .reaty the right to navigate 
 it, and if the river were deep enough for 
 ocean vessels to a point in Canadian terri- 
 tory, it <might truly be called a Canadian 
 route during the season of navigation, but 
 unfortunately, the river is yery shallow, 
 and very rapid, and ocean vessels cannot go 
 any further than Wrangel, a point in Am- 
 erican territory where passengers and bag- 
 gage would have to be transferred to small 
 river boats of light draught to be taken up 
 the river to Olenora. Then the Stlckeen is 
 only open for three months of the year. 
 
 For constructing this fragment of tramway 
 "between two icicles." as one member put 
 it, the contractors were to receive 26.000 
 acres of gold lands tor each mile of tram. 
 These lands they were allowed to select for 
 themselves one block at a time as gold 
 should be found. They were also to owh 
 the tramway, and the Government agreed 
 to make the property valuable by refusing 
 a charter to any rival line, which might seek 
 incorporation in the next five years. With 
 this monopoly, the railway, if it was to be 
 of any service at all to the country, would be 
 a great property for the owners, as the 
 transportation rates were enormous. 
 
 So valuable was the privilege of operating 
 a railway from the Paciflc to the Yukon 
 believed to be, that other contractors and 
 capitalists stood ready to construct lines 
 by other routec much more favorable for 
 travel. They asked for no subaidies in land 
 or money. But these capitalists were not 
 allowed even a charter or a right to build, 
 lest their enterprise should interfere with 
 the profits of the contractors with whom 
 Mr. Sifton and Mr. Blair chose to deal. 
 
 The astonishing bargain by which thf 
 
 
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contMeton ir«r« glT«n a klns^om in reward 
 flw thdir conaent to prorlde themselyeB with 
 a tramway and to accept a monopoly, was 
 a aeoret transaction. It was made without 
 prertouB authority of Parliament, though the 
 House haA already been called and was about 
 to aisemble. There was no call for tenders. 
 Other contractors, hearing the rumor that 
 Ifr. Sifton and his colleagues had some such 
 project in view sought in vain for a chance 
 to deal with him. l^hey afterwards complain- 
 . ed that they could not even get a hearing. 
 
 It was in the session of 1898 that Mr. 
 3Iair Drought in his bill to give effect to the 
 Yukon railway contract- The measure wa^ 
 forced through the House by the majority 
 Yots controlled by the Government It is 
 fair to say that several members of the Gov- 
 ernment side relu: ■ \ to vote for it, and four 
 were independent enough to vote against it. 
 Uany other Liberals would have done so 
 If they could have resisted Government in- 
 flnence. It is known that several who voted 
 for the bill in the House begged their friends 
 In the Senate to throw out the measure. 
 
 The Ministers who spoke in the Commons 
 and in the Senate pleaded strongly tor the 
 contracts. They urged that if the road were 
 not built there would be riots, and famine, 
 and pestilence, and all manner ot terrible 
 things in the Yukon- For these awful conse- 
 quences the Conservative party was to be 
 held responsible. It was suggested that the 
 Senate would endanger its own existence 
 by rejecting the bill, and the Government 
 organs controlled by Mr. Tarte and other 
 Ministers, were filled with threats of ven- 
 geance in case the Senate should interpose 
 to deprive Mackenzie and Mann of the do- 
 main which the contract gave them. 
 The Senate, however, refused to be stamped- 
 ed, and rejected the Bill. 
 
 This act of the Senate is now approved 
 by ever /body except those who were directly 
 or indirectly concerned in the contract on 
 one side or the other. There has been no 
 trouble in the Yukon in consequence of the 
 rejection of the measure. No human being 
 except thie two contractors, and those who 
 might have shared their gains, has suffered. 
 Another railw:;y has been constructed by a 
 shorter, easier and more direct route into 
 the Yukon- This railway is reached from 
 the Pacific Coast without river navigation, 
 whereas the railway which Mr- Sifton pro 
 poaed to build could only have been reached 
 by navigating the lower Stikeen. Since tUtf 
 rejection of the contutct Mr- Blair has sent 
 a& engineer to examine the Stikeen route, 
 atkd this officer sixqz the following account 
 ot the route which the contract with Mac- 
 klilialo and Mann established as the author 
 IwC and aubiidlsed way to the Yukon. 
 
 f'XkB OATlfation ot the lower Stikeen la 
 
 aeccmpanied with considerable risk and dan- 
 ger, even during the latter part of the sea- 
 son, from snags and low water. During the 
 high water period it becomes a questton ot 
 the power of steamers plying on the river to 
 stem the large body of swift water, and 
 make successfully the sharp, narrow bends 
 in the channel, while avoiding drifting tree& 
 and snags." 
 
 These dangers are now avoided. The 
 white Pass railway has been constructed 
 without a dollar of Government aid, and ^s: 
 supposed to be a highly paying investment. 
 This railway takes up the -passenger and 
 freight at tide water, oc an vessels making; 
 direct connection with the railway, and it 
 goes hundreds of miles nearer to the Klon- 
 dike than the Mackenzie & Mann Railway 
 would have gone. If the two roads were- 
 competltors, not one passenger in ton thou- 
 sand would go to the Klondike by the Stl-^ 
 keen route. The Whito Pass railway is as 
 free from foreign interference a& the Mac- 
 kenzie and Mann railway would have been. 
 The ocean terminus is in disputed territory, 
 which is in all probability Canadian, while 
 Wrangel, the ocean terminus of the Macken- 
 zie and Mann route is undoubtedly im Am- 
 erican territory. 
 
 The same Government which tried to ob- 
 tain the control of the Yukon gold fields for 
 Mackenzie and Mann refused in the same 
 year a charter to still another company 
 which desired to build a railway without 
 subsidy into the Yukon from Pyramid Har- 
 bor. 
 
 By the defeat of the Mackenzie and Mann 
 railway scheme the working miners aad pri- 
 vate investors in the Yukon ha.'e access to 
 the gold fields that would have gone to Mr. 
 Sifton's friends. In every way the country 
 has been an Immense gainer by the action of 
 the Senate, and the defeat of Mr. Siftons 
 Yukon Railway Bill is now accepted by both 
 parties as a great blessing and a happy es- 
 cape for the country. No Minister has 
 ever dared to suggest a second measure of 
 the kind. It would be Impossible to get 
 such a bill accepted by the Government 
 caucus or by the House of Commons. 
 
 But if Mr. Sifton and the other Mliktetera 
 had got their way the measure would have 
 been law, and the two contractors would 
 have owned the Yukon. 
 
 By the rejection of this railway deal the 
 Senate has made certain enemies. Corrupt 
 politicians and disappointed contractors have 
 poured out the vials of their wrath on the 
 branch of Parliament which came between 
 them and their prey. But while the memory 
 of the rescue of Canadian gold fields remains 
 the people of Canada will be grateM for 
 the service done theib, when the Senate gave 
 the six months* hoist to the Yukon IMHway 
 contract 
 
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