\
South Fort George has now a licensed hotel, and should be the means of destroying the "blind" auxiliaries.
FORT
rfi.
The red stage coach marks another epp^h in our history. Ib will* be the ebony-officered Pullman to roll along next!
FORT GEORGE, B.C., OCTOBER 28, 1911
The Indian Reserve
Proofs of the Fake Deal�-CJ. T. P. Should Soon be the Owners
On September 2nd., last The Herald published the news that Indian Reserve No. 1 here had been sold by the Indians to an, individual named F. G. D. Durnford.^We published the news in absolute good faith, be-leiving that,the deal was bonu fide, as we were assured it was by Father Cocola, the Indian! missionary who presided over the Indian's interests at the supposed sale. The agreement was sighed by every Indian on the\ rancherie, with' intent to sell their reserve for the sum.of $100,000,.and entailing further expenditures, on new homes for the Indians on another reserve, amounting to about $35,000 more. Mr. Durnford; we understand ^ satisfied Father Cocola as to his ability to carry out the deal, and a telegram was received by the missionary fro*m Ottawa which justified his action ill tho matter. '
It now transpires .that F. G. D. Durnford was hot in tt position to purchase the re-
serve at all, and that his "deal" was a frame-up of his own, or in collusion with some astute individuals who are keeping in the background, as the change of government may have affected their plans, and wavering discreetly over nil we can tracu the influences of a slick gentleman in Vancouver�who e^all be nameless.
In conversation withJMr. J. G. Ramsden, Chief; Inspector arrl Indian Commissioner, who arrived.here 'las! week, with Mr. T. W. McRae, Claims Agent for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company, to acquire the Indian's rights in the lan^ for that company, The Herald was; informed that Mr. Durnford had no authority, either expressed or implied, from the Department of Indian Affairs, in any shape or form, 'to purchase the Fort George Reserve. As a ^matter o{ fact he1 has not been, and is not, in any way connected with the department.. The agreement he made was irregular and invalid,
and consequently has not and will not be recognized by the department.
That Mr. Durnford was not even aware of the proper procedure whicli the "Indian Act" requires shall be followed in obtaining the surrender of Indian Lands, is now very obvious. His agreement was rendered automatically void by the fact that he endeavoured to acquire rights over that land without conforming to the requirements of Canadian law governing such contingencies. The contents pr effect of his agreement are not public, property, and a,re'known only to Mr. Durnford and his witnesses, but we have reason to believe that the transfer, under his agreement, was made to a gentleman in Ottawa. Now according to section 50 of the "Indian Act" the following, quotation will sho'w that such a transfer was.not worth even the dollar that Mr. Durnford paid for it.
"and no surrender of any reserve, or portion of any roserve, to any other person other than His Majesty, shall be valid."
And again, the Act states in aubtsection 1 of section 49, thai:
* "Except at in thito part otherwise provided, no release or surrender of a reserve, held for the use of the Indians of
any band, or of any individual Indian, shall be valid and binding, unless the release or surrender shall be assented to by a majority of the male members of the band of the full age of twenty-one years, at a meeting or council thereof summoned for that purpose, according to the rules of the band,) and held in the presence of the Superintendent General, or of an officer duly authorized to attend sucb.council, by the Govenor in Council or by the Superintendent General.", �
At Mr. Durnford's meeting of Indians there were present besides himself, a bank manager, and the Indian missionary. Mr. Durnford had nb authority from the Indian Department, as previously stated. ,/
There is a regular printed form pl^aur-render got out by, the Dept. of Indian' Affairs, fop the use of its oflicers when securing the surrender of the rights of ,a band to its reservation. The actual( surrender is made in the following terms:
"The band hereby release, remise, surrender, quit chum, and yield up unto our Soverign Lord the King, bis heirs, and successors forever." There facts show conclusively that Mr. Durnford sought* to acquire an option on
the valuable reserve here for one dollar, without knowing the first thing about the method of procedure. However, as his^ deal is entirely off, and his importance is not sufficiently great to waste more space upon his operations, we bury F. G. D. Durnford until he butts-in again. We give- this explanation to our readers of a>phoney deal tnat possessed, at first sight, all the ear marks of genuineness, y/
Mr. Ramsden, who/ is now here as the authorized agent^of the Minister of tbe^ln-torior, also Superintendent General'of Indian Affairs; is here to aid the railway company jn^taking ithe prelkhinary^steps in acquiring- the reserve, and at the same time to attend to the best interests of the Indians, for his department. MivMcRae, of {he G. T. P. will make an offer to the tribe after they are assembled here. They are coming in daily from their hunting grounds in response to the runners sent out by Mr. Rain-sden, and the matter should be finally^et-tled early next week.
There is no doubt in the opinion of The Herald that the deal will go through without very much trouble and we hope to announce in our next issue that the Indians liave surrendered to the Crown, for sale to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway for town-site and terminal purposes.
THE END OF NAVIGATION----REVIEW OF THE SITUATION
The season of navigation on the upper j Fraser River has jiow practically drawn to a close. Reviewing the season, which the conclusion of the navigable period may be said to terminate. We can not, consistently, chronicle the influx period of the year 1911 as, a prosperous season in the history of the town. There has been much active development,1 and not for a moment has the town hesitated in its. career towards the establishment of the commercial and industrial centre of the new northland, but the development, tike upbuilding, and the active advancement of South; Fort George/has devolved upon the locul populace and the vested interests of the^, country. . The Spring promised fairly enough to mark the co�i^ mencement of the boom era in the history of this place, and the first boat of the.sea-Lson landed overdone hundred passengers on ""-.....~-------��the "outside" has
Local and Provincial
A/local hunting, party, composed of Messrs. Harry Close cmd Wallace/Brown, a xnthpanied hfy, Ben/fcodeker, as guide and canoeman, left town this week for a hunting trip into the country near the Grand Can-, yon. The party were provisioned for ' a month,k
Several/new buildings are going up in town,^mongst which are Mr. Gee Forbe's cottage on Second street,* and a residence Ixjjrig erected ,by Mr. Dajft*_ Brewster, on lamilton Avenue. / _* The new/Northern h6tel received its new � licence lastrweek. It/brings^joy to the camp, for the insignificant square paper pinned up" Iwhirid the splash-register means that, booze 'nay be purchased for so much^throwToy J" i.he bottle or in a glass, without ^having re-~ course to the uncertified vendors of uncer-certai|u brands, or, to the long-winded cider jags: 6f days" gone byj. The district is no longer "dry"; It is' now wet. The-stock of liquor is first-class (they say) and includes everything yfrdm Victoria beer^to French Champagne. The barkeep is capable of executing a pousse-cafe or corpse-reviver, and the cigars may be smoked till they color the finger nails, There is no chance> on Mirth for- Dr. Spencer making a hit here-abbuts/soi ho lhadhetwr.stay away. A well regulated licenced house is a, necessary adjunct to a real Hive town, inhabited by men /wl#o can ftake a drink and leave it alone." Up at Tete .Jaune Cache'there,is no town7 find no licence, but the bohunks are th/fe; and so are tho "blind-pigs," He Kave4ecn infortned that the latter have vended their diluted.vitrol as high as $25 a bottle, "jit is also rumored that there is a/still; in tho hills up there,somewhere, that makes a particularly atrocious brand/of rot-gut., ^t � will not bi long ere'the^onstruction Army is uponjus terjj_and thegrnnting of h 'hxenco to men who will apt'wider the privileges^, ftllows. tnem, BjJ^ictiy in accordance with the "Liquor Litence Act,'' of B.C. which, we believe Jfo be the; best, legislation ever .,. enacted in/Canada to. govern the sale of in-j toxicants, is a common sense, practical and 1 efficiem way of controlling the "liquor evJK' that inconsistent, pule-yellow-jelly re--1,/ortners rave about, Bit know very little of. The story of the^Itothfinding nutomo-Me," which reached Hnzfllton from Seattle-, recently- j*oing. via Quesnel" and the Fraser Lake wagon road, receives a rude, jar Ijy the � �net."which has come to light, that the,car was dismantled and packed ,fdr a.distance ?l about one hundred miles between Fraser ami the Bulkley valley. ' V
cano*. tent down to Que�nol by
never wavered from our city, agTiculturu) lands and property in th& business centre here have steadily increased and maintained their values, but the people did not flock in, and the population shows no very decided increase over that of last year. The reason is simple enough, for the Grand Trunk Pacific railway have never yet officially placed the hall mark of their approval upon this place, as the important and strategical point from which they will radiate their branch lines, and which as their divisional point, situated in the only logical and natural point for the growth of the big inland city, in the country they bisect,, but their decision/rests upon the acquisition of the Indian reserve here for terminal vaiid townsite/purposes, and until the pres-. ent da�e the^railroad company has never di; rectly approached the Indians with any proposition' to/buy, save in the instances, of
two attempts made through the Department of Indian Affairs, without the aid of any representative of tho railroad company. The Indian reserve deal hits been the one question which the outside public have waited for before finally pinning their faith to the city of Fort George. We do not refer tp-xh'e townsites of George Hammond on-the Ne-chaco river, when we mention'the city of Fort George, although that stake-maze is a townsite registered,under the name of "Fort George," but.in" our estimation and from the supporting facts, there will ever be a vast difference in the city of Fort George to -which we refer, and the townsite of Fort George aforementioned.
During the past season strong interests have invested large sums in# industrial enterprises here. The J. D. $cArthur Construction company,, of .Winnipeg, one/Of the strongest coatractimr:iu'jns in .^
purchased the interests of the defunct Fort George Lumber & Navigation Co. The government have given us-a local government office, and the district a government agent. Many new wagon roads have Ijeen built throughout the country and a gratifying nilmber of pre-emptors have settled upoo lands. Two ferries have been built here, linking up the country to the north and east with the supply centre. In South Fort George the splendid new^buildings that have gone up on all sides speak eloquently of the faith the people on the ground have in their city, and the summer weather, has paid a/splendid tribute to the district's agriculturists whose crops have yielded Wonderful results in production. /The outlook for next year is encouraging in the extreme. It may be said that the populace of this place are preparing for their last winter of isolation and inconvenience, due to primitive transportation meth-ods.. By...nextj9pringjthe steel rails of the j
Grand Trunk Pacific railway will have arrived at Tete Jaune Cache, and by the fall of the year the grade should have reached a point within easy reaching distance of Fort George. Means of communication with the end of steel will be established and the town will benefit vastly by the belt of communication established between Ashcroft and Edmonton by steel, stage" coach, automobile and M'ater routes.
That the Grand Trunk- Pacific railway will now acquire the reserve there appears very little room for doubt. When this is an accomplished fact the hordes of people that have been waiting to come here after some definite announcement has been made by the railrond company, as to their inten? tions will pour into the town and mence the real upbuilding of the great/6ity that will inevitably arise upon the point of land at the confluence of the Fraser and Ne-chaco rivers.
BIG GAME HUNTERS INVADING THE DISTRICT�Good Bags
Theodore Barnaby, an English big game, hunter', who left here on Septemjjer fourth-fpr the Big Salmon river to hunt cariboo, returned from the upper Fraser early ih^Uie week. Mr. Barnaby brings back several fine trophies^oT the chase, including the antlers^ of three cariboo and"6neset of moosehorns, besides a splendid grizzly skin. The'eariboo Mr. Barnaby shot on the ^Salmon river,
whilst the grizzly and 'moose 'fell vietims to his'rifle on Tonequah crejlk, near the tJrand Canyon. Mr. Barnaby As very well satisfied with the results of his trip into the northern interior in qiie^t of game. He'left here by canoe, accompanied by Wm'. Seymour, an Indian guide, and a bxilfbreed canoeman. He is vervi/fayorably impressed with the country ariaxthe prospects of this place as a
future metropolis. Mr. Barnaby leaves here shortly for Vancouver Island, where he will hunt .Wapiti* This country presents illimit-
- able opportunities for the-big game hunters of*the world. Moose and Cariboo abound on the tributaries of the upper Fraser,
^whilst grizzly and black bear are common* in-the timber/ The hunting possibilities of the country
have never been properly exploited, but local merchants are beginning to realize the fact that they are allowing a valuable addition to the trade J3I the country to escape jthem through the/lack of information reaching the hunters; and it is possible a campaign will be started to place pamphlets setting forth the advantages that the/coun-try offers to sportsmen, in the hotels and sports^clubs of the world.
the local agent of the British Columbia Express company ^returned � empty. The Indians who polled the dugout back from' Quesnel ayefthat the Quesnel agent would not glv<5tliemjmy, mail.for this point, settles it. It is up to the citizens here, ^register a kick against the high-handedf independence of tl� mail contractors^/There was absolutely no reason to refuse the Indians the letter . mail . for South � Fort George.; They had been sentjdclw.n with the outgoing mail by tl� company, but/were not allowed xto "Bring -any matter_back. There never w,as yet .a/public service corpo-ration/without"one m two fools in its personnel, but the B./C. Express company ap--pears to have more tUan its share.
The Mercantile Trust company, of,% Vancouver, a 'concern that started in to operate extensively in agricultural lands in this section^ failed recently. F. D. Noble was appointed liquidator. The failure of the
7�ncern reflects upon the management only. The masquerade ball/ to be held in the Fort George theatre next Tuesday evening promisesi-to be the most successful dance of its kind ever held around latitude 54 deg,. i^t B. 0. The whole, town will turn out and rhany striking and noyeb costumes are to feature the event, "n The,.proceeds are to he applied towards the building of the skating rink, now under construction.
CariboVjLodge, No. 65, I. O. O. F., in-tend holding a fnie dance in the opera house on the-evening of Friday, November' 10th.-Everybody, welcoaie. G. W, .MacLeod, sec.
A word to the wise is .sufficient. Let Thu Herald put our� local renders wise to a fact that may be deemed sufficient without mentioning any names. There is a blooded horse in town! It is quite an extraordinary and ul-/ together unique animal as horses go, ana its claim to being, blooded is, in our^esti-mation, based solely upon the condition it lands its driver in at. the end of It is a fine horse, full of ginger/and life. It is also chock' full of ideas of independence, and the coriquest of mattet over mind.when properly arranged. Tba other day the animal's owner, meeting a friend up town offered to take him for a spin! behind the pacer. The uhiuipecting one readily acquiMeed.
CM. HAYS ON THE WORK OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL
yTho ndioumed � unnunf^ tnflfitimr of thn ' "For th� niirnnsp nf r>afnhiishi'ncr suifnhlfe lino f�-n*>lr " S* \ --
adjourned annual^ meeting of , the Shareholders of the Grand Trunk- Railway company was held in Montreal on the 11th instant, with C. M^Hays, president, in the chair. The president stated that during the year track-laying on the. main line of the western division had been extended from Wolf creek to Fitzhugh, west of the Atha-�hasca river in the Rockies, :whTch will be the divisional point for that section, and that construction work is under full headway, with" night and: day forces, to Tete Jaune Cache, on.the Fraser river, beyond the Yellowhead Pass, on the western slope of the Rocky: Mountains. It is expected that track-laying will reachi this point, which is 1094 miles west of Winnipeg, before the close of the year.
"For thejjurpose of establishing suita hotel accommodation throughout the coim try which will be traversed by your/company's lines," continued the president, "it is proposed to construct; a cfa class modern hotels, and with-itbisoDJ�ct in view a contract has been-^Ht for>-tfie con-construction of a \argel^eliit\he city of Winnipeg at a cost of SI'mJO^OO. Good progress haa_been made/onconstruction work on the Ontario division, and the present condition of thai^ork shows a total of / 223.45 miles oi main line track nnd miles oF'sidetrack laidLand-the remaining portions of the section are all: under contract. With the construction therefore ap-
136^50
fir^^ instance, there has been laid at the-present-time practically 3300 miles of main
line track."
g of right! of way on the uncompleted' gap of the railway from Tete Jaune
ache, westward to Aldermere in BulkleyA valley, was started a few weeks ago by the contractors, Foley, Welch & Stewart. Operations thus far are restricted to the7 route along the south fork of the Fraser river between ih\e Cache and Fort George'/
J. W. Stewart, managing director of the firm, with K. W. Kelliher, cbief engineerrdf.,-the railway, and J. ,Callaghan, Westeri^j1 Divisional Engineer on construction, arrived here Thursday night, and were met by C. C" ' VanArsdel Chief location engineer of the proxiinately 5133 miles, undertaken ih^the~ -western division, who arrived here last
�week.to intercept the party and accompany., them to Hozelton.
"Get in" said the'owner to.his friend, as ho-started to unhitch the animal. The horse sat up and took notice. He climbed/half jwoy up a telegraph polo just to show that ihe was in' form, their took- the owner and his guest out into the country, Avhere, having exercised himself sufficiently, he side-stepped about thirty feet, playfully k'ked off %he cro^ss bar and tore up a couple ol trees with liis teeth, then he executed stunts wit| the buggy that/successfully landed the occupants with djkdl sickening, thuds in a pudclle and went,hoine with' what was leit at a 2.40 clip^/The ahimai looks like an old plug that coialdn't run a lick on earth, but his appearances are deceptive, he is cunning wise.�Beware. ' ��
nieeting was held in the/store of the orthern Dumber company^/dn Monday to dispose of the .balance left over from the 1st. of July celebration. The balance in question is $184.58. On motion it1 was decihed to donate half^f -this sum to defray" the expenses'incurred in laying out the baseball grounds last.summer, at.the corner of 4th street, and the remaining portion to be placed at the credit of. the fire department. A statement of � fche-First of July celebration was read at) the meeting, which showed that a total of-8745.00 had been collected. Following is tBe statement:
*A.}
Receipts� -^_�^^_
By public subscription ............... $745.00
Entrance to-Sports ......;........ ... 68.25
Proceeds fronj/dance.................. 26.00
$839:25 Expenditure-^ To prize money to sports ... $377.00
Fireworks...'............. .wt... 9C.&2
.Decoration ... ............'...1/23.00
Dance ...-.................. /�. :
Music!...............$20.00
Refreshments ...... 25.00 �
*;;V Sundry......... ... 7.00
Advertising and, printing ...
' Posters ...... .____�19,00
Badges...... ..;... 10.00
Herald...........'.. 20.00
52.00
Keception,. refreshments, Sundry, express, etc.""""..
Balance to
49.00 52.40 4.35 II, $654.67
The birdtfhaye flown to_the .south. The e fallen ifrom the trees. The bab-brooka have ceased to babble. Ice
cream signs have been taken down. Moth' balls have been shaken from beaver coats,/ Every store in town has stoves in its^in-dows. The sale of beer has fallen off./ The Indians are buying blankets. Axes are being filed. These/ and other signs of the approach of winter are plain iof all eyes to see. Winter in Fort Georg\ winter under our better- \
ed conditions appalls us not at
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