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FORT GEORGE TRIBUNE
Saturday, November 20, 1909
ROADS TO SETTLEMENTS SHOULD BE BUILT
JohnBronger, J.-N. Miller, and Thomas Tracey came in on Thursday night from where they are building a road to their pre-emptions in Mud River settlement, and return to the work on Sunday forenoon. The road will be eight miles long and when completed will give the settlement a road to Fort George, a distance of 14 miles. While the greater part of the eight miles is light work, a bridge 100 feet long will have to be built over Mud river and a grade made alongside a steep hill. Settlers willing to help themselves should be helped, and the government could veiy properly help the Mud River settlers by bearing the cost of building the bridge and grading the hillside. The estimated cost of the bridge is $150.
Most of the settlers in the Nechaco and Fraser valleys are compelled to work for wages at times, until they can clear land so that it can be cultivated. Even then, a market must be in sight for what they grow. Within a year Fort George will have a number of consumers, but the number would be largely increased were the Dominion Government to refuse to grant an extension of time for the com-
pletion of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Then there would be a market for eveiy pound of produce that could be grown on the land.
The railway company has frarned-up an excuse, in order to get a long extension of time. The excuse is a scarcity of "white" labor. As a matter of fact, the railway company has farmed out to Foley, Welch & Stewart more work than that firm can expeditiously handle, and some plausible excuse has to be given for the slow way in which the firm is handling the work.
, The late Peter Larson of Helena, Montana, and Spokane, Washington, was the capitalist who put up $5,000,000 in good securities as a bond guaranteeing that the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company would in good faith carry out its agreement with the Dominion Government to build the railway and build it within the time specified in the agreement. As Peter Larson was noted for driving close bargains, he did not put up the $5,000,000-bond without getting something of value in return. JThat something of value was a contract ots grading the G.T.P. from
Edmonton to Prince Rupert, 900 miles. Peter Larson is dead, but his estate is financing the men who were his partners in building railways, and who as Foley, Welch & Stewart have been given contracts for grading the road from Edmonton west to Tete. Jaune Cache and from Prince Rupert east to Aldermere, a total of about 450 miles.
The G.T.P. must live up to the agreement madewith the dead multi-millionaire; but the only way it can be kept is to prevail on the Dominion Government, made up as it is of pro-Chinese and pro-Japanese ministers, to not only grant an extension of time for the completion of the road, but also to take down the bars so as to enable the company to bring in thousands of Chinese and Japanese laborers, on the plea that the road cannot be built without them.                    *
Thus it is that the men in this wilderness are forced to wait for the good times the building of the G.T.P. was to bring them; to wait in order that more millions be added to the estate of a man who had more millions than he knew what to do with.
Steamer Nechaco on the Ways-
canyon last Saturday morning by an ice jam, has been pulled put on, ways and will make no more trips this season. Her freight will be brought to ForUGeorge as soon as a sleigh road can be mkde, for it is not likely canoes can be used on the river, as ice has formed along the banks so far out that poling would be difficult, and slush ice and snow are also running. The crew were to leave the boat this morning and foot it over to the Blackwater road, where they will be met by N. S.Clarke arid a sleigh, on which to haul their blankets to Quesnel, a four-day trip, for the snow is from 8 to 12 inches deep. Before leaving here, Mr. Clarke, who is manager of the Fort George Lumber and Navigation Company, stated that he intended to put in an electric light plant and a small system of water-works at South Fort George next spring, as soon as the plant could be got here. The water will be pumped from the river to a tank, from which it will be piped to users. Plans for a good-sized hotel building have been prepared, and it is more than likely the building will be erected early in the spring. These improvements, if carried out, will make it possible to live at Fort George with some degree of comfort.
More Frequent Mail Service.
A petitionTf-tut ?^tenastei':geneval we^i out today. W private hands. It was signed by every resident of Fort George and by several 6f the pre-emptors who live in the neighborhood. Seeing that it was only written on Thursday afternoon, it was "numerously signed". It asks that Fort George be given the same mail service that is now given Quesnel, that is, a weekly mail from November 1st till April 30th and a mail twice a week from May 1st till October 31st. The request is not an unreasonable one, now that Fort George has become a place of some commercial importance. It now gets a mail once a month, which is probably all that an Indian village needed. But Fort George is no longer a mere Indian village. Steamboats have shown that the Fraser is navigable through canyons that were deemed impassable; that the Nechaco can be navigated from Fraser river to Fraser lake. This has all been done this summer by Captain Bonser of the steamer Nechaco. With waterways navigable for hundreds of miles for six months in the year, is it not just a trifle unfair for the Dominion Government to refuse the men who have shown this, and who are on the ground making it possible for others to follow, a more frequent mail service than once a month!
Has Winter Set In ?
The weather for the week has been win-tery. The days were sunless; the nights frosty and cold, with the temperature from zero to 20 above. Snow is from 8 to 12 inches deep, and it looks as if it was here to stay. Ice and slush snow continue to run, and it is not likely the river will be navigable for even canoes again this year. .Thirteen years ago the ice jam in Fort |George canyon stopped navigation on [ovember 13th. This year the ice jam >pped navigation on the same date. ?tory repeats itself.
Four Days on the Road.
George Ager came in from Victoria this week, coming by way of Quesnel. . He made the trip from Quesnel in four days, staying the first night at Swan lake, where there is a stopping place; the second night at Blackwater Crossing, where there is a good stopping place; and camping out the third night between Blackwater Crossing and Fort George, as there is no stopping place between these points. He was at Hazelton a month ago, and every steamer on the Skeena was carrying supplies to that place for the G.T.P. contractors.
Did Quick Work.
The sawmill did not cut much lumber this week, as the men here were kept at erecting buildings. The mill building frame is up and the engine and boiler under cover, A team is hauling logs, and there are about 100 on the ground. Part of the crew went down to the canyon to help haul out the Nechaco, and it is reported they did quick work, for in 48.. hours they had her on ways. The noill-manager expects to have a million feet of logs on the ground by spring and to sell all the lumber the mill can cut.

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