MONEY FROM THE SKIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 175, 26 July 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

MONEY FROM THE SKIES.

RED INDIANS AT BARGAIN SALES. The treaty money paid annually to tho Red Indians of Northern Ontario, in compensation for their lands, amounts to about four dollars each. In former years the trip was made by canoe and took several months; this year it was finished by aeroplane in three weeks, and included a district which had not been formally taken over by the Dominion Government. . About six hundred Indians were asked to meet the flyers at Trout Lake to discuss the terms of the new treaty, and after a six-hour discussion the chief returned to his tribe and received its consent to the signing of the treaty. Every male Indian over 21 and'every widow and maiden over 20 were eligible for the treaty gold. They'wrote down their and ages in their native language, tfye Union Jack was hoisted over the commissioner's tent, and payment began, each Indian receiving eight dollars. ,Treaty money was formerly paid in gold, but in this instance the tribe received about five thousand'dollars in one-dollar bills. An Indian with such sudden wealth is like a child: he is not happy until it is spent. At Trout Lake the Hudson's Bay Company, ever alert for trade, had shipped in .by aeroplane a big stock of goods a week before the treaty money arrived, and on the day of payment a bargain sale was held at their store. Soon the money was all spent, and the Indians were the proud owners of mouth Organs, small phonographs, brightlycoloured shawls, beads, and new jerseys, and every child was loaded with candy. Sports and entertainments also were held, including-a five-mile tandem, canoe race. At every stopping-place the Government officials gave a simple instructive talk on forest conservation, explaining to the Indians' that if they did not guard the forest from fire it would some day be destroyed, the rivers would be dried up, and that would mean there would bo no hunting or fishing for them or their children.