RICH DISCOVERY OF DIAMONDS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 135, 7 June 1912, Page 7

RICH DISCOVERY OF DIAMONDS

«i — - IN UNGAVA TERRITORY. Bj Teleeraph.— Frets Aseociation.— Copyright. OTTAWA, 6th June. A rich discovery of diamonds is reported from a camp in the Ungava territory, a huge and largely unexplored tract of country north of Quebec Province. A great rush has set inUNKNOWN COUNTRY. The announcements which have been made to the effect that the territory of Ungava is to be ceded by the Dominion of Canada to the Province of Quebec will no doubt tend (recently remarked an English journal) to expedite a settlement of the disputed Labrador boundary lino as between Canada and Newfoundland. The present position is already causing embarrassment to commercial enterprise, and,, in view of tho information recently cabled from Ottawa that as many as twenty expeditions are being fitted out to explore the great unknown North of Canada, the necessity for a prompt adjustment of the matter is admitted. Generally it is conceded that any development of Ungava must come from large concerns endowed with adequate capital. While tho country is rocky and rough, and only as a rule covered with timber of no commercial value, yet we are told that towards the Head of Hamilton Inlet, and throughout all the rivers running into Hamilton lnkt, there is valuable timber. The records bearing upon the boundary question date back nearly 160 years. On 7th October, 1763, theßoyal proclamation gave to Newfoundland the jurisdiction of the Labrador coast between the River St. John and Hudson's Strait. The Quebec Act of 1774 brought the territory once more under the Province of Quebec, but this in its turn was controverted by an Act of 1809, described as an "Act for establishing Courts of Judicature in tho Island of Newfoundland and the islands adjacent, and for reannexing, part of the coast of Labrador, and the islands lying on the said coast, to the Government of Newfoundland." In 1825 an Act moved the boundary eastwards, in the following terms : — "That so much of the said coast as lies to the westward of a line to be drawn due north and south from the Bay or Harbour of Auko Sablon inclusive, as far as the 52nd degree of north latitude, with tho Island of Anticoste and all other islands adjacent to such part as last aforesaid of the coast of Labrador shall be, and the same are hereby, reannexed to and made part of the said Province of Lower Canada." From this time onward no change has been made in the boundary. It appears that the Government of Newfoundland have for some years past been exercising a somewhat active jurisdiction over the continental territory of which they claim control. They have appointed Customs officers, and levied Customs dues. For instance, duties havo been levied upon all goods going in for the Hudson's Bay Company and Messrs. Revillion Freres. By a Dominion Act of 1898 Hamilton River was constituted the boundary between tha Province of Quebec and the North-West Territories in that region, and when in 1902 the Newfoundland Government granted leases on both sides of tho Hamilton River, a protest was lodged by the Government of Quebec against the action of Newfoundland, and a suggestion was. made cv the part of Canada that the whole question as between Newfoundland and the Dominion should be inferred to the decision of the Judicial Committee of tho Privy Council. This course is believed to bo agreeable to all tho Governments concerned, and in due course will, it is hopod, result in settling a somewhat complicated domestic problem.