NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14143, 19 August 1909, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE WEALTH OF ALASKA.

In the American Review of Reviews Mr. A. H. Brooks describes the Alaska of today. He says that Alaska, with its contiguous islands, measures east and west, and north a"nd south, almost the same as the Continent of Australia. Out of 586,400 square miles, 210,000 square miles are as yet unexplored, but only 14,000 square miles are covered with perpetual ice and snow. Thirty thousand square miles in mountainous areas include some of the richest mining districts. The great timberless tundras, which cover 120,000 square miles, afford extensive reindeer pastures, and reindeer breeding is expected to become an important industry. The United States paid 7,200,000 dollars for this Arctic province, as it was then called. In 1907 imports reached 19,500,000 dollars, and exports 33,500,000 dollars. The actual gold output was 19,350,000 dollars. Coal fields, with large stores of anthracite and bituminous coal, are estimated to be capable of yielding : more than one and a-half times as much as Pennsylvania has yielded since coal mining began. Of all the Pacific coast, alone could supply American battleships - with smokeless fuel. Alaskan salmon yielded more than 16 million dollars in 1907, with 29 canneries and 35 salting plants. As many as 40,000 fish have been - reported from one haul of a seine ! There , are fully 30,000 square miles of Alaska suited for - grazing or agriculture. At present there are only some 400 agricultual homesteads. But the total permanent white population of Alaska is at present between 35,000 and 40,000 people, augmented..in summer by 10,000 to 15,000 more. The writer concludes that it is safe to expect an early increase of the population" to half a million. Alaska is continental, he says, not merely in dimensions, but in the variety of its resources.