LONE OUTPOST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22509, 28 August 1936, Page 19

LONE OUTPOST

; CANADIAN AECTIC ; LIFE AT FORT SMITH 3 AIR-MINDED POPULATION [from our owk correspondent] ! VANCOUVER, August 1 ' A capital city without debt, dole or L politics, such is Fort Smith, with a population of 300 souls, seat of Govern- , ment for 2,250,000 square miles of the r Canadian Arctic, known as the Northi west Territories. The nearest politician who has any control over the area of • its inhabitants is at Ottawa, 3000 miles away. The accepted mode of entry is by air; its people are the most airminded in the Empire, with the possible exception of the New Guinea goldfields. Journeying northward from the lower reaches of the Athabasca River, the traveller sees below him herds of migrating caribou, and, on the flats beyond, the confluence of the Peace and Slave Rivers, a herd of 20,000 buffalo, grown from 1000 head in the decade sinco the Government of Canada determined to save from extinction the noble animals that once roamed the prairie at will. Portage ol 15 Miles The last link of the journey, from Port Fitzgerald, is a portage, over which mining machinery and equipment are carried every summer, to the extent of 100,000 tons, past 15 miles of rapids in a 2000-mile water highway. Some day this transport problem will be overcome. Then boats will steam for 2000 miles from the end of the railway to the Arctic Ocean, at Aklavik. The laying-out of Fort Smith testifies to the orderly quality of its life. Neat buildings stand in soldierly array behind picket fences. Union Jacks flutter from many flag poles. Groves of silver birch trees, transplanted north of the timber lino, together, with flower and vegetable gardens, in summer, give a gentle note to the environs of the settlement. The talk is of mining, buffalo, freight tonnage and furs. The male population comprises Government officials, traders, trappers and prospectors. Four men administer the territories without fuss or red tape. Jioyal Mounted Police There are also mounted police, Indian agents and radio operators. The first-named, in spite of the Hollywood tradition, are still the law's chief bulwark in the North, men who make long patrols in the eternal silence in the course of duty. They know everything. Travellers are carefully observed, as to their business so far off the beaten track. If they have not sufficient funds or equipment for travel in the open spaces, they are warned to return whence they came. Near the winter airport is a hospital, founded by the ( Sisters of Charity nearly 70 years ago. Electric light and running water are at everyone's disposal. A glittering bath tub may be seen in the Residency. From Fort Smith into tho Far North ply the bottoms, which journey into Great Slave Lake, then down tho Mackenzie to Simpson, Wrigley, Norman aud Aklavik. Tho year's supplies for this vast area pass through the Fitzgerald-Fort Smith " bottle-neck " between the end of May and the beginning of October To-day, as the hunt for new gold doubles the population of the North, the call for supplies, machinery and equipment increases rapidly. Busy always, but never excited, Fort Smith goes its way, attending to man's orderly progress in the great spaces of Canada's Northland.