ARCTIC AIR SERVICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23500, 14 May 1938, Page 23

ARCTIC AIR SERVICES

CANADIAN ACHIEVEMENTS OPENING UP THE FROZEN NORTH (From Our Own Correspondent) LONDON, Apl. 20. Forty years ago this year Lord Lonsdale trekked into Yukon, and. with the discovery of a nugget of gold, started the now famous “ gold rush ” of ’93. That trip occupied two years’ travelling through country where none but the hardiest of campaigners could survive the climate. Now such a trip, covering all the territory explored by those early pioneers, could be undertaken by air in less than a week. This aerial conquest of the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of North-West Canada ranks as a major achievement by air pioneers. As far back- as 1929 Gilbert La Bine, a mining prospector, was flown by a veteran air route pioneer, Leight Brintnell, from Winnipeg to The Pas, thence to Fort McMurray, down the Mackenzie River to Fort Simpson, Fort Norman, and then northeast to Great Bear Lake. Witten a matter of days La Bine had returned south, having staked claims which were later to yield the world s richest supply of silver-radium ore.. To-day Canadian air lines operate to schedule over more than 30 routes to such outlying places as Goldfields. Coppermine. Dawson, Mayo, ton Norman, Fort Rae, Fort. Resolution, Great Bear Lake, and to Aklavik. the Empire’s most northerly radio station, situated 68 degrees north. These towns, within and adjacent to the Arctic Circle, are in regular touch with Places in the sun far to the south, and .he psychological effect of this proximity to warmer climes on the men who live in the snow line has greatly helped plans for developing Northern Canada. No longer do engineers spurn the - frozen north.” No longer are whole communities cut off from the rest of the world for months on end. THE FUR TRADE It has been realised that the fur business of the North-West is but a cart of the potential trade of this wealthy district. The speed of air transport has largely the sea sonal trading in furs. Tr , a j,f s S now no need to accumulate large stOwks m be transmitted in bulk every six months, but regular air consignments give trappers and hunters more time to attend to other affairsjmd less .delav in their trade turnovei. As mucn at y £ 10,000 > worth of furs has been earned ip one trip. AN EPIC FLIGHT But the main business of air freight has taken a. turn undreamed of by oldtime pioneers. It deals with every accessory to mining development and to cite the facts of the exploit of Cap tain Stevenson, the first to undertake this work, serves but to emphasise how important the transport of mining equipment was from the beginning. In 1927, ignoring all loading rules for safe carriage of goods in aircraft C^ptai« Stevenson transported 23 tons„ of 'JS| C chinery, flying a total, of Xble in less than a month This notable feat not only astounded engineers,but threw open the. doors to a trade <>l unlimited scope. To-day that original load of 43,0001 b has increased to 26.000,0001 b during the year, and the graph for freight earned is rising St The l mine which Stevenson’s achievement made possible in so short a space of time now has a yearly produce of 4000 oz of gold, 126,0000 z of silver, and over 16.0001 bof copper Fiona the radium centre at Great Beat Bake, which La Bine’s enterprise developed, pilots have brought south £ 1^5,000 of among the freight of another firm which opened a new mine 145 miles distant from its base were a mine hoist, a mine cage, sinking buckets, rock drills, eight ore cars, 60,0001 b of dynamite. 70 workmen and their personal belongings. aAd 80.0001 b of foodstuffs. In addition to mining, such work as police, medical and religious services are maintained by air over extensive tracts of country. Sea) spotting by aircraft to assist fishing fleets is one of the mord recent branches of NorthWestern air activity. One firm, anxious lest its considerable air transports of fish from the north should reduce the supply to extinction, sent 1100 speckled trout to be dropped in lakes whose stocks were rapidly declining. Canadian pilots are building steadily in the north a white Empire of the not very distant future. Where industry assembles and delves, there towns will spring up and banks, businesses and the catering and tourist trades will follow. . . . This is the vista of the future which Canadian air development opens up to men in search of new business and new pleasure grounds North-West Canada stands at the cross-roads of the world to come; a glance at the map shows that the shortest way to Europe and Asia from Canada and Middle West U.S.A. is across the ice-capped pole, along the North-West air routes now through most of their pioneer stages.