SHOCKING DISCLOSURES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6215, 1 August 1898, Page 4

SHOCKING DISCLOSURES.

A correspondent of the.. "jOtiigd Daily Times" sa v vs that Canada lias been horrified beyond liieasiire by the -' disclosure of the atrocities in the Crow's Nest Pass. During the past twelve months the Canadian-Pacific Railway has been engaged in pushing the construction of a brr.nch line through the Crow's Nest Pass, tne most northerly passage through the Rockies, to the new goldmine opening up in the Rossland and the Kontonay districts. As is the usual practice, the work, is divided into sections, which are beng built by various contractors. These contractors have hired small armies of labourers and taken them into the wilderness without any adequate preparation for their comfort and protection. Sufferings which defy description have been experienced by these railway navvies, most of whom were Canadians. The Press has been so full of comply. ints that the Government were moved to appoint a Royal Commission, to enquire into the facts. Its report shows that hundreds of men were huddled together in huts on the bare ground, without fire, while the temperature was 30 or 40 degrees below zero. Their food was inferior and frozen. Two men who contracted diphtheria in camp were driven a hundred miles in an open conveyance through a terrific storm, and left in a box car to die. The affair has been properly described as a blot upon civilisation. Hereafter the Government will super/vise the conditions under which railway employees are made to work. A searching enquiry will be made to bring the guilty parties to justice, and. if possible, to secure restitution to the men who have been victimised by the mis- i lepruscntation of contractors' agents.