ARCTIC TRADERS.

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15360, 8 October 1923, Page 6

ARCTIC TRADERS.

FORTUNES IN FURS. This year, a 900-ton whaler from San Francisco, with auxiliary engines in addition to her sails, is being built and fitted out specially for trade with the Eskimo of the Canadian Arctic (says a correspondent of the London Times). In addition to this boat three other American schooners will operate in the Arctic Ocean, trading all the way from Herschel Island, at the mouth of the Mackenzie River, -via Banks Land and Victoria Land, to Coronation Gulf, in the cast. To herald their advance the enterprising American traders send letters tr> the Eskimo, with picture postcards of their ships and an announcement that they will sell the latest in trade goods at rates much below those of the Canadian traders, who must come in by the overland route. These letters and pictures sire sent direct by dog team across Alaska and the Yukon. - The Eskimo, who lives the life ol a close community in his small villages, each of which is practically a tribe in itself, trades, as he lives, on the community plan. When the alluring pictures arrive a conference of headmen is held and the result usually is that the whole settlement waits for the American trader, ignoring all offers from the Canadian trader who has meanwhile reached them by the overland route. Canada's last and best fur reserve is being depleted by American whalers, which every year take out raw furs, worth thousands of pounds free of duty. £< .. The raw fur trade of the world centres in two or three places, and of these the Canadian Arctic to-day heads the list. Furs worth many thousands of pounds are trapped annually by the Eskimo, Red, or white trapper of the North-West Territories, and eventually find their way to the fashion .centres of the world. The annual value of all this trade to Canada and the Empire in general is greatly reduced as the result of American enterprise. It must be remembered that every season shiploads of fine furs leave Canadian territory for the United States, via Bering Strait and the coast of Alaska, to San Francisco, Seattle, and other American coast cities.

And not only is the American trader and trapper able to take Canadian raw furs out of the Arctic free of duty, but owing to the lower cost of water carriage on trade goods through Bering Strait, as compared with the rail and river route for Canadian trade goods via Edmonton and the inland waters of the Mackenzie River, the American whaler can sell goods to the Arctic Eskimo much cheaper than can his Canadian competitor, • despite the Canadian duty imposed by the Canadian Government on trade goods brought in from American ports. Canadian Hospitality.

The hospitality of the Canadian Government begins at Herschel Island, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police post in the Arctic Ocean, and the first port of call after the American whalers pass through the Bering Strait on their trading trip. Here the kindly Government places a police constable aboard each ship to act as Customs officer and to check all sales made to the Eskimo.

The whole summer the American whaler sails the Arctic, calling at the various Eskimo settlements which are then on the coast on the look-out for the trading vessels. White fox skins, the minted gold of Arctic trade, load his vessel's holds to capacity. American made goods adorn the igloo of the Eskimo, obtained at prices which stagger the imagination. As to trading prices, a white fox fur, worth to-day about £4 or £5 sterling in the raw state, is frequently demanded in return for a plated safetyrazor or a tin mouth-organ worth half-a-crown. A rifle worth about £7 is handed over to the Eskimo in return for white fox or other skins worth ten times as much. Often an astute trader will set aside the forward end of his decks to accommodate a whole village of Eskimo families, whom he will keep throughout the season long in the unaccustomed luxury of plum and apple jam, sweet biscuits, and cheap cigars, in return for all the furs which the village may trap, or for all the seals or polar bears which they may take. The trader, at the end of the season, loads the Eskimo families down with a lot of cheap rubbish and everybody is satisfied. . In a vain struggle to compete with the American trader, the Canadian fur companies and trading houses maintain an expensive chain of posts and traders throughout the Arctic. To them must go the credit for developing the country, paying for its upkeep, for its policing, and for their endeavour to sell Canadian arid British goods to the Eskimo.

But until the Canadian Government places a stiff export duty on raw furs to America, the Canadian trader must fight an uphill battle against odds.