IMPORTANCE OF ALASKA.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 422, 19 May 1904, Page 8

IMPORTANCE OF ALASKA.

■eat* of <»• Mamr ©liaaeTee WKlck ■owe Omwm4 la That Count-r; -. Li- . • ***- Heeea* T««*«. 1 Since 1894 five events hare occurred that wholly change condition* in Alaska for the better, reports the Engineering Magazine. 1. In that year the Klondike gold discoveries were made, and in 1897 and 1898 a great rush to and through Alaska began, resulting in a doubling of the population and in an output of gold from the Yukon region to date of $75,000,000.

3. In 1898 the Philippine islands were acquired by the United States, giving importance to the direct route along the Alaskan coast between North America and the sew possessions.

3. In 18M gold was discovered on the beach at Nome, and this carried 30,000 people to this part of Alaska and resulted in an output of $5,000,000 in gold annually, or more than twice as mush as all Alaska had previously yielded 1 . 4. The Alaskan salmon fisheries, In their infancy in 1896, have grown in 1902 to great companies, capitalized for 320,000,000 and with net earnings last year of more than $2,000,000 and employing 10,000 men. 5. Two railroads hare bean eon* atrueted in Alaska, one of which Is in the extreme southeast, costing $4,000,CQO, earned last year over $3,000,000 net* and the other in the extreme north* reefs near Noma, a little road five ni 3S long, which earned SBO,OOO net. B, 'Joel fields formerly superficially .' n have been explored and invest •.;.-■ -ad, while new ones of great via* «« have bean discovered.