REINDEER-RAISING

Hokitika Guardian, 4 January 1930, Page 2

REINDEER-RAISING

CANADIAN GOVERNMENT’S EXPERIMENT! AN AMBITIOUS SCHEME The Dominion Government has entered upon an experiment in reindeerbreeding in the far north which is attracting wide interest throughout Canada It is by no means impossible that in the course of thirty years tile northern area of Canada, the so-called “Barron Linds,” may prove to he an inexhaustible producer of meat. For years scientists and explorers have advocated its development as a source of food supply. Royal Commissions, the last one in 1919, have confirmed these opinions (writes a correspondent of the “.Manchester Guardian”). The Government decided last August to carry out an experiment on a small scale A contract was then entered into between the Government and the Lomen Reindeer Corporation of Nome. Alaska, for the purchase of 3000 reindeer. The animals have been selected, and this month they will be assembled into one herd and piloted across 1000 miles of mountainous territory between Nome and the Mackenzie River delta. This trip will require two years to complete. The Canadian Government will take possession of the herd on the east bank of the Mackenzie River delta ■ in the autumn of 1931, and the task of reindeer-breeding in Canada will then be begun. The Govenment at Ottawa has not entered upon this venture blindly. For several years investigations have been under way, and only after favourable reports Lad been received from nil quarters was ine final decision reached. Two experts in reindeer-raising, lA. E. and R. T. Porsild, of Green- ■ lam., have reported to the Governmen | after two years investigation that I there is an area of 150.) square miles, lying in the corner between the Arctic Ocean and the Mackenzie River, which is suitable in every way for reindeer raising. They estimate that there is ample food there to support 250,050 animals. This particular territory was selected because it lies in the heart of a wide area extending along the Arctic sea coast in which food has been very scarce for several years. At times a condition of famine has prevailed and the Eskimo population has suffered severely, hundreds dying from lack of food. UNITED STATES’ SUCCESS. The Canadian Government is very hopeful of success bee-arse of the results in reindeer-raising which have oeen achieved by the United States in Alaska. Thirty years ago 12')0 reindeer were brought by the United States Government from Siberia to Alaska.: Today more than 5C0,C00 reindeer,' the progeny of the original band, graze the ide valleys of Alaska, and in recent j’ears upwards of 300,000 head were slaughtered annually. The meat supply far exceeds the requirements of the Alaskan population, and the surplus is exported, in a frozen condition, to the large cities of the Republic,

The officials of the Government point out that the problem of food supply in the north will not be solved by the acquisition of 3000 reindeer. In 1931, when the animals finally pass into the hands of the Canadian Government the real work will have but begun. Somehow the Eskimo has got to be taught to be a herdsman. The difficulties of reforming the character of a primitive people are very great, and it is just possible, may be insuperable. The usual practice among Eskimos when game is plentiful is to kill until the needs of the immediate future are assured, and then to lay aside the implements of destruction and enjoy life. It is reasonably certain that if the Government were to parcel out the 3000 reindeer among the natives every animal would be dead within six months. A system of tuition in reindeer raising will have to worked out. Probably the Government will begin by taking the younger generation of the Eskimos and teaching them the business of raising and tending the animals. For the present, at least, all that is hoped of the experiment is that the immediate needs of the Northland will be met. A decade hence, when the herd is well established, and the Eskimos are in a fair way to become reindeer ranchers, it is hoped that the market for reindeer meat will be enlarged to include any mining communities which may have grown up in the far north.