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BLASTS FROM THE PAST Dec. 19 - Magistrate advises Doc to leave city

Chronicles of Boundary Country from the pages of the Boundary Creek Times Volume IV, No.4 – April 2, 1898
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Chronicles of Boundary Country from the pages of the Boundary Creek Times Volume IV, No.4 – April 2, 1898

➤ Two Before the Courts – “Before Police Magistrate Hallett, on Wednesday last, Doc Elwell was charged with using insulting language on the street and was allowed to go free on a suspended sentence, the magistrate advising him to leave the city.” And on last Tuesday, “before James Kerr, J.P., and W.H. Norris, J.P., in Midway, the case against Jake Ransport, charged with supplying liquor to an Indian, was dismissed. The Indian, Manual, charged with having liquor in his possession, was fined $25 or 30 days in jail.”

➤ Too Many Wards of the Province – “Apparently the work in the Inland Revenue department of this district has become so great that a deputy inspector has been appointed, in the person of Mr. Gilpin of Grand Forks. If Inland Revenue Officer Stuart cannot attend to all the business of his office, he should resign. There are hundreds of men in the district that could do all the Inland Revenue business in eight hours each month. There are too many officials in the employ of the Dominion and provincial governments in this country and the policy of our representatives should be to get rid of some instead of making unnecessary additions. The officials are becoming so numerous in the district that there is hardly room for people who earn a living to walk on the street without tripping over some ward of the province or Dominion.”

➤ Mining Claim Miraculously Moves – According to the Rossland Miner newspaper, “another rich strike is just reported as having been made on the Texas claim in Providence Camp near Grand Forks.” The Boundary Creek Times commented, “from the foregoing dispatch, one might be led to suppose that the Texas claim had moved to Grand Forks. This is not the case. The Texas is still doing business in the old place in Providence Camp, about one mile from Greenwood City.”

➤ Low Level of Intelligence on the Coast – “It is hardly conceivable the dense ignorance which prevails amongst the residents of the Coast respecting the Interior of the province. Allowing for even the low average of intelligence which the members of the present legislature are credited with, it will scarcely be believed that a member moved ‘that the House required information so that it could know whether or not the proposed V.V. & E. railway line will cross the International boundary into Canada’. (ed. it did) Another member opposed the new railway charter because the VV&E ‘did not seek permission to expropriate Crown lands’. It would be a difficult matter for a land-grabber as keen even as the C.P.R. octopus to find one single quarter section of Crown land on the route the VV&E wishes to follow.”

➤ All Fool’s Day – “Yesterday was All Fool’s Day, and a number of jokes were played, everyone taking a hand in the fun. The editor of the Midway Advance could have played a good joke on the community by issuing on the 1st of April, and calling the publication a newspaper. It was the opportunity of a lifetime missed.”