Routine Business. [MARCH 20, 1876.] 729
THE NORTH-WEST COUNCIL.
Mr. SCHULTZ moved, seconded by
Mr. Wright, that an humble Address
be presented to His Excellency the
Governor General praying for copies of
all acts passed by the North-West Council, and copies of all correspondence
between the Government of Canada
and the Lieut-Governor of the North- West Territories relative to any matters
engaging the attention of the said
Council. Mr. Schultz, said that he
would have moved this Address without
any reference to the Council whose
functions were about to be supplanted
by the new order of things, were it not
that his attention was directed to
the matter by an editorial in the
Toronto
Globe of the 25th February, a
portion of which he would take the
liberty of reading:—
"Heretofore the North-West Territory east
and west of Manitoba has been governed by
the Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba and a
species of half advisatory, half legislative,
Council of gentlemen chosen from among the
residents in Winnipeg and its vicinity. They are
themselves not slow to admit that their
constitution is a farce, and it requires no
effort of imagination in those even who have
never been in the North-West to understand
the impossibility of merchants and others in
Winnipeg acting as a Legislature for the
settlements on the Saskatchewan, and nearly
a thousand miles away in the neighbourhood
of the Rocky Mountains.
"At one of the last sittings of this
Winnipeg Council, of which the former editor
of the Nouveau Monde is a prominent member,
it was proposed to incorporate the clergy of
the missionary dioceses of the North-West
with land-holding powers. The object of this
was so apparent to those in Winnipeg, who
have seen the effect of the system there, that
it was strenuously opposed by some of the
English members, but in spite of their efforts
it was carried, and would have come to Ottawa
with such force as this nondescript Council
have been able to give to their legislation had
not Lieutenant-Governor Morris refused to
assent to the Bill."
Here was the utterance of a leading
organ as to the value of this Council
now about to cease to exist. There
was a reference to certain Bills which
were brought before the Council to incorporate religious bodies in the North- West,
and where it was assumed that
the Council had passed these; and they
were only prevented from becoming
law by the action of the Lieutenant- Governor who exercised his power to
stop them. This statement he (Mr.
Schultz) must characterize as utterly without foundation. It was true
that such Bills were before the Council, but when the promoter of them
found that the sense of the Council was
against them, he withdrew, and it did
not need the power of the Lieutenant- Governor to prevent any ill-considered
and rash action of the Council itself.
Of course it must always be a matter
of opinion as to whether the services
of this Council were valuable or not,
but we have a more authoritative utterance than the last, which hon. gentlemen will
find in the last report of the
Minister of the Interior, who says:—
"It is due to that Council to record
" the fact that their legislation and
"valuable practical suggestions sub"mitted to Your Excellency from time
"to time through their official head,
"Lieut.-Governor Morris, aided the
"Government not a little in the good
"work of laying the foundations of
"law and order in the North-West, in
"securing the good will of the Indian
"tribes, and in establishing the prestige
"of the Dominion Government through"out the vast territory."
730 The North-West Council. [Commons.]
Here is the estimate which the Hon.
Minister specially charged with the
care of North-West matters place upon
the services of this Council. He (Mr.
Schultz) being a member of this Council did not care to say much of its
merits or otherwise, and would leave
it for time to determine whether a
body of men, many of whom if they did
not now live in the North-West yet had
the practical experience of years in
connection with it, were not as
to be of service as any Council
to be appointed under the new system,
and he trusted that the new Council
would give that consideration to the
suggestions and recommendations of
the old which he felt their importance
demanded. Among the papers which
he hoped to have brought down by this
motion, would be found valuable suggestions as to the preservation of the
buffalo. He (Mr. Schultz) would urge
the importance of this matter on the
Government. So long as the buffalo
were numerous there was little danger
of difficulty with the Plain tribes of
Indians with whom we were not being
brought into contact. When these
were extinct we must expect to deal
with a race of paupers rendered dangerous by want of food. The Rev.
Father Lascombe, a high authority of
all such matters, believes in common
with many others that is the present
rate of destruction goes on the race of
buffalo will be extinct in ten years. It
is true that since the completion of the
Union Pacific Railroad and the establishment of military and other settlements in
Missouri, Father Lascombe
estimates the number killed yearly
during the winter at 80,000, and about
the same number in summer. Their
present feeding ground comprises a
length of, say six hundred miles by
about one hundred and fifty, and is
bounded on the west by the Rocky
Mountains, on the east by the Qu'Appelle Lakes, on the south by the Missouri and the
north by the north
branch of the Saskatchewan, and this
limit is ever decreasing by the destruction caused by the hunters of the
Saskatchewan on the north, those from
the Missouri on the south and the Red
River hunters on the east to an extent
and rapidity so alarming that it is
estimated by the Rev. Father and
others that in ten years they will be
extinct. Such a result is not at all improbable, since it is only a few years
since the buffalo ranged east of the
Red River, and since the last of
the wood buffalo, an animal of the
same species, but larger size, which
ranged between the Saskatchewan
and the Slave Lakes, was killed and
the whole of the race is extinct.
The use of the revolving pistol and the
repeating refile instead of the ordinary
leading gun has helped to bring this
about, aided by the destruction caused
by wolves, sickness, accidents of various sorts and the wasteful destruction
of the buffalo pound. Unfortunately,
too, it is the robe of the female buffalo
which is the most valuable and when
killed for it she is always with calf.
It is her flesh which makes the best
meat, and being more easily hunted
down than the bulls, it has caused a
destruction which has resulted in many
of the bands met with last summer
being composed of a proporton of six
or seven males to one female. The
district where buffalo are found has
narrowed with startling rapidity during
the last ten years, buffalo having about
that time been seen by him (Mr.
Schultz) east of Red River. These
facts point strongly to the necessity of
preventive measures, and the facts
spoken of are so well known to the Indians and half-breeds that they are
anxious the Government should
take action in the matter if it were
not for the fact that it would be impossible to prevent the killing of cows.
At the same time there would be no
objection to the killing of buffalo bulls
at any season of the years, but since
this is impossible a stringent law is
demanded which will practically leave
these animals undisturbed from the 1st
November to 1st May, and an enactment to prevent the killing of calves at
any season. If such a law were passed
it is believed that in five years the
buffalo would have to increased that
these restrictions might be removed.
He (Mr. Schultz) hoped that this
matter would receive the consideration
at the hands of the Government which
its importance demanded, and that the
papers bearing on this matter would
be printed for the general information
they would afford.
Sanitary Statistics. [MARCH 20, 1876.] 731
Hon. Mr. MACKENZIE said the
matter to which the hon member had
particularly alluded-the preservation
of the buffalo in the western prairies- has occupied a large share of the attention
of the goverment for a considerable time.
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