Secretary of the Interior to Yukon Commissioner Ross

Refer to No: 60386 T7M

Ottawa, 20th May, 1902.

Department of the Interior

Address your reply to the secretary department of the interior.

Sir,

I beg to remind you that you handed into this Department a communication from Mr. Robert Henderson, complaining of the insufficient benefit which he derived from the discovery of gold in the Yukon Territory. A declaration made by Mr. Henderson had already been filed here in which he stated that in August 1896, he staked discovery claims on creeks which are now known as Hunker, Bear and Gold Bottom; that on making application to Captain Constantine, Mining Recorder at Forty Mile, he was informed that he could record only one of these claims; and that the Regulations had been changed so that a miner was permitted to stake only one claim in each of the districts recently established instead of one on each creek as heretofore. Mr. Henderson was accordingly given entry for Claim No. 3 of the ordinary size situated on Hunker Creek, as Mr. Hunker, who would appear to have made a subsequent discovery, had obtained entry for a discoverer’s claim on that stream.

Captain Constantine, who has been communicated with, states that so far as he can remember Mr. Henderson applied for entry for claims on the above creeks; and that he informed the applicant that as all these claims were in the same district he was entitled to only one claim and was given his choice.

The Regulations in force in the year 1896 provided that no miner should receive a grant of more than one mining claim in the same locality, and it was not until January, 1898, that provision was made in the Regulations that a miner should receive a grant of only one claim in the same district, the boundaries of which were to be defined by the Mining Recorder.

As the creeks upon which Mr. Henderson claims to have staked could scarcely be considered as being in the same locality within the meaning of the Regulations, and as the Regulations at that time did not provide for the formation of Mining Districts, it has been decided that Mr. Henderson should be granted consideration in accordance with the Regulations in force at the time he staked and recorded.

Please advise this Department of the consideration you think should be granted Mr. Henderson for the loss alleged to have been sustained by him.

Your obedient servant,

Secretary.