Making A Mine In Canada

Before the Guest Speaker was introduced, the following motion was presented

Moved by Mr. Spence,

Seconded by Mr. Fetherstonaugh,

That, in view of the long association of the Most Reverend Archbishop Sweeney with The Empire Club, that he be made a Honourary Member. CARRIED.

In introducing Mr. Hammell, Mr. Dana Porter, the President of the Empire Club, referred to the fame of the Dianne quintupletss but reminded the audience that Canada also had a famous pair of twins-Jack Hammell and Mining.

Mr. President, and Gentlemen: First, I must acknowledge the very kind remarks that your President has made in reference to myself.

What an influence the Empire Club has become, how truly democratic it is. It is a fine thing to see it in the hands of young, forward-looking Canadians, who are not only providing a great public forum, but carrying the various messages of distinguished men, myself excepted, from all parts of the world to thousands of Canadians and Americans by means of "Mysterious Mike" in front of me.

It was an inspiration to me to hear Mayor James Simpson last week before this Club. His message was an inspiring sample of straight Canadian thinking and perhaps brought us a little closer to the eternal truths of life. It is indeed a privilege to be asked to bring a message to the visible and invisible audience of The Empire Club. Such an invitation could not be refused by anyone who is thinking of the future of this country, and I may say that I am not going to apologize for being here, nor admit that I am not accustomed to public speaking.

Certainly my friends will admit that I am accustomed to private speaking, and if I speak as man to man I am sure you will forgive me the absence of oratorical phrases.

But that is not the point. I am glad to be able to say something in my humble way as the spokesman of that great, only partially developed half continent which we call The North. I regard myself simply as a deputy of the great army of my friends and coworkers in the North who, in the course of the last thirty years, have struggled to open the doors to the greater, the richer, the more happy and the truly magnificient Canada of the future.

I am not an economist, except as we all are more or less amateur economists in these days. But I will not pose as the man who interprets the economic trends of the mining industry in their various far-reaching relationships. That job is being done in a way I could not approach by such men as Hon. Wesley Gordon, the Hon. Charles McCrea, the Hon. Paul Leduc, and many others. They have dealt with the production figures of mining, the enormous strides the industry has made, and it is not difficult now to get up and juggle with some magnificient figures.

We can talk in billions about our own little backyard of Ontario extending from Sudbury and Cobalt to Kirkland Lake and Timmins. We can talk in hundreds of millions regarding annual gold production today as compared with twenty odd millions ten years ago.

To those eminent but somewhat blind public men and journalists who ask„ "What has mining ever done for Canada?" I think the answer can be left to any travelling salesman, to the manufacturer of any kind of goods, to tens of thousands who are drawing wages or dividends, or to any boy in the senior grades of our schools-because, Gentlemen, you will find that Young Canada today has its eyes on the North, as the land of Hope and Glory, even as he .stands on the street corners wondering what we are going to do about him.

And there is a job for us to do. There never was a more important moment in the history of Canada than just today, right now. That is why I am conscious of my obligation and my opportunity today. Canada, after four years of floundering, must buckle her belt and get goingfor how can you whip ten million people who own the richest half continent in the world if they pull together.

But, Gentlemen, if we simply take the old methods and strive to build on that foundation I think even the most gifted and sincere statesmen are doomed to disappointment. Can we depend on wheat as we did in the first quarter of this century? Wheat is being grown successfully by nearly every nation that formerly imported it, and while our Canadian wheat will top the list for quality, I think it is apparent that short of famine or war, we must readjust our viewpoint on wheat or agriculture as the single basic factor in our future.

Can we put our faith in mass production? Today I am given to understand that we have the manufacturing plants to provide goods for a population several times as large as that of Canada. Can we displace the products of cheap labour countries in the markets of the world? I think not.

Can we depend upon secondary things such as organization and high finance, and food distribution and taking in one another's washing? I think we have passed the day for protecting monopolies which misuse power.

All the leaders in Canada and I have listened to everything they have to say and I have been more or less familiar with them for a great many years-seem to think of only two classes of people--the farmers and the factory workers, entirely ignoring the real job of Canada on the Northern frontiers. I am a hundred percent with the farmers--I was born on a farm forty miles north of Toronto. The C.P.R. depot is on my father's farm--James Hammell's farm. I hope I live as long as he did--he died at ninety-one.

I have listened to Mr. Bennett in his speeches in which he says that he is going to form an Economic Council (I won't call it a 'Brain Trust'). Well, I can certainly urge Mr. Bennett, or anybody else who forms an Economic Council, that they had better get the Northerners and northern interests to take a leading place in that council, so that they may make a survey of the great areas of the Northland and adopt plans to make it a part--if not the greater part-of the constructive plan to build Canada positively by a greater development program.

Upon what do I base the conclusion that the North can save Canada? Well, I think you will agree that the North has been the lifeboat when the national ship seemed to be going on the rocks. The Northerner was the man who rowed the lifeboat out from the shore. He not only was ready to rescue the crew but he brought out the supplies in gold and other minerals which enabled the crew to survive while it was trying to weather the gale. We have been told that if we had been compelled to go out into the world to purchase gold with which to meet our international obligations and stand behind our currency, we would have been in a difficult position. The labour and products of thousands of Canadians would have had to go into the enormous amount necessary to buy gold in other markets. Then our nickel and copper have been great metals with which to patch the ship and constitute a high percentage of our export trade during depression years.

The influence of our mineral industry in saving the national ship is only one side of it. Mining has been giving employment to increasing thousands at high wages and making purchases of goods and machinery during all the years of depression. It has been one sure anchor for the ship. Now that I have that off my chest, Gentlemen, I will tell you something about the North country.

Away back in the early days when the prospectors were first going into the North, two prospectors came to me--Tom Creighton and Dan Mosher. They wanted to prospect for me. I said, "Well, I am going to take you boys on a five year program-win, lose or draw. I don't care what you do with the money; spend it in liquor if you like; but if you can afford to spend five years of your life, I can shoot the money. If you will do the prospecting, I will look after you; also finance and develop any find you may make, and cut you in on it." They said, "We'll get you something." Well, they did. They went up to The Pas, in Northern Manitoba, went to the bush from there and later on in the season I got word they had found a gold property. I immediately went West. Mrs. Hammell cut herself in on the trip. We went to The Pas, got a boat there, and after two days and two nights' travel we arrived at Sturgeon Landing. The first portage was eighteen miles, and it was the first portage Mrs. Hammell had made. We left at four o'clock in the morning and arrived at noon. The prospectors were there. I expected to paddle across the lake but we paddled until evening, then, put into an island, built a fire, and boiled the kettle. After a couple of hours, we started hooking water again. Dan Mosher said, "Jack, do you see that light up there? That is where we are going." Well, we kept hooking water for three hours more and I asked Dan, "Are you sure that that light isn't on the back of an automobile going the other way?"

Well, we got in at midnight. It was a long day for Mrs. Hammell--from four in the morning until twelve at night.

I went in and took a look at Wolverine Lake. It didn't look so hot. There was some gold but nothing you could tie into. They said they had a sulphide deposit and if it were near the railway it would be a wonderful thing. I said, "Let me see some samples." They produced the samples. I looked them over and I said that they looked as if there might be some copper and gold in them. A couple of young engineers from Colorado, on a nearby property, had some assaying equipment so I had them run some assays and in the assays we found it ran in copper and gold. I said, "You go and stake this. I will scoot up the lake with Mrs. Hammell and get in a little fishing for a couple of weeks." In two weeks, Mrs. Hammell and I went in for a look-see. We had to make fourteen portages, from half a mile to three miles. I sized it up and said, "Boys, how much money do you want to make you happy for life," They said, "Jack, give us a hundred thousand dollars apiece and Rockefeller can have the rest." I said, "Well, I'll get it for you." They thought I was crazy. Then I recorded the claims and started to shoot a few wires around. When I got down here I went right through to New York and there were several big outfits gunning for it. I tried to spar around and get a line on them all, and I finally picked out one outfit which I figured was the best.

Then, I had to do a little four-flushing for once in my life. There are a lot of things you have to do in the mining game. I was stopping at the Vanderbilt Hotel. You know, in Wall Street, if they think you are broke, they twist your head off and run away and hide it. My friend the Hotel Manager said, "Jack, why don't you take Reggie Vanderbilt's suite? Knock them, dead, it won't cost you anything." Well, I took the suite, and when these gentlemen came to see me they went to the clerk of the hotel and they said, "Does Mr. Hammell stay here?" "Do you mean Mr. Hammell who has his own apartment here?" was the reply, and they were hurried to the elevator by a uniformed man and taken up to the floor, where there were two more butlers around with uniforms on. They started to look around and said, "This baby is some prospector!" Then I came out, nonchalantly, and at a signal, one of the waiters wheeled up "the makings." They thought they were going to stick us; everybody asked for a digerent cocktail; but we had them. Then we went into the dining room and had an elaborate dinner. I know--for I paid for it after they got through. Then we came into the living room and I let them smoke some of my dollar cigars„ after the liqueurs and coffee, after which I condescended to talk to them.

The result was that I put through a deal for three million dollars, for three-fourths interest, which involved the putting in of a 100-mile railroad, smelter machinery and equipment, and developing a water power sixty-five miles from the property--costing $6,500,000 alone. They said, "We will have to confirm this." I said, "You can't confirm it. You will have to take my word for it. We will have to put the diamond drills in and you will have to wait." They still wanted confirmation and I said, "Grab the phone, use the long distance wire, or telegraph--anybody you like--the mining companies or the banks." Evidently I had a lot of friends here because we put the deal through the next day.

Then I had to go up to the property. I went to The Pas; had to break a road in a hundred miles and drag all the stuff in. We drilled it and after we had spent $50,000 there was a payment coming due which they did not feel they could meet and, unfortunately, I was in the bush. Any time they spend more money on my property

I will keep them going. One of my partners, a solicitor, threw the deal and now I had to work it up all over again.

I was in pretty good shape. I had kept the data of their engineers; I had the samples and all their maps. I could take their own data and go out and work again. I took it up with another crowd; they spent several hundred thousand dollars and again they pulled out; which was all the luck of the trail. I took their data and went down to New York and went to William B. Thompson--I can speak of him now he is gone, he was a big man and in three quarters of an hour I put through a deal, the same as the first deal practically. He said that his engineers know nothing about that country and would not know how to get the stuff in. I said, "You leave that to me, I'll get it in." I cut across to Chicago, then to The Pas again, rounded up all the Pas merchants and said, "We're going to buy everything for your shopkeepers here and don't you push it above ten per cent on cost price." By the time the engineers got in, I had purchased two mining plants and enough stuff for 118 men for 8 months shipped in. It astonished the engineers to see ten tons of bacon, ten tons of ham, and all that, but they didn't have too much before they got through.

I purchased one plant from the Prince Albert Company at Beaver Lake. There were some fine old fellows who owned that property and they thought they had me on the hip. I offered $10,000 for the plant and they wanted $15,000. They kept waiting around for about ten days and the break-up was on. One of them said, "You haven't much chance of getting the plant in, we'll take $10,000." In delivering the receipt I said, "I want to tell you something, you old stiffs that plant has been on the property and steam up for two weeks." One old fellow was very hostile and was going to have the law on me. One of the old merchants said', "Hold on, we thought we had this young fellow but he outsmarted us so forget it." So finally they went home the next day, happy and satisfied. You can't wait for anything in the North. You have to keep going or you'll never get anywhere.

Later on, we had to fight an election in order to get a railway in. The Premier of Manitoba said, "You have to get Mr. So-and-So in here or you won't get your rail way." The Manitoba Government was in pretty bad through the Separate School question. Anyway, the poor Provincial Treasurer couldn't get a seat. I dissolved the Liberal and the Conservative Association and formed the Northland Association, and in putting this man up I said, "You get around and shake hands, and don't be so high-hat with those people. Leave this to me. Just make a good fighting speech and show them you are say, overnight. We have lovely towns in the east; they take many years to build; but the building of a mining town shows how fast the North country grows. We have one Flin Flon. There are plenty more to be found. Now, after that job, I coasted along with prospecting parties and finally I got a long distance phone call one night saying that a new find had been made in Northern Ontario and the Howey boys wanted me to go up and look at it. My answer was that I was too busy, had too many things on, but they said, "Look, we have paddled two days and nights to bring this to you" so I said, "What have you got?" They said, "Something pretty good." I said, "What do you want for it?" and they said, "Never mind„ write your own ticket."

I took Alex Gillies and went in (he was one of the discoverers of the Hollinger); another tough little kid, Cooney Wood, went along with us and he collected samples for me. I took a look at the property and liked it, but I said to Gillies, "It doesn't look so hot, but you might as well sample while we are here." He sampled and in the meantime I was busy grabbing off all the ground I could. I got busy with the Government for a water power forty miles away--Mr. McCrea will bear me out in that. I came out and had the deal closed before

I got the results of the essays of the samples. The results were all right. We went ahead. We went to the Government and asked for the loan of aeroplanes. We had to get our stuff in quick or lose a year. The Government was good enough to furnish aeroplanes and that was the first time aeroplanes had been used for transportation of men and supplies to a mine. We went ahead and spent some $50,000 and I had another large mining company take an option on the company. They diamond drilled, spent some money, but it didn't look so good to them and as a result they threw it back on my lap, which was tough--150 miles from the railway--a big company turning it down. I went to the brokers and said, "How can I finance this?" I went to the Financial Editor of the Globe and to some other men. He said that it would take six months to finance. I said that I was going to finance it in two days or throw it in the lake. In two days I not only had it subscribed, I had it over-subscribed. That was tough too--I had to throw the rest of the money back! We went ahead with the property and she has turned out all right today. Today we have a very good low grade mine, with cheap mining costs, although it is 150 miles in the bush.

Now, another thing people ask is, "What has mining done for Canada?" There is a little property which took $2,000,000 to equip and develop. Our friends and supporters, and shareholders, put in $2,000,000. We produced $5,000,000--$7,000,000 in all, and out of that the shareholders have received tern per cent dividends in one year, after waiting ten years. $6,500,000 has gone to the benefit of the farmers, the manufacturers, everybody in Canada. That is what one little mine has done for Canada. (Applause.) Today, up in that district, we have hundred kiddies going to school. I think they are trying to make a touch on me to build a high school for them. You have to have optimism in this game. It is a great deal like the story of the prospector who died and wanted to go to Heaven. He went to Heaven and St. Peter opened the door. He said, "This is Baptiste. Is it all right to come in?" St. Peter said, "No, Baptiste, the place is all filled up. We can't take any more prospectors." Then Baptiste said to St. Peter, "If I can get a prospector to come out, can I come in?" St. Peter said, "Sure, there will be room for you then." So St. Peter opened the door and let Baptiste in and he started to the tell the boys about a wonderful gold fined in Hades. He got them all worked up and they started to rush out, slinging their packsacks over their backs and grabbing their picks. They were all rushing out and at the end of the line came little Baptiste. St. Peter said, "But you don't need to go now, B.aptiste." Baptiste said, "But if I don't go, the boys will beat me to it." "But," said St. Peter, "that was only fictitious. You were just kidding those fellows." And Baptiste said, "Never mind, Peter, you never can tell about these rushes." (Laughter).

That is the sort of optimism they have. I will say here that we have ten thousand prospectors in the North country who can't be beaten. These fellows are two-fisted be-men, ready to take a chance, night or day, fighting water, ice and snow, flies and all that, and keeping going. I will say that they do not all find something but they all do their part, which is a fine thing.

Now, through this one little mine getting its supplies taken in by Government aeroplanes, it gave me the idea of what we could do in the North country if we had a fleet of aeroplanes, and finally something constructive came out of the idea. I formed an exploration company and got a bunch of aeroplanes and a hundred prospectors. I paid the prospectors $150 a month, all expenses, and ten per cent of what they found. I put them in planes and carried them around-petted them„ I might say. I had a tough time getting them in the planes at first; they were a little afraid; they were the ouiji board kind, they wanted to have one foot on the ground.

I was down in New York with Captain Oaks and I conceived the idea of flying up in one of our new planes. He said, "Let's go!" Mrs. Oaks and Mrs. Hammell came up from New York to Montreal and we flew out through the West. The result was that the old fellows decided that if we took a chance with our wives, they guessed it was all right. After that we had no more trouble. In fact, we had trouble keeping them out. They would only get set and they wanted to move.

Through the planes, we established thirty-four bases from coast to coast-plane depots and gas caches--and we had an engineer in charge of every plane with ten men.

In that way, we continued to push through the North country and if we had never made a find still it was a wonderful thing because we brought that country ahead a hundred years at least. We made one find that will, I think, more than pay back all we have spent. I had visions of going to New York to finance the aviation unit but I let my friends know and they put in a million and a half dollars. That was pretty nice. They were mining friends who had known me for twenty years. The result is that that has been coming back, in this way: When we had shot a million and a half dollars in the exploration company, we had no more funds. It was up to me to carry it and I have been doing so for three years. I couldn't go back and ask for more, and I am happy to say that they will get their investment back and a profit.

Another thing I have been struck with, is the youth of the country. I don't know how many hundred letters I get from young fellows wanting to go North. We try to take care of all the young fellows but I am afraid that Professor Haultain would say that we don't take care of enough of them. That is why I say people should get behind these young fellows and send them North. It takes $3,000 to educate them, why not spend another $1,000. Let them go to the Prospectors' Association and get in touch with a good, honest prospector. There are many of them who would be glad to have a young fellow go along with them.

I know when I go down to New York and get mixed up with the chisellers, I always feel it in my mind--I think that everybody is wrong and I always want to shake everything. But I get up in the North country for a week and it is all straightened away, and you think what a fine and wonderful country it is to live in. You have a different feeling, and if you come across anyone who is antagonistic, you rather pity him.

In the Northern Aerial Minerals Exploration Limited we made a find that looked to be pretty good, but the depression was on. We spent $100„000 in development, putting down drill holes and opening up the surface. It looked pretty good. I was unsuccessful in interesting anybody in it. I tried all the companies--Canadian, American and English--and they were all looking out the window. The result was, they made me mad. I said that I was going to shoot it myself. I started to spend some money and I brought a couple of engineers up from New York. On the way up I said, "I don't want to waste time taking you old birds in here. You're burned out. You couldn't recommend a property a hundred miles in the bush." They got better assays and they wanted to shoot $50,000. I said, "That's only a white chip. I'm going to shoot $150,000 myself." They got my dander up and I said I was going to shoot half a million--win, lose or draw. Even if I lost, I was going to shoot it. When it got over $100,000 my friends came into the picture and were glad to come in and help finance it. The property not only lived up to what I expected but turned out very nicely.

I want to say that no finer bunch of people than the Canadian people are to be found where it comes to backing mining enterprises. At the top, some of them are not so good--they are traders in Brazil or in some other foreign country--but the majority of people you get are more confident in the North country than in foreign countries.

And I want to say that we have as good engineers in Canada as anywhere in the world, probably for this reason: We are bringing in so many new mines and it means the latest in metallurgy„ in mining, and in mining machinery. The American engineers come in and the cork is pulled, for the reason they are used to their mines which pinch out at the water level, as they do in many cases. I flew out for some holidays in Los Angeles. It was a holiday but, being a mining man, I heard of the strike in the Silver Queen mine and I had to go out and look it over. A young man high-hatted me for a minute but he eventually took me through the mine. It looked good but right around it I remembered that there were three mires with mills shut down. It looked like the water plane was cutting them out. Here, it is different; our mines don't cut out.

I was up in Kirkland Lake and had the pleasure of looking at the assay plans of one of the big mines and I tell you the section between 4,000 and 5,000 feet was the greatest ore the boys had in that mine. Think of it! A large mining town and still going. You can't bottom the mine. You can't salvage them. They are still going. In 1915 they were going to close the Dome. Today it is a better mine than ever. Noranda, Timmins and all these places are great towns. How long are they going to last, you hear people ask. Timmins hasn't started to get its growth yet. I remember Noranda quite a few years ago, and when I flew over it not long ago I didn't know the place. The towns of Noranda and Rouyn are two big, rich towns. And so it goes„ no matter where we go in the North country. I venture to say that in ten years it will be increased by ten times. This year we have made more new finds than in the last twenty years. During the boom years the prospectors were starting to get soft. They were doing their prospecting from the rooms of the hotels--staking "cats" for racketeers. I don't mean the regular brokers. I'm talking about the chisellers and the vermin who followed mining-they didn't care what, so long as they could unload it on somebody.

When the depression came, the prospector had to get up and drag his tail to the bush, or he wasn't going to eat. That is why we are getting so many finds.

Now, when you fly over this great land, you see new towns growing into cities. Millions spent for mines. You can see towns like Timmins, Noranda, Flin Flon, Howey, Central Pat and Pickle Crow in the Patricia district; Siscoe, Lamaque and many others.

Now, in regard to opening the North country--and I am qualified to speak for I have been responsible for a hundred million dollars coming into Canada--I have slugged for twenty years on the trail--I say that none of the Governments have been awake to the fact of what that North country means. Here we are today; right where we are standing our forefathers had to clear the timber off the land before they could put in their crops, to say nothing of Indians as a pastime. We don't do that now; we're getting too soft. Take this country of ours.

We have only developed the fringe. Look at all the cities we have--we have never gone North. What's the matter? Are we afraid of getting lost? Take the North country--there are the Hollingers, the Lake Shores and the Domes, and all those properties there--lots of them. We haven't started to find anything yet. We will be finding new mines a hundred years from now. We need help. The prospectors need help. There should be some way to do it. Take the farmers; when it gets tough with them, the Government gives them a bonus. That is fine,

I'm all for it. But did you ever hear of them giving us a bonus when we get beaten and washed out? We don't want a bonus; we get along without it. But they should try to open the country. We have parallel roads stretching from coast to coast. We have practically no railways in the North. We haven't any roads. I daresay that a road would pay for itself many times over if you put it where the rocks and timber are. That is one thing that is lacking in this country. That is one thing we have to waken to. I hear them telling how they are going to pull out of this slump. I want to see them do it.

Well, Gentlemen, I hope I have not rambled too much. I have a subject which could not be covered in a dozen speeches. I hope other Northern men will be asked to speak to you. Many of them will have a better speech than mine, but I can only assure you that I speak from the heart.

I shall never forget the words of Ramsay Macdonald in one of his speeches. Someone had referred to him as a dreamer. He admitted it but said, "Yes, a dreamer t

We dream of things and if we are men of action we set about the doing of them in our waking moments." Well, we are awake. We all dream of a greater Canada. Then in the name of the heritage which Providence has given us, let us set about the doing of the great job our Creator intended us to do. He did not give us this half continent to build a race of weaklings or to leave it for other races to develop. We don't want our sons to turn into bitter defeated men and our daughters to look in vain for men like their fathers and grandfathers.

Nature has unfolded our job, chapter by chapter. First, the homebuilders, the pioneers of Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. Then the pioneering of the West. And now the North. Let's drop our petty enmities and the things that don't matter. I've worked hard but I've enjoyed every bit of it. I feel that I owe something to Canada, so that I can leave it after some bit of constructive service, to those who will come after. That's how we feel. We want to build a new Canada on new firm foundations. I say to you the strongest material for these foundations are the Pre-Cambrian rocks of the North-the oldest in the world. Let's get a plan and start

And I say to you right here that any Government--Conservative, Liberal or C.C.F.--that leaves the North out of its national planning--planning that must be done--is not fit to govern this country. Whether we know it or not, we have to become North-minded, and this goes for Governments, business men, and every one worthy to call himself a Canadian.

Gentlemen, there is more to this life than a mad scramble for dollars. Let's mine the rich viens of character in youth as well as the viens of gold in our mines. Let's make this country the finest place in the world to build manly men and fine women. With a Northern plan we can do it, Gentlemen, and our work for young Canada will be our monument.

Gentlemen, I thank you. (Hearty Applause).

MR. DANA PORTER: It is not the custom of this Club to have a vote of thanks proposed but I am going to make an exception and ask the Honourable Charles McCrea to express appreciation to the speaker today.

HONOURABLE CHARLES MCCREA: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: The history of Canada is replete with the deeds of men who have laid deeply and truly the foundations of this great country. In the days which have passed the prosperity of Canada was laid mainly upon two great basic industries--agriculture and timber-hut we have moved into a new era and we are beginning to recognize the importance of the development of our great mineral areas in this country. We are blessed with a heritage that few if any nations in the world can compare and in this development there is need of men of courage, enthusiasm and inspiration to lead in the advance of that development.

Today, you have heard Mr. Jack Hammell, one of Canada's outstanding prospectors and mining men--a man who we may truly say is a leader and a great pioneer in this development. Many times has the enthusiasm, the courage and the determination of Jack Hammell saved the day in the development of mineral areas and if we have in our sister provinces today the development of a new mining industry already producing some ten. millions per annum and employing ten thousand men, we can truly say that Jack Hammell played a part, a leading part, in the foundation upon which that great development has started and as we move west to a region which is corning more and more into prominence, the Red Lake district, there, too, we see the imprint of the work of Jack Hammell, in starting and standing behind the Howey Mine. Jack has still other ventures further north in the district of Patricia where beside Central Patricia a new, prosperous looking baby, Pickle Crow, gives promise of leading in the van in this section.

Over in the Province of Quebec and strewn all along this great Pre-Crambrian shield, one finds the mark of Jack Hammell and today, Gentlemen, you have listened to one of the great pioneer prospectors and builders of Canada and on your behalf, I tender to him our deepest appreciation and thanks, not only for the speech he has given us today, but for the work he has already done, for the part he has played in the development of Canada's mineral resources. Here is good luck to him; may he continue to prospect, and may he continue to lead. Gentlemen, I present to Mr. Hammell, on your behalf, the thanks of this group today and I would ask you to rise and join me in three cheers for a great pioneer--Jack Hammell. (Three Cheers--Applause, prolonged).