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AVIATION AND COMMUNICATIONS

ALASKA AERONAUTICS AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION The Commission is charged with the supervision, promotion, and development of aeronautics and communications, as well as with the promulgation, adoption and enforcement of rules, regulations and orders to safeguard persons operating or using aircraft, and persons and property on the ground, provided that such rules, regulations and orders shall not duplicate or conflict with federal aeronautical and communications regulations in force. Radio communication stations are operated in 21 widely scattered communities and efforts are being made to secure additional stations so that more communities may have means of communication.

During the year 34 air carriers operated in Alaska. A summary report of aircraft operations for the year ended June 30, 1945, showed an increase in hours of flying time, trips, mileage, passenger miles, and freight carried. The number of passengers carried decreased 29,073 and there was a decrease of 67,637 pounds of mail carried from the previous year.

CIVIL AERONAUTICS ADMINISTRATION

The present Federal Airways facilities cover the major portion of the Territory and the standards closely approximate those in the continental United States. The airports and intermediate fields constructed are being utilized by the military as well as by civilian operators, and it is expected the use of these fields will continue to grow with the development of the Territory.

Due to this system of aids to air navigation, it is now possible to leave Seattle, Wash., and arrive in Anchorage or Fairbanks in approximately 8-hours flying time with present equipment and very shortly this time will be cut to approximately 6 hours. It is fully expected that aviation will play a major part in the development of the natural resources of the Territory in the postwar era.

CIVIL AERONAUTICS BOARD

On August 15, 1944, the Civil Aeronautics Board opened an office in Anchorage. The office had been contemplated since December 1942 when certificates of public convenience and necessity were issued by the Board to 21 air carriers operating within the Territory. Earlier opening of the office was prevented by the war.

The establishment of this office will enable the Board to obtain a better appreciation of the local conditions and will enable the local operators to bring their activities into conformity with the requirements of the Civil Aeronautics Act and the Board's Regulations more expeditiously and economically.

The Alaska Office is programming studies of the rate of mail compensation which should be paid to the Alaskan carriers under the terms of the Civil Aeronautics Act and the promulgation of regulations by the Board governing other phases of economic regulation of air transportation within the Territory.

The Board is also investigating the extent to which air transportation within the Territory will be required by the public convenience and necessity under peacetime conditions. Conferences have been held with both the certificated and the uncertificated operators and a series of hearings has been arranged on the numerous applications which have been and are being filed with the Alaska Office.

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

The activities of the Juneau Office of District 23, headquarters of the Field Division of the Federal Communications Commission, include the inspection of ship radio stations and all classes of commercial radio stations.

The classes of commercial stations operating in Alaska are pointto-point telephone, point-to-point telegraph, coastal harbor, coastal telegraph, aeronautical, aircraft, experimental, municipal police, ship stations and four standard broadcast stations.

A monitoring program (intercepting signals over the air and analyzing them as to frequency, modulation, type of operation, etc.) is carried on and the office also conducts examinations for issuance of radio operator licenses.

MAIL SERVICE

The transportation of mails in Alaska is under the supervision of the superintendent of the Thirteenth Division, Railway Mail Service, Seattle, Wash. This office exercises supervision over the entire Alaska service and has immediate charge of all service in southeastern Alaska and all direct steamship service from Seattle. The Chief Clerk, Railway Mail Service, at Seward, has immediate charge of the service provided along the south coast, north and west of Yakutat, the service over the Alaska Railroad, the upper and lower Yukon River, Tanana River, Kuskokwim River, and the Seward Peninsula.

SIGNAL CORPS, UNITED STATES ARMY

The Alaska Communication System, which furnishes telegraphic service to Alaska, is under the Signal Corps of the United States Army. It has 36 stations serving communities in the Territory, and continuous communication service is maintained with the continental United States and the local stations.

In addition, radio telephone service is maintained between Juneau and Seattle, between Ketchikan and Seattle, Nome and Seattle, Adak and Seattle, Anchorage and Seattle and between Ketchikan and

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Juneau. Connections are made with the American Telephone & Telegraph System in Seattle. During the past year the restriction that had been in effect since the United States entered the war was lifted and the telephone service was opened to commercial service.

COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY

Surveys of the waters and coast of Alaska were continued, all work of this nature being accomplished in strategic areas of vital importance to the military forces, where marine charts for safe navigation of the sea lanes have not been available in previous years. Triangulation work continued, these operations providing horizontal and vertical control for mapping and for other military and engineering projects. Four new nautical and 30 aeronautical charts of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands were constructed and reproduced for use of the armed forces.

Primary tide stations at Ketchikan and Sitka and secondary stations at Juneau, Yakutat, Massacre Bay, Sweeper Cove, and Constantine Harbor were continued in operation and new stations established at Skagway and Seward. Short-period tide observations were obtained in 12 other localities. In addition to the annual tide and current tables, special tide and current tables were published for the Aleutian Islands to meet military needs.

The Magnetic and Seismological Observatory at Sitka continued in operation for the purpose of obtaining basic magnetic data for the control of magnetic surveys. Additional magnetic data were obtained through observations by personnel of the survey ships along the Alaska Peninsula and among the Aleutian Islands. The University of Alaska cooperated in collecting information regarding Alaskan earthquakes and in the operation of a seismograph station at the University.

COUNSEL AT LARGE FOR ALASKA

The Counsel at Large drafts instruments and proposed legislation, construes statutes, and advises the various divisions of the Interior Department and other agencies of the United States on legal matters.

DEVELOPMENT BOARD

The Alaskan Development Board was created by the last session of the Territorial Legislature, with an appropriation of $120,000 for the biennium. The Board, composed of the Governor as Chairman and four other members, one from each Judicial Division of the Territory,

appointed by the Governor subject to the approval of the Legislature, held its first meeting in Juneau on April 4, 1945. At this meeting broad policies were determined, a considerable number of specific projects were decided upon for immediate development, and an Acting Secretary was appointed and authorized to set up an office in Juneau. The principal purpose and duty of the Board is to promote and create new industries and businesses in Alaska and to encourage and assist in the expansion of enterprises already established, in order to build up and diversify the Territory's economy. It is also charged with the collection and dissemination of full and accurate information on all matters pertinent to Alaskan economy.

EDUCATION

ALASKA HISTORICAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

The Alaska Historical Library and Museum acquired, during the fiscal year, by purchase and donation 48 collections, including acquisitions in all departments which needed strengthening, namely Tlingit, Haida, Russian and Aleutian, as well as miscellaneous other items. Nine Alaska books were purchased and the cataloguing work has continued. Visitor registration was 5,339 in 1945, and the museum has returned to its prewar practice of opening in the evenings when tourist-carrying ships are in port.

UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA

The University of Alaska at College, Alaska, 4 miles from Fair banks, has completed its twenty-third year as the Territory's only institution of higher learning. During the year the Territorial Legislature enacted a teachers' retirement law which is applicable to the University's teachers and also appropriated $2,500 for a survey by the Board of Regents to ascertain the possibility of an extension of the University in southeastern Alaska. Also during the year, the floor space remaining on lease to the Army was restored, the necessary remodeling completed, and complete restoration of these facilities to the school is now accomplished.

Four-year degree courses were offered in agriculture, arts and letters, business administration, chemistry, civil engineering, education, general science, home economics and premedicine. The night classes established last year were continued, and a special 9 week, noncredit Mining Short Course was offered for the first time since 1942. Three bachelor's degrees were conferred at the annual commencement on May 14, 1945.

Mining extension courses were given in Anchorage, Fort Richardson, Sitka, Juneau, Cordova, Wrangell, Skagway, Seward, Ketchikan, and Fairbanks.

Enrollment for the year totaled 1,020, including 231 students of college grade, 735 mining extension students, 29 in the Mining Short Course and 30 in the Home Economics Short Course. Fees for credit course students included: community fee, $15 per semester; room rent, $10 or $12.50 per month; board, $35 per month; nonresident tuition, $20 per semester. Tuition is free to Alaska residents.

Agricultural Experiment Stations

Research projects carried on at the Fairbanks Station during the past year included raising swine and poultry, plant breeding and crop improvement, improved seed potatoes for Alaska, and oat and pea ensilage for dairy cattle. At the Matanuska substation projects were continued with feeding dairy calves, wintering sheep, potatoes, pasture improvement, and crop rotation systems. Work with grasses and legumes particularly adaptable to Alaskan conditions is progressing at both stations. The U. S. Department of Agriculture through its Bureau of Entomology is cooperating with the experiment stations in making a study of insects injurious to crops in Alaska.

One of the important projects now in effect at the Petersburg substation is the feeding of fish as the chief part of the ration for furbearing animals-including mink, white, blue and cross foxes, and marten. Results of this project up to the present time indicate that between 65 and 75 percent of the feed necessary to produce high quality fur can be supplied from fish.

Agricultural Extension Service

This service, supervised by the same director, is closely allied with the Agricultural Experiment Stations. During the past year emphasis was again placed on the preservation, production, and conservation of foods. In the Matanuska Valley projects pertaining to livestock, gardening, and poultry production were carried on. In this area, as well as the Tanana Valley and southeastern Alaska, nutrition, sewing, handicraft, home management, and canning classes were conducted. During 1944, there were 86 different organized 4-H Clubs with 966 members enrolled throughout the Territory.

TERRITORIAL SCHOOLS

The Territorial public schools, for the education of white and mixed-blood children, are of two classes: schools within incorporated cities and incorporated school districts, and rural schools located outside incorporated cities and school districts.

During 1944-45, 37 rural and 18 city schools, employing 320 teachers, were maintained; 5,794 pupils were enrolled.

The public high schools at Anchorage, Cordova, Douglas, Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan, Nome, Petersburg, Seward, Sitka, Skagway

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