FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 339 



over and above all hangs the constitutional mandate that the Preserve "shall be 

 forever kept as wild forest lands" and "that they shall not be leased." And so the 

 order was reluctantly issued by the Board that each occupant should be notified to 

 vacate the premises occupied by them, and notice was served accordingly^ on each, 

 with the exception of the seventeen tenants to whom leases had been issued before 

 the adoption of the new Constitution, and which are still in force. This action was 

 further deemed advisable on account of the frequent litigation of State titles, in 

 which the matter of some former occupancy had an important bearing. As all the 

 occupied lands are held by the State under a ta.x title, it was held important that the 

 State should thus exercise some act of possession and distinctly assert its ownership. 



Having served notice on each occupant to vacate the premises, the Board reserves 

 for the further exercise of its discretion the advisability of following up each case 

 with a writ of ejectment. In fact, the Attorney-General has advised the Board that 

 in some cases such action would be injudicious. For instance, one lot of 193 acres in 

 Essex count}' which reverted to the State in 1844, was at that time farming land, with 

 a house and farm on it. It remained in peaceable possession of the occupant for 

 forty-one years until 1885, when the Forest Commission was established, during 

 which time the man and his descendants have lived there and paid the taxes. It is 

 questionable whether a writ of ejectment would be the best wa_\- to dispose of this 

 occupancy. 



Again, the colony of French Canadian farmers on the Boreas River whose lands 

 passed into possession of the State in 1877, have lived there from thirty to forty years 

 and paid taxes on the property until 1886, at which time the Forest Commission 

 ordered the land assessed to the State. The assessors, however, continued to assess 

 the houses, barns and cleared lands until the present time, and the occupants still pay 

 these taxes; for, under the law of 1886, only "wild or forest lands" can be assessed 

 to the State. It is not at all clear that the State should risk a suit over these lands, 

 as its title to the entire township — Township 30, Totten and Crossfield Purchase. — 

 would become involved. These matters are mentioned here for the benefit of a class 

 who are always ready to criticise the action of the Commission in such matters, but 

 who are wholly ignorant of important facts which have a bearing on the question. 



A small resident population has always proved convenient in warning out a posse 

 to assist the local firewarden in extinguishing forest fires. Repeatedly these squatters, 

 of their own accord, have rendered efficient service in extinguishing incipient fires 

 that were started by fishermen or campers. They are alwaj-s ready to help in fighting 

 fire, and have always been friendly. If they are evicted, after expressing a willing- 

 ness to pay rent, the bitter enmit)' engendered will add still further to the difficulties 

 of forest manatjement in such localities. 



