1884.] FOREST MANAGEMEI^T IN CANADA. 55 



investment of the original purchaser was small, tlie person to whom 

 he has sold his right has often paid for it a very large sum ; and 

 thus the item of interest wliich must be kept down, necessitates the 

 cutting of the trees as speedily as possible — a thing contrary to the 

 public interest ; and so over-production and waste are encouraged 

 and continued. 



The heads of the various Crown Land Departments in Canada 

 hold their offices subject to change. When the Government to 

 which they belong loses power, these officers, frequently professional 

 men, have to resign their situations just when they have begun to 

 understand their duties, and their places are taken by other 

 untaught people, who in their turn undergo the same process. It 

 i.s needless to show how so important an interest as that of the 

 care of most valuable forests, must suffer under such a system. 



Besides this, tlie head of the Crown Land Department being 

 dependent for the tenure of his office on friends in the Legislature 

 of which he is a member, many of whom are engaged in timber 

 operations as well as in the purchase of leases, is subject to be 

 swayed by their influence in ordering surveys and sales to be made 

 of timber leases, when the true interests of the country are entirely 

 opposed to such sales. Calculations have been made, at various 

 times, regarding the quantities of timber standing in the forests of 

 Canada. These are necessarily but guesses, since there exist no 

 data upon which to base them. There are no maps showing the 

 extent of burned or waste lands, nor have there been any carefully- 

 compiled investigations made on this subject ; the information to be 

 had in the offices being most meagre and unsatisfactory. 



In lieu of proper statistics, calculations, often of the wildest 

 kind, regarding the forest wealth of Canada are circulated abroad. 



The stories about the value of the timber in certain parts of 

 Newfoundland, however, which are now in print, afford much amuse- 

 ment to those who are acqixainted with the hauling and manu- 

 facturing of American woods. It may be mentioned in conclusion, 

 that the province of New Brunswick, although far behind what it 

 ought to be in the management of its Crown timber lands, is yet 

 much in advance of the other provinces of Canada in this respect. 

 It secures twice the annual rent per square mile that Quebec does 

 for its timber leases ; and obtains nearly twice as much royalty per 

 thousand feet board measure, for its common spruce trees than 

 Quebec and Ontario do for their fast disappearing and extremely 

 valuable pines {Pinus strohis). 



