HISTORICAL RKVIEW OF CANADA S TIMBER INDUSTRY 1 229 



ideal, could an adhesion to such a policy be expected under the circum- 

 stances. When over one hundred years later men supplied with the latest 

 information were still talking about "ilUmitable" and "inexhaustible" 

 forests it was not to be expected that in 1775, before the days of system- 

 atic surveys, men would have the foresight to persist in conserving what 

 seemed almost too cheap and too abundant. 



The trade in timber for the British navy began practically with the 

 British occupation of the country'. The commercial trade followed in the 

 wake of this business. In fact it was begun by the contractors who received 

 licenses to cut timber for the navy. This commercial trade, however, grew 

 very slowly, chiefly owing to the opposition of British builders who 

 claimed that timber from the Baltic region was much superior to that 

 from Canada. 



During and after the Napoleonic wars, however, the British govern- 

 ment imposed heavy duties to pay for those wars, and in these duties gave 

 substantial preference to the colonies. In 1803 Great Britain imported 

 12,133 loads (a load equalled 50 cubic feet) of timber from British North 

 America and 280,550 loads from European countries. In 1820 the figures 

 had changed to 335,556 loads from the colonies and 166,600 loads from Euro- 

 pean countries. 



In the early years of the nineteenth centur}*, timber was imported from 

 the United States into Canada, but only for the purpose of shipping out 

 again to Britain in order to take advantage of the preference granted to 

 colonial timber. Duties on such timber coming into Canada were imposed 

 by an Act passed by the British Parliament in 1820. Shortly after this, 

 Canada began to export lumber to the eastern United States and from that 

 time onward the trade grew ver\^ rapidly, until in 1867, the year when the 

 British North American colonies were confederated into the Dominion of 

 Canada, the value of timber exported to Great Britain was $ 6,889,783, 

 while the value of that exported to the United States was $ 6,831,252.* The 

 growth in the home use of timber has been even more rapid than that of 

 the export trade. 



Gexesis and development of Caxadl\n Timber Regulations. 



In the military, political and conunercial exigencies of the nineteenth 

 century the policy of conserving any natural resources was almost com- 

 pletely forgotten. There were individuals who had more information than 

 their neighbours on this subject, but, speaking generally, the idea of all peo- 

 ple in Canada was that the sooner the adjacent and circumjacent forest 

 was removed the better, because then the area of agricultural settlement 

 would be increased and this was the hope and aim of the legislators and the 

 people alike. In the settlement of Eastern Canada from the Atlantic to 

 Lake Huron the progress of settlement was practically always from a water- 

 way into the interior. The settlement was founded on a seacoast, bay, 

 river or lake, and townships or parishes, ranging from three to ten miles 

 square, were marked off extending landward from the water's edge. Behind 



