76 Forestry Quarterly. 



be renewed as long as there was merchantable timber on the land, 

 at such rates and under such regulations as the government saw fit 

 to impose. In 1907, the license system as far as unlicensed lands 

 remained was withdrawn until further notice. 



Dealing next with the question of resources the report says : 

 "It is plain that we do not as yet possess the means of making a 

 sound estimate of the resources of Canada, and this lack of 

 reliable statistics has a serious bearing on forestry problems." 

 As far as could be learned, there are in British Columbia some 

 9,000,000 acres under license, 1,000,000 acres under lease, and in 

 private hands 1,245,000 acres together with the yet unsold portion 

 of 5,300,000 acres granted to railways, the amount of which could 

 not be learned. As regards the unalienated timber lands the 

 commissoners say, to complete any estimate of our forest 

 resources we are obliged to adopt ar'bitrary figures and act on the 

 popular belief that about one-quarter of the timber land under 

 provincial control, or 3,750,000 acres, still belong to the province 

 — a pure conjecture" ( !). The above figures, with the railway 

 belt ceded to the federal government, would give British Columbia 

 a total merchantable forest area of 26 million acres. "In the 

 absence of statistics based upon cruise and survey we are obliged 

 to depend very largely upon guesswork in estimating the amount 

 of merchantable timber standing on this area." The guess is 240 

 billion feet, (slightly less than Dr. Fernow's estimate) less than 

 half the probable stand of Canada. 



The report next passes tO' a discussion of timber supply and 

 demand, with its resultant bearing on British Columbia condi- 

 tions. In the opinion of the commissioners "the value of stand- 

 ing timber in British Columbia is destined to rise to heights that 

 general opinion would consider incredible to-day ; and under 

 careful management heavy taxation need never fall upon the 

 population of the province — the profits from a permanent Crown 

 timber business should make British Columbia a country of semi- 

 independent means." 



After some twenty pages of statistics concerning method of 

 tenure, forest revenue, lumber cut, rise in prices, stumpage values, 

 and cost of fire patrol and cruising, the commissioners proceed to 

 deal with their recommendations. These are classified as con- 

 cerning tenure, regulations and administration. 



It is evident that the suggestions concerning tenure would aim 



