1908-9. | THE SETTLEMENT OF NORTHERN ONTARIO. 467 
It appears to me that the Government might very well undertake 
to build all the roads petitioned for by a majority of the settlers living on 
a concession, making the cost of this road a charge against the land, to be 
collected over a term of years through some special machinery designed 
for the purpose, or by the municipal organization when ft is formed. 
This would be merely an application of the local improvement plan in 
force in nearly all our cities and towns, except that instead of the muni- 
cipality furnishing the credit as in the case of the urban municipalities, 
the Government, in the absence of any municipal organization, would have 
to furnish the credit in our newer districts. $259 is an enormous amount 
of capital to put in a road in the case of the ordinary settler in Northern 
Ontario at the beginning of his undertaking to establish a home in the 
forest. The building of this road, however, will so enhance the value of 
his land that he could very well afford to pay that amount with interest 
back to the state in the form of road tax after he has got his farm in pro- 
ducing condition. 
The soil in Northern Ontario is, 1 am convinced, as rich and productive 
as can be found anywhere. ‘The season, though short, is sufficiently long 
and the growth sufficiently rapid to permit the growing of agricultural 
crops successfully, as has been demonstrated in Temiskaming and even 
much farther north. All that is required for the rapid settlement and 
development of our northern agricultural region is the adoption of a sys- 
tematic plan by which settlers can be given some assistance in getting 
established, and this can, in my opinion as outlined above, be done without 
impairing the revenues of the State. There seems to be a tendency to 
regard the chief duty of the Government to be that of securing present 
revenue, thus avoiding direct taxation upon the people as a whole. But 
while it is eminently right that the people as represented by the Govern- 
ment should receive the proper share of revenue from the exploitation of 
our natural resources, the future welfare and development of the Province 
is of far greater importance. 
