OPENING ADDRESS. ' 11 



mate of the extent and value of our forest lands? Having some 

 experience in these matters I say without hesitation that even the 

 Crown Land Department has very meagre knowledge of the 

 Crown Timber lands. To a certain extent we are living in a fool's 

 paradise. We are over producing. The lands cannot stand it, 

 and while we may boast of the great revenue we derive from 

 stumpage collection for timber cut, it is only a question of a very 

 few years when that revenue will be materially lessened. The 

 experience of the United States has been disastrous. We are 

 prone — those of us who are not engaged in the business — to view 

 with careless eye the devastating of the forests. We borrow 

 money on a long term of years for Provincial and municipal pur- 

 poses, the building of railways, permanent bridges, Court Houses, 

 Jails, and other public works, expecting that posterity will have 

 to pay its share of the cost,and while this may be correct still it is 

 unfair to posterity that we should dissipate the assets of the 

 Province which properly should go to pay their indebtedness. 

 Millions of dollars have been lost by forest fires. Indiscriminate 

 cutting of undersized logs has devastated large tracts of land. 

 Conservation and protection is a vital question and one in which 

 every person in the Province should be interesred. There are 

 large tracts of land to-day which should be reserved for years, and 

 no cutting allowed to take place. Under proper conservation of 

 these valuable lands in twenty years from now- this Province 

 would be the • richest for its area of any Province in the whole 

 Dominion. To proijerly protect and conserve our interest a 

 thorough and complete survey of our forest lands should be had, 

 and such lands should be classified, and lands fit for agriculture 

 should be set apart and reserved for that purpose. Unfortunately 

 squatters take possession of lands which are entirely unfit for 

 agricultural pvirposes and cause great damage by fire. It is 

 necessary that the people should be aroused and take an intelli- 

 gent interest in discussing such a vital question. This Society by 

 means of lectures and in other ways could be of great assistance 

 in drawing public attention to the necessity of erreater protection 

 and in suggesting means by which satisfactory results could be 

 obtained . 



Again, an important matter to be dealt with is the protection of 

 the game of the Province. It is comparatively a few years since 



