18 REPORT OF THE No. 3 



The total expenditure for survey work during the past year was $125,000, 

 being a decrease of $19,059.55 as compared with the former year's expenditure. 



The development of water-power privileges under Crown Leases was carried 

 on at Abitibi Canyon on the Abitibi River, and at Chats Falls on the Ottawa 

 River. The revenue from water-power rentals was $216,058.70, which was 

 $33,464.48 less than the past year. 



The plans and specifications of several new dams constructed on streams 

 throughout the Province were filed and approved under the Lakes and Rivers 

 Improvement Act. 



Maps of the Province and districts have been kept up to date as far as 

 possible during the past year. 



See Appendices Nos. 16 to 35 inclusive. 



Timber Administration 



It is probable that never in the history of the great forest products industry 

 — generally termed "lumbering" — so far as Ontario at any rate is concerned 

 (and other sections of Canada are no less exempt) has there been more widespread 

 discontent and uncertainty manifested than during the last year. Lumbering, 

 next to the basic industry, agriculture, has for over a century been the mainstay 

 of thousands. The logging of timber and the diversified uses to which within 

 the last three decades raw material taken from the forest has been put have 

 given the industry a vitalizing importance, acknowledged by the nation and 

 reflected in international trade balances. The pulp and paper development, 

 with the heavy tonnage of manufactured content, largely newsprint, played 

 its part in recent times in maintaining parity in Canadian exchange in the United 

 States. When, owing to the combination of factors — including, amongst others, 

 over-production, restricted markets and foreign competition — exports lessened, 

 the Canadian dollar automatically dropped, and any gradual improvement in 

 its value across the line will in no small measure be due to a continued, although 

 less intensive, movement of newsprint out of the country. 



The country-wide economic depression indubitably has left its mark upon 

 the lumbering and logging busness that has been so long nurtured in its own 

 world of romance and adventure. The glamour surrounding the woodsman 

 developed in him a buoyancy and confidence in his country and a determination 

 to keep the wheels turning and the chimneys smoking. Lately, however, the 

 usual confidence and optimism so characteristic of members of the trade have 

 given way to forebodings, uncertainties and indecisiveness. 



Large quantities of manufactured lumber fill the yards of the manufacturers, 

 who are unable to locate ready markets. The stress and strain of the times 

 have tended to make users of lumber and other products of the forest apprehensive 

 of investing in buildings or other lines requiring wood products. With such a 

 prospect the limit holders in the Province necessarily reduced their cut during 

 the past year. As the sale of timber is the chief source of revenue to the Depart- 

 ment of Lands and Forests, the reduced bush operations adversely affected the 

 revenue and as the pospects for the ensuing season are dimmer than last the 

 Department's exchequer will continue to suffer until a return to normalcy. 



The adverse current of business continuing from the previous year, when 

 the operators urgently requested special consideration in the way of a reduction 

 in stumpage, but were refused on grounds of public policy, provided occasion 

 during this fiscal year for another request for aid, and the Government, recog- 

 nizing the need of having operations carried on wherever possible, deems it 



