

DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND FORESTS FOR 1931 9 



— involving so much man-power and continued hope — are not to be wondered 

 at when one considers the large unoccupied cleared and fertile fields of older 

 parts, crying for the very man-power that made possible such inviting chances. 

 The removal of economic barriers or some new and untried system seems the 

 only solution. 



Free grant townships, where there are still certain lots of agricultural 

 potentialities, will remain open for the hardy pioneer to take his share in con- 

 tributing to the development of the Province's basic natural resource. (See 

 Appendix No. 12 for Free Grant details.) 



Sale Lands 



The general depression was keenly reflected in the total purchasers of farm 

 land in the newer parts of Northern Ontario. The tendency during a great 

 economic stress is for the depressed ones to seek ways and means of providing 

 sustenance, and the history of the Department of Lands and Forests has in the 

 main recorded such tendency in the unexpectedly large number of enquiries, 

 both verbal and written, for cheap Crown land that are made when times are 

 bad. But the topsy-turvy condition of the whole world has so adversely affected 

 the forest products industries — such as logging, lumbering and pulp and paper 

 manufacturing — that settlers are proportionately feeling the strain. The 

 woodsman in breaking up his land is almost entirely dependent upon these 

 industries to tide him over his early years of struggle. The wages received from 

 contracting for a company or working for a jobber, or the revenue derived from 

 a ready market for his wood, is the mainspring of his existence. In such troublous 

 times as these, with reduced contracts consequent upon restricted markets 

 and lower production, the would-be settler has but little encouragement, and 

 it appears improvident to lead him into what might prove other than the 

 promised land. 



In these circumstances it is not surprising that the number buying lands 

 is considerably less than during 1930. Some 1,043 purchased 90,814 acres as 

 against 1,351 for 111,408 acres the previous year. Over seventy per cent, of 

 the purchasers is found in the District of Cochrane, the majority on the Trans- 

 continental, their entries having been made through the offices at Cochrane, 

 Hearst, Kapuskasing on the Canadian National Railway, and Matheson on the 

 Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway. 



The District of Temiskaming accounted for 92, and Sudbury for 49, while 

 the others were widely scattered throughout the Province. 



Settlers to the number of 437 completed their payments, met all their 

 settlement duties and received patents; this being less by only 23 than the 

 previous year. 



Effective supervision of cutting timber and clearing land, under detailed 

 instructions based upon the Regulations by competent officials, was continued 

 throughout the year, as in the past, and resulted in the elimination of a number 

 of "timber farmers" and others who owing to various causes found it impossible 

 to carry on. The method of issuing permits to settlers and withholding clearances 

 pending the production of evidence in the form of actual progress on the land, 

 verified by an official, has seriously lessened, if not entirely removed, the pulp- 

 wood pilfering that at times had been clandestinely carried on under the guise 

 of land clearing or real farming. 



While some 761 sales were cancelled for neglect of duties, it may be remarked 

 that twenty per cent, of these comprised lands that had been sold, some of them 

 years prior to Confederation and others at various times up to the Eighties. 



