Minister's Annual Report 

 For Year Ending October 31st, 1934 



STAFF CHANGES 



During the fiscal year two members of the staff were superannuated in 

 the persons of Miss B. M. Benson, who had been in the Service since May 

 25, 1909, and Miss E. Hills, who entered the Service on July 31, 1912. 



The death of an old and faithful public servant in the person of James 

 T. McDougall, formerly Crown Timber Agent at North Bay, is regretfully 

 recorded. Mr. McDougall entered the Service on July 1, 1908, and was 

 one of the few remaining links with the romantic past of lumbering in this 

 Province. 



Five of the female members of the staff resigned during the year. 



Another old timer of the former timber administration staff is no longer 

 in the Service, A. Stevenson, former Crown Timber Agent at Peterboro, being 

 superannuated on July 4, 1934. Mr. Stevenson commenced his long and 

 faithful service on October 4, 1905, and his popularity in Peterboro is evidence 

 that he will be missed by friends and business acquaintances alike. 



Other staff changes appear in Appendix No. 1, which notes the foregoing 

 and a number of additions and changes in Official classification. 



It may be noted that members of the staff have taken over duties formerly 

 allotted to those no longer in the Service, and that they are making a sincere 

 and serious attempt to meet the demands for economy. 



LAND TRANSACTIONS 



The lands of the Crown in this Province are administered by the Depart- 

 ment of Lands and Forests. 



They have for approximately one hundred years been a consistent source 

 of revenue but up to the end of the nineteenth century comparatively little 

 of the lands of the Crown in Northern Ontario was alienated. The improve- 

 ment however of transportation facilities and routes and the practical exhaus- 

 tion of good Crown agricultural land in Southern Ontario led to rapid extensive 

 development in Northern Ontario. The Department of Lands and Forests 

 has been intimately involved in that development. All lands, regardless of 

 the purpose for which they are required, providing they are Crown property, 

 are controlled and dealt with subject to the Mining Act by the Department 

 of Lands and Forests. With the passing of the years, it became evident that 

 for speculative or other reasons, considerable areas were becoming privately 

 owned and idle or non-productive. To eliminate the speculative element 

 therefore a policy of renting where lands are only temporarily required was 



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