Northern Ontario's Timber Resources 



Synopsis of an Address by Hon. W. H. Hearst, Minister of Lands, Forests and 

 Mines for Ontario, before the Ottawa Canadian Club. 



A large and distinguished audience, in 

 which were many lumbermen, greeted 

 Hon. W. H. Hearst on the occasion of his 

 first visit to Ottawa in his public capacity 

 when he addressed the Canadian Club after 

 the luncheon held in the Chateau Laurier 

 on Nov. 8. 



In opening his address Mr. Hearst point- 

 ed out that by the addition to Ontario in 

 1912 of the District of Patricia, with an 

 area of 157,400 square miles, the province 

 now had an area of 418,262 square miles. 

 Of this large area the province had parted 

 with less than 10%, leaving in the Crown 

 in the neighborhood of 375,000 square 

 miles . Ontario was now the second largest 

 province in the Dominion, being exceeded 

 by the Province of Quebec with an area of 

 706,000 square miles, and followed by Brit- 

 ish Columbia with 357,000 square miles. 

 About thirteen million acres of land was 

 under cultivation, which amounted to less 

 than 6% of the total area of the province. 

 The field crops of the Dominion for 1912 

 were worth $511,000,000, of which Ontario 

 contributed $192,000,000 worth or fully 

 37% of the total field crops of the Domin- 

 ion, exceeding the two largest provinces of 

 the West by over $26,000,000. 



Mr. Hearst dealt in detail with the min- 

 eral output of Ontario, and then took up 

 the question of timber. He showed that 

 since Confederation (1867) the province 

 had received a . revenue from timber of 

 over $47,000,000, and the revenue for 1912 

 from this source was $1,985,000. 



The value of forest products in the Do- 

 minion in 1911 was $166,000,000, about 

 $22.00 per head of the population of which 

 Ontario contributed a large part. Mr. 

 Hearst illustrated one important aspect of 

 the timber industry in that every year 

 northern Ontario required in farm produce, 

 and other supplies needed for the men in 

 teams engaged in the north country, over 

 two and one half million dollars worth. He 

 also pointed out that besides its initial 

 value in the rough, timber went into almost 

 every kind of manufacture, and that in 

 1912 Ontario used over $19,000,000 worth 

 in her manufactures, of which 82% was 

 produced in the province itself. 



Onatrio's Standing Timber. 



As to what standing timber Ontario had, 

 they had not as full a record as they wish- 

 ed, or as they hoped to have in the near 

 future. But the reports of the experts of 



Scene on National TranBcontine ntal Railway, Northern Ontario. 



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