66 



Canadian Forestry journal, February, 1919 



THE STATE'S DUTY IN MANAGING FORESTS 



By Hon. E. A. Smith, Minister of Lands and Mines, 

 New Brunswick- 



Present Employment and Revenues From Forest 



Industries Must be Maintained for 



All Time to Come. 



At no time has the obHgation of a government 

 to prepare for the future been so conscientiously 

 realised as during the present period of Canadi- 

 an history. Public opinion and admmistrative 

 policies are recognising with startling frankness 

 the duty of the state in managing the natural 

 resources of a country on the most scientific, far- 

 sighted, permanent basis in the best interests of 

 all concerned. 



What, then, is the chief natural endowment 

 of the people of New Brunswick? Certainly the 

 forests. Over seven million acres still remain 

 in the right of the Crown, and from which each 

 and every citizen of the Province is equally 

 entitled to receive his share of prosperity repre- 

 sented by the timber revenues spent in the de- 

 velopment of the country, construction and 

 maintenance of schools, roads and bridges. 



The Future of Employment. 



It would appear, therefore,- that forest con- 

 servation is emphatically public business. The 

 Government, as the trustee and steward of this, 

 the people's heritage, must manage and regulate 

 it, not for this generation alone, but for all future 

 generations as well. Not from the material 

 standpoint of Government revenue alone must 

 this be done, but it is also important that the 

 future be considered in all forest policies, in 

 order that the annual distribution by the lumber 

 industries of over fifteen millions of dollars for 

 wages, supplies, etc., to the people of New 

 Brunswick may be continued for all time. 



How, then, may the forests be kept perman- 

 ently productive? Briefly, this comes under two 

 great divisions. First, by adequate fire protec- 

 tion. It is estimated that if the timber destroyed 

 by forest fires in New Brunswick during the last 

 forty or fifty years had been manufactured into 

 lumber, the vast sum of fifty millions of dollars 

 would have been circulated in the province. 

 The First Law, passed at last session, has been 



HON. E. A. SilJlll. 

 Minister of Lands and Mines, New Jiirunsw iclc. 



designed to assist in preventing a recurrence of 

 so great a national disaster. That is why the 

 farmers of New Brunswick are asked to secure a 

 fire permit before setting their slashings on fire, 

 in order to protect their own prosperity. Sec- 

 ondly, and also equally important, by the obser- 

 vance of all reasonable logging regulations by 

 the operators, the elimination of all unnecessary 

 waste and the leaving of under-sized trees stand- 

 ing to grow and provide the future crop of 

 timber. 



Private assets are' never managed in ignorance 

 of their extent, character and condition. Why, 

 then, should a Province attempt to administer its 



