Canadian Forestry Journal, June, 1919 



245 



FORESTRY PROGRESS IN NEWFOUNDLAND 



B}) J. D. Cilmour, Chief Forester and Logging Superintendent, 

 Anglo-Newfoundland Development Co. 



How Lord Northcliflfe's Company Aims 

 Maintain its Forests as a Permanent 

 Crop 



to 



About 15 years ago it was first realized that 

 Newfoundland's forests, comprising about 

 8,000,000 acres on the Island itself, were better 

 adapted for pulpwood than for saw-logs only. 

 Previous to this time sawn timber had been 

 shipped to Europe and South America. The 

 superior adaptability of these forests for pulp 

 and paper manufacture is due to several reasons. 

 Among these might be mentioned the predomin- 

 ance of spruce and fir over white pine in 

 quantity, the most accessible of the latter hav- 

 ing been logged to a considerable extent. The 

 comparatively small size of the spruce and fir 

 made its utilization as pulp more economical 

 than sawing it into lumber. Large rivers, with 

 good power sites and extensive drainage basins 

 well watered with drivable streams, afforded a 

 choice of several mill-sites with ample power 

 and with plenty of timber tributary to the mills 

 by water. Newfoundland is 1 ,000 miles nearer 

 Europe than are the chief Canadian ports. 



One of the companies earliest in the field was 

 the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Co., Ltd., 

 which obtained its charter in 1905. This com- 

 pany was organized by Lord Northcliffe and as- 

 sociates, who chose the valley of the River of 

 Exploits after obtaining reports on several alter- 

 native locations, both in Eastern Canada and 



Newfoundland. 



The A. E. Reed (Newfoundland) Company, 

 Limited, about the same time located at Bishop's 

 Falls, on the lower Exploits, nine miles below 

 Grand Falls, the site selected by the Anglo-New- 

 foundland Development Co., Limited. 



These tw^o companies are both financed by 

 British capital, and are the only pulp and paper 

 companies yet operating in the colony. 



When Fire-Fighting Began. 



It is safe to say that the inception of any 

 fo.est laws in the colony was due to the efforts 

 of these two companies. At the very beginning 

 of the pulp and paper mill development it was 

 seen that the colony's annual fire losses were 

 disastrous in the extreme, and that, in short, 

 another 20 years of unchecked fire losses would 

 practically complete the total destruction of all 

 the timber in the country. Fires were especially 

 extensive after the completion of the cross- 

 country railway in the '90's. These two com- 

 panies brought this matter strongly before the 

 Government of the day, with the result that the 

 Forest Fires Act was passed. This Act was ad- 

 mirable in itself, but at first was not very suc- 

 cessful, because of insuffi:ient patrols and lack 

 of inspection. Later, again at the suggestion of 

 these two pulp and paper concerns, and other 



The Loiulou Daily Mail in tlit' inakins- 



Lord Xorlholiiffs luilinvooil pilo at tlraiul Kall.>;. Xf.l. 

 (Courtesy Natural Rosoun-os Int(>lliK<'iK'<' Huroau.* 



