CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 59 



the lumberman and the settler as to any particular lot are as wide asunder as the poles 

 and, consequently, what we do is to send our own ranger to inspect the lots. If he 

 finds that a reasonable percentage of the lot is suitable for agricultural purposes, and 

 that all the pine timber has been removed from it, then we locate the land to the settler. 

 But if, on the other hand, we find the lot has a very small percentage of land fit for 

 settlement fifteen or twenty acres then we do not locate him, whether the timber 

 is cut away or not. But if the land has a considerable percentage, say thirty or forty 

 acres out of the hundred of good land, and contains a large quantity of hemlock, which 

 is coming into value, we do not locate it. Now, I do not know how we can go any 

 further unless we say to the settlers that they shall not go into any township where 

 there is any kind of timber which the lumbermen may require in the future. Frankly, 

 we are not prepared to go that far. We must deal justly. We are not satisfying either 

 party, and that is a good evidence that we are doing what is right. What we are trying 

 to do is to deal fairly with both parties. That we are trying to do, and I suppose we 

 shall continue to be criticized both by the lumbermen and the settlers. 



The resolution was then adopted. 



Father BURKE. I have another resolution to offer : 



Resolved, that in view of the proposed construction of a new transcontinental 

 railway and the projection of other lines passing largely through coniferous forests, 

 the attention of the Governments of the Dominion and the provinces and also of the 

 railway companies, be called to the serious danger of loss of valuable timber consequent 

 upon the construction and operation of such lines if all possible precautions to prevent 

 the starting of fires are not taken, and to urge that the question be given full and 

 careful consideration, that to the end sought the party or parties contracting to build" 

 the different sections of the said roads be required to enter into an agreement for an 

 efficient equipment and control to prevent fires, that at such seasons as may be neces- 

 sary an effective patrol be established along all the afforested line of railway and that 

 the officers, both of the governments and the railways, be required to use all possible 

 diligence to prevent the starting or spread of fires through defective equipment or 

 through the carelessness of the operations or negligence of the employees under their 

 control. 



Mr. LITTLE seconded. 



Mr. STEWART. Mr. Chairman, there has been a new Railway Act in reference 

 to that. I am not going to criticize the motion at all, but I am going to ask Father 

 Burke if he has looked over it to see whether the contractors are not compelled to 

 take some action ? 



Father BURKE. I have not seen the Act. 



The resolution was then adopted, and the first day's proceedings closed at 

 5.45 p.m. v , 



