CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 61 



interesting, as well as instructive, if I were to take the most important of the systems 

 and trace it from the seed up to the full-grown tree, with its numerous branches of 

 regulations. The most important system is that prevailing in Ontario and Quebec, 

 and I bracket the system of these two provinces together, because they have grown 

 from the same germ, were under one management until the year 1867, the date of Con- 

 federation, and since then have differentiated very slightly. The seed of our system 

 was sown in the period known as the 'French Regime,' when, in grants of Crown 

 Lands to the Seigniors, the oak timber, and later on the pine, was reserved to the 

 King, and did not pass with the soil. Some of the principles that govern free grants 

 under our legislation of to-day are found in these grants, and as was to be expected, 

 some of^the difficulties which exist to-day were troublesome even in that early period. 



As a typical grant, I take that made to Sieur de la Vallier by the Government 

 of Quebec, in 1683. In it we find (1) that settlers are to be put on the land and that 

 they must take possession, make improvements and keep house and home within two 

 years, otherwise the location was to be forfeited; (2) the oak timber was to be reserved 

 to the King, and had to be protected; (3) the necessary roadways and passages had to 

 remain open, and (4) the mines and minerals were reserved to the King. In our free 

 grant there is required (1) actual residence and improvements, (2) the pine timber 

 is reserved to the King, (3) roads and streams are reserved, and (4) the mines and 

 minerals are also reserved to the King. The reservation of the oak timber was not a 

 dead letter. I have read one permit familiar name granted by the Governor in 1731, 

 authorizing the holder to enter upon a Seigniory and cut and remove the timber re- 

 quired for building a vessel, which timber was to be brought to Quebec and there in- 

 spected and received, and a great deal of our square timber is to-day brought there 

 to be inspected and received for shipment. Trespasses were provided against, and the 

 regulations were drastic, which not only include confiscation of the timber, as in our 

 day, but also forfeiture of the horses and plant engaged in taking out the stolen tim- - 

 ber. The settlers' grievances were also present, for we find that a settler having cut 

 some oak trees in process of clearing and sold the logs cut from them, the Seignior 

 immediately fined him. The settler appealed his case to the Governor, who in effect 

 said, ' how can he clear the land without cutting down the oak trees, why should he 

 burn them if he can turn them into money? It is in the public interest that trees 

 felled in the course of clearing should be sawn into boards and disposed of in order 

 that the settler may obtain a little money to assist him in making his improvements 

 rather than that he should be obliged to burn them on the land/ and he further con- 

 founded the Seignior by calling his attention to the fact that the oak was reserved 

 not to him but to the King. If the settler cut beyond the limits of his clearing, or 

 failed to improve his location, any timber cut by him was held to be a trespass. Here 

 are the very same regulations that prevail to-day under which the settler may cut and 

 sell timber required to be removed in clearing his land, and commits a trespass if he 

 cuts beyond the limits of clearing or before he has become a bona fide settler. The 

 right to take timber -free of charge for public works, such as bridges, colonization 

 roads, &c., was reserved in the grant to the Seignior, and the same reservation is 

 found in our timber licenses to-day. After what I have said you will see why it is 

 I go back to the French regime for the beginning of things. 



When the British took possession, the Governor's attention was directed to the 

 timber question. Pine, of course, was reserved to the King for naval purposes, but 

 the Governor went a step further and issued instructions that areas containing 

 quantities of pine were to be reserved absolutely, no settlers were to be allowed in 

 them, and wise precaution no sawmills were to be erected anywhere near pine re- 

 serves, except by his express permission. Now you will note that down to the end of 

 the yearJL700, though the pine was reserved to the Crown, and pine areas were to le 

 kept isolated, there is no mention of any authority being given to enter upon the Crown 

 domain to take out. timber for ordinary lumbering purposes, and here to dispose of 

 the question of pine reservations, which by the way are now, over 100 years later, be- 



