66 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



applied for a berth. One berth only could be sold to each applicant. Timber licenses 

 u> rxpire on April 30 in t-aeh year. Ground rent was continued at 50 cents per 

 mile. No licenses were to issue on a smaller computation than eight square miles. 

 The ground rent was to increase annually on berths not worked until it reached 23s. 

 4d. ($4.67) per mile. When occupation took place it reverted to the original rate of 

 50 cents per mile. Five hundred feet of timber or 20 sawlogs had to be made every 

 year for each mile of the limit ; renewals of licenses were provided for if the regula- 

 tions and payments were complied with. Applications for renewal had to be made in 

 writing every year before July 1. Transfers could not be made if dues were owing. 

 We have now come to the period of Confederation which was consummated on 

 July 1, 1867. Since then every province has been free to manage its own affairs and 

 enact such laws and regulations as would best carry out the policy suited to its circum- 

 stances. It is a great testimony to the wisdom of the legislators of bygone years that the 

 Crown Timber Act of 1849 has remained the charter, so to speak, of the timber licens- 

 ing systems of Ontario and Quebec, very few amendments having been made to it in 

 either province. The great strength of the Act is that it only lays down broad prin- 

 ciples, leaving the management of the Crown domain to be fixed by the regulations as 

 experience teaches or emergency requires. It may be worth while to state the broad 

 principles laid down : (1) Tne Commissioner of Crown Lands may issue licenses, 

 which licenses are to cover all kinds of timber during their currency ; (2) licenses 

 are to run for one year only and then absolutely determine ; (3) proper returns of 

 the cutting of timber are to be made, and (4) timber cut in trespass is liable to seizure 

 and confiscation. 



Since Confederation the Act has been amended as follows : Timber on road 

 allowances is declared to be covered by the timber license ; lots which have been sold 

 to actual settlers are to remain in license until proof of settlement duties is filed in 

 the department ; the Commissioner of Crown Lands can sell timber on pulp con- 

 cessions which is not covered by the concessions, and no pulp concession can be granted 

 for a longer period than 21 years, and most recent and most important, pine timber and 

 spruce on lands under license must be manufactured in Canada. It will be seen that 

 the points touched by the Act are not very numerous, but the field left for legislation" 

 is enormous just listen to the language of the Act, ' the Commissioner of Crown 

 Lands may issue timber licenses subject to such rates and conditions, regulations and 

 restrictions as may from time to time be established by the Lieutenant Governor in 

 Council.' No attempt is made to defme what sort of conditions or restrictions may 

 be imposed, anything that comes within the meaning of these words can be done by 

 regulation. This, with the discretion taken in combination with the absolute termi- 

 nation and legal death of every timber license within one year of its birth, places 

 almost unlimited power in the hands of the Crown. Take one example : When our 

 good friends over the border undertook to treat us, as we thought, unfairly, and the 

 Government of Canada could not act without making matters worse and perhaps 

 ruining the lumber trade, we were able, by passing an Order in Council to attach a 

 condition to all licenses to the effect that timber cut on Crown lands must be manu- 

 factured in Canada, thereby transferring a goodly portion of the sawmill business of 

 the State of Michigan to the Province of Ontario and leaving our friends who would 

 not come over to Canada in the position of Lord Ullin when the waters wild went 

 over his child. (Applause). Of course, these regulations being very important, 

 they were afterwards crystallized into an Act of the legislature. Several Acts have 

 been passed by the legislature since Confederation amending the Crown Timber Act 

 and affecting lumbering interests, and I will just mention them. There is an Act 

 affecting the rivers and streams which declares that everyone has the right to use these 

 waterways for floating timber or logs ; the Cullers' Act, which requires that persons 

 desirous of culling logs cut under license shall pass an examination and be licensed 

 by the Commissioner of Crown Lands ; the Act for the preservation of the forest from 

 destruction by fire, under authority of which fire rangers are put upon limits at the 



