CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 67 



joint expense of the Government and the licensee ; the Act affecting liens of employees 

 on sawlogs and timber ; an Act amending the Free Grants Act, which reserves the 

 pine timber on lands located after March 5, 1880, and enables them to be continued in 

 license ; the Act for the driving of sawlogs and timber, which made some needed 

 provisions with respect to parties who might be inclined to shirk their share of the 

 expense and responsibility. 



On May 28, 1869. the Crown Timber Eegulations of 1866 were abrogated and 

 new regulations were made by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council of the province 

 of Ontario. To a great extent the old regulations were incorporated in the new, of 

 course some new clauses were added at that time, and others have been added since. 

 The most important clause in the new regulations was the requiring of survey, ex- 

 ploration and valuation of the timber limits before they were offered for sale. Then 

 due advertisement of the sale by public auction to the highest bidder. Another im- 

 portant change was the increase of timber dues from 50 cents per thousand to 75 

 cents per thousand, and of the ground rent from 50 cents per mile to $2 per mile. 

 Another was the requiring of a more elaborate system of returns, with power to the 

 Commissioner to have an inspection made of the books, records, &c., if fraud in 

 returns were suspected. 



In 1887 the regulations were again amended by increasing the timber dues from 

 75 cents per thousand to $1 per thousand, and the ground rent from $2 per mile to 

 $3 per mile. 



In 1890 for the first time the sale held in that year by authority of Order in 

 Council covered only the pine timber, and the dues were again increased for the pur- 

 poses of that sale to $1.25 per thousand. 



In 1903, for the purposes of the timber sale held in that year, the dues were 

 increased from $1 per thousand to $2 per thousand, and on square timber from $20 

 to $50 per thousand feet cubic, and the ground rent from $3 to $5 per mile. Regula- 

 tions affecting the last two sales were passed fixing a time limit beyond which 

 licenses were not to be renewed of from 10 to 16 years. Regulations have also been 

 made to the effect that lands located or sold are to pass automatically out of the timber 

 license for anything but the pine timber on the day of sale. Regulations have ,aJsa 

 been passed that require licenses to supply sufficient timber for local sawmills upon 

 being paid the fair value of the same. Regulations have also been made requiring 

 that (pine and spruce shall be manufactured in Canada, which of course have been 

 crystallized into legislation, and more recently regulations have been passed requiring 

 ' that hemlock bark shall be used in Canada. 



Having traced ithe history of the license system, and given you the substance of 

 the recent amendments to the Ontario laws and regulations, prevailing in the Do- 

 minion and Newfoundland, I shall now proceed to refer to the different laws and 

 regulations. I shall refer to these in a general way and briefly. It is only necessary 

 to call your attention to the principles of the systems and to the wide divergencies 

 of the laws and regulations. The licensing systems prevailing in Ontario and Quebec 

 have, as I have said, a common origin, and have run nearly along parallel lines. 



The New Brunswick licensing system dates back to August 26, 1817, when the 

 Lieutenant-Governor in Council framed a set of rules with regard to timber license. 

 One interesting provision in these early regulations was that licenses were to be given 

 only to British subjects. No dues appear to have been charged at that time. 



Nova Scotia had no timber licensing system until quite recently, and the British . 

 Columbia system is comparatively modern and is based somewhat on our system, 

 diverting very widely, however, in the matter of tenure and the rates of ground rent 

 and dues. The Dominion system- is also based largely on the Ontario system with 

 such modifications as different circumstances have called for. I have not succeeded 

 in tracing the Newfoundland system back to its origin. 



In Ontario the Commissioner may issue licenses after sale by public auction, a 

 reserve bid being fixed but not made public. The licenses are annual and terminate 



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