CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 99 



timber that winter without loss. And so I do think that, having regard to the timber 

 at our disposal and the enormous extent of the territory, speaking for the province of 

 Ontario I am not speaking of either one side of the house or the other, but for the 

 whole province I think we are doing everything that we can do to- tighten our grip 

 upon the conservation of the forest wealth of this province, and I think you can rely 

 upon it that, whichever party is in power in this province, even greater efforts will be 

 made in the future than in the past to conserve and protect the forest interests of the 

 province. 



The CHAIRMAN. I can thoroughly corroborate what Mr. White has stated with 

 regard to the fire protection they are giving the licensed timber-holders of the pro- 

 vince. I can speak from personal knowledge with regard to our own, and I have no 

 doubt it is the same all over the province. The great destruction by fire was before 

 the days that Mr. White speaks qf, it was in the days of the free grant system. On 

 the Eiver Madawaska, and in the neighbourhood of Pembroke especially, there was a 

 free grant of land given to settlers, some from Germany and other parts of Europe, 

 and even from Canada. These literally destroyed the pine forest there, and you can 

 to-day see their operations. Mr. White spoke of the settlers' license system. That in 

 Quebec had exactly the same effect. The settlers^ not settlers, but land pirates got 

 the license, and they were obliged to make improvements before they could get a patent, 

 and I have in my mind's eye an immense district destroyed by these so-called settlers 

 or land sharks. I just wish to corroborate what Mr. White has said, that the Ontario 

 Government, with its capable officers, is giving this matter their personal attention, 

 and if a fire occurs, it will not be for the want of thorough looking after* Mr. Joly 

 could give you some information about the land pirates on their side, but we have not 

 time to discuss that very much. 



Mr. LITTLE. I hope that Mr. White, in anything I have said, has not thought 

 that I have in any way wished to censure the action of the Government. My idea 

 was the very reverse of that. 



Mr. WHITE. I was not quite clear that you had confined your remarks to the 

 province of Quebec. 



Mr. BERTRAM. I only want to say a word. We have no quarrel or fault to find 

 in any -way whatever with the work of the Crown Lands department. The only 

 opinion that we have about that is, that they are too conservative. I do not know 

 what they call themselves in public, but they are a lot of Tories in a good many 

 things. I do not know that that is a very bad thing for the province, because in one 

 aspect of the word I am very conservative myself, and we require sometimes to give 

 them a little push on. But the work they are doing is not only in very good taste, 

 but a good thing for the province. I want them to go a little further and give us a 

 little more fire protection. As to the Agricultural College, there is nothing that gives 

 us more pleasure than to think that the Ontario Government is taking that matter 

 up. I have spoken of the broken land that the farmers have. Going from here to 

 Peterborough, you will see a rocky ridge that the pine should never have been cut off, 

 and for some years I have been looking and thinking of a way to get something like 

 this. I have some hills on my own farm down in Peterborough, and will wait now' 

 until I can get a few trees from the college. 



Ti 



