22 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



pect and burn it as bare as possible. This is not done in the railway belt of British 

 Columbia to-day. Our rangers follow each prospecting party; they know the towns 

 where they outfit, and they follow them quite a long way, and inform them as to their 

 liability should a fire occur in the district in which they are about to prospect, and 

 in addition to this precaution serve upon them notices containing a copy of the Fire 

 Act and its penalties. This step no doubt prevents the outbreak of numerous forest 

 fires. 



The next trouble that we have to contend with is the settler. I am sorry to have 

 to say it, but the settler is a source of trouble, and has been the cause of very many 

 fires in our forests. He wants to get what is called ' a clean burn,' and with this idea 

 in his head, slashes down the timber, and after he has cut it down does not gather it 

 up in any way, nor pile it, neither does he make any endeavour to prevent the fire 

 from spreading beyond the actual area of his clearing. He simply sets fire to it and 

 lets it go. Up to two years ago they used to set fire in this manner, and after they 

 had burned about a thousand acres or so, thought it would be a good thing for me to 

 send men to put out the fire, and would send me a request to this effect. They were 

 beginning to get alarmed as to the extent to which the fire might spread. 



As has also been mentioned in the last paper read here, there is the difficulty in 

 getting a magistrate to fine any man committing such an offence who happens to be 

 his neighbour. The Fire Act in the province of British Columbia, which creates the 

 fire district and which calls the whole province a fire district, says that any person 

 guilty of the offence of setting fire in the woods and not looking after it is liable to 

 a fine of not less than $50 and not more than $200. Now, on one occasion, in my juris- 

 diction, the fire ranger brought up a man before one of our magistrates and inci- 

 dentally I would have you remember that the accused had been complained of by his 

 neighbours, not by the lumbermen, the neighbours asserting that their property, 

 fences, barns, and even the|ir lives were in danger. I may as well add also that the 

 man was not a Canadian, but a Swede. And it was proven that he had repeatedly 

 set fire to his own place and to the adjoining forest, which contained very valuable 

 timber. He had been warned repeatedly by the fire ranger, who at last realized that 

 argument was useless, and had him arrested and brought before the magistrate. There 

 he was found guilty of the offence charged against him, after seventeen of the neigh- 

 bours had been brought in as witnesses, and I can tell you that it is an item of con- 

 siderable expense to bring a man twenty or thirty miles out of the woods to give evi- 

 dence in cases like this. Well, the oSence was proven, as clearly as it is possible to 

 prove anything in the world, and how much do you suppose the magistrate fined the 

 man? Ten dollars. This is what they call carrying out the law. The law distinctly 

 says that the minimum fine shall be $50. I must say that I cannot see how the magis- 

 trate could possibly bring this to mean that he could fine him $10 if he chose. The 

 fire ranger asked the magistrate to point out the section in the Fire Act on which he 

 relied when imposing the fine, and what reason he had for not fining the man at least 

 the lowest amount prescribed by law, and his answer was, ' Oh, well, the man is poor, 

 you know.' It would have been cheaper to have hoisted that man out and got him to 

 leave the country. It would be better for a lumber-growing country that such a man 

 should not be allowed to live in it. 



