CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 25 



Mr. JONES. There are about twenty thousand square miles in the railway belt, 

 and I think the area of the province is about six hundred and eighty-one thousand 

 square miles. 



Mr. BOSTOCK. You can judge from that, gentlemen, as to the comparative sizes. 

 Mr. Leamy's work is very excellent, but it is confined to such a small portion of the 

 province. It is very much to be regretted that he cannot be allowed to continue his 

 good work outside of the railway belt. 



One of his greatest troubles at the present time is the fact that the provincial 

 government, so far, has not been stirred up to the necessity of protecting the forest. 

 The fires that occur in the railway belt occur very largely through being started out- 

 side of the belt, and there is no ranger appointed to look after them there, and no 

 interest is taken in the matter. 



Then there is another point on which I agree with Mr. Leamy. He says that the 

 magistrates are not accustomed to enforce the penalties. They do not consider it 

 their duty to look after the forest so much as to look after the pocket of the settler, 

 r-nd consequently the amount of damage that is done by fire outside the railway belt 

 is very great indeed. 



This question of fining the settlers and keeping them off land on which they are 

 really not able to make a living is one which is coming before us more and more every 

 day, and I hope that a very strong representation will be made by this association, as 

 a body, both to the Dominion government and to the provincial government that they 

 should take steps to have the land properly looked after, and appoint capable men to 

 make a report to the agents both in the province and in the Dominion; to take the 

 entries from the settlers and make reports to those men, showing whether the land is 

 fit for settlement or whether it is not. 



At the present time this question is left in the hands of the agents to decide whe- 

 ther a man shall settle in a certain place or not. As a rule the agent is a man tied 

 down to his oftice, and who cannot afford the time to go out around the country and 

 eee the particular land which the settler wants to open up, and consequently he is not 

 in a position to say whether the land is fit for settlement or whether it is not. 



The consequence of this is that there is a great deal of land taken up by these 

 settlers which is absolutely unfitted for them to make a living out of. 



Then, if we could get proper forest reserves established, and notify the agents 

 that nobody is to be allowed to settle in them, it would be a great help in preserving 

 those valuable assets of the country, the trees, and in the future we would be in a very 

 much better position than we are to-day. 



Another cause of fires touched upon by Mr. Leamy was tne miners. I tfiink a 

 good method to remedy that evil would be to put upon every license issued to miners 

 a clause to the effect that if they were caught starting a fire in the timber their license 

 would be confiscated, and they would not be allowed to get another for a 1 certain num- 

 ber of years. There is no doubt a great deal of damage is done in this manner, that 

 is, by men who want to clear the land for the purpose of prospecting. 



