26 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



There is also the very delicate question of the Indians. This is a very difficult 

 question to deal with, no matter what way you look at it. The Indians have been in 

 the country a great many years, and it is hard to teach them that they cannot do as 

 tlioy have done in the past, and as their forefathers did for hundreds of years. But, 

 1 think if tln-y were trained as children in the schools, and were made to understand 

 the value of taking care of the forests, a great deal could be done with them, and that 

 the result would be that they would be more careful to put out any iiree they made 

 \vh<.-n travelling through the woods. They could be taught that instead of leaving 

 their fires to smoulder after they are through with them, it is a simple matter to take 

 a little earth and put it on the fire and put it out entirely and absolutely. 



If this could be done (and there is no doubt that it can) a great deal of damage 

 would be prevented, and we would be taking a practical means of preserving our 

 forests, which are one of the greatest (if not the greatest) asset that we have in this 

 country. 



I will not take up your time any longer, because those two gentlemen from British 

 Columbia, who are both, practical lumbermen, may possibly have something to say 

 which will be of interest. I will therefore not take up your time listening to me. 



Mr. F. W. JONES. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I am very glad indeed to have 

 an opportunity to attend this meeting, and feel greatly honoured at being asked to say 

 something on behalf of the British Columbia lumberman. 



In the first place I think I ought to defend him from what may have been the 

 inference from Mr. Bostock's remarks, that we have never been here before. The 

 explanation of that is, as you will readily understand, it is a considerable distance, 

 and when it comes to making a trip from the western portion of British Columbia 

 to Quebec it is about as long a trip as you can make by rail anywhere on earth. 



In addition to that, the lumber interest out in that part of the country is more 

 or less in its infancy, and we have not made the lots of money that the lumbermen 

 have made down in the older country, through the Ottawa valley for instance. There 

 are no millionaires out there like you have down in this part of the world. We have been 

 given to understand that the millionaires around here are mostly lumbermen. Tha 

 case is different out in British Columbia, and the consequence is that heretofore we 

 have not been able to get the time and money to attend those meetings. 



Now that we have come here, I for one am very glad indeed to have an opportunity 

 to add my testimony as to the efficiency and value of the fire-ranging system in the 

 railway belt in British Columbia, so far as it has gone. The only thing that is wrong 

 with it is that there is not enough of it. 



A little bit is a good thing, no doubt, but what we want is more fire rangers. I 

 do not know whether Mr. Leamy made it quite clear to those of you who are not fami- 

 liar with the west just what the extent of that railway belt is. ' Kailway belt ' is a 

 term that njight possibly suggest railway land. Well, it is nothing of the kind. It 

 is a belt of land twenty miles on each side of the main line of the Canadian Pacific Rail- 

 way which, I believe, the province of British Columbia turned over to the Dominion 

 government as a partial return for the building of the railway a sort of a bonus 



