366 Canada. 



voices of prominent Canadians, like that of Sir Henry 

 Joly de Lotbiniere had been heard before in advo- 

 cacy of a more far-seeing policy, the meeting of the 

 American Forestry Congress at Montreal in 1882 may 

 /be set as the date of the inception of this movement 

 in Canada. 



The definite result of that meeting was the inaugu- 

 ration of forest fire legislation in the various provinces. 

 In the Province of Ontario, the Fire Act of 1878, 

 which had until then remained a dead letter, was im- 

 proved, in 1885, by inaugurating a fire ranger system, 

 in which limit holders pay one-half the cost of the 

 rangers. In New Brunswick a fire law was passed in 

 1885, followed in 1897 by the introduction of the 

 Ontario ranger system. In 1883 Nova Scotia passed a 

 forest fire law, which, like that of New Brunswick, 

 remained ineffective for lack of machinery; this was 

 not provided until 1904, and has worked most satis- 

 factorily. Recently a forest survey of the Province 

 was begun. Quebec also enacted fire legislation in 

 1883, but did not provide means to carry it into 

 effect until 1889. Since at first only $5,000 annu- 

 ally was allowed for its execution, and by 1901-2 not 

 more than $7,226 was expended for fire protection over 

 an area of 40 million acres, its effectiveness may be 

 doubted, until, in 1905, a special Forest-Protection 

 Branch, with a ranger system after the Ontario pat- 

 tern was organized. Ontario in that year, on one- 

 quarter the area, had already increased its expenditure 

 for protection to $34,200 with effect, and in 1906 ex- 

 pected to spend $90,000 from the provincial treasury, 

 in addition to $70,000 to $80,000 contributed by limit 



