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to the extent of many thousand pounds), lay out all the means they can command 

 in the operation, and before the rents have reached an excessive amount are 

 enabled to occupy the lower berths ; but some pressure then comes, they cannot 

 push their improvements immediately to the upper berths, and the ground rents 

 arrive at a point where they compel relinquishment, while they could not compete 

 for the repurchase on equal terms with any new purchaser who would have the 

 advantage of their outlay. 



" It has been su^gesetd that a remedy for this might be found by admitting 

 improvements in lieu of occupation, which would be just in principle but practi- 

 cally extremely difficult of application. 



" The cases urged upon the department from every part of the country would 

 be numerous, the evidence to be adjudicated upon would be entirely ex parte, 

 the exact nature of the improvements to be admitted would always be a matter 

 of dispute, and, however honestly administered, the system would give rise to 

 constant accusations of paitiality and favor. 



" Upon a full consideration, therefore, of all the circumstances it appeared that 

 the difficulty might be met by a general rule calculated to perfect and give per- 

 manency to the system as a whole instead of impairing it. 



" A rule was accordingly adopted which consists in limiting the extreme 

 amount of ground rent on any berth to a sum equal to what the berth would 

 produce in duty if duly occupied, the rent remaining at that rate per annum till 

 occupation commences ; reverting then, of course, to the original rate as before. 

 This, while it entails a heavy payment on those who reserve berths for future 

 use, as much in fact as th3y would have to pay for the timber if they cut it, 

 affords no public ground for complaint, for the public get the price of the timber 

 annually while the timber itself remains, with the public interest in it, for future 

 revenue, unimpaired ; at the same time it prevents the system from becoming 

 oppressive, and therefore, inoperative, as all oppressive laws ultimately become. 



" On the other head, with regard to the temporary suspension of the system 

 the same issue as was then involved is now at stake and must continue to be so, 

 It must be remarked, as a general rule, that any departure, for partial, local, or 

 temporary causes, from the fixed laws affecting the trade, is bad in principle and 

 calculated in every case to produce a bad effect. 



" If, when a depression has arisen from over-production, or other causes, which 

 the trade has brought upon itself, the government should once step in to affect 

 the market or the supply, directly or indirectly, the same interference would be 

 looked forward to again, and induce an over-speculative spirit in time of 

 prosperity, sure to end in a similar result. If the government were at any time 

 to relax the conditions it has seen fit to impose upon the holders of unoccupied 

 timber berths without some other cause than the ordinary fluctuations of the 

 trade, public confidence would be shaken either in the efficacy of the system 

 itself or in the administration of it. Nothing but the strongest necessity, arising 

 from causes foreign to the trade itself, could at any time justify an exception to 

 this as a general rule, and the only question on this point worthy of consideration 

 at that time was, whether the effects of the then state of war were such as to 

 justify its being made an exceptional case. 



" In considering this question it became necessary to take a retrospective view 

 of the trade for some years, from which it appeared that there had not been any 

 very excessive supply in the Quebec market as compared with the export. The 

 supply was indeed somewhat excessive in 1852 and the stock of sqnare timber on 

 hand at the close of that year(18,15 1,750 feet) was also excessive, but the produ- 

 cers profiting from the sad experience of 1846 and the embarrassments of 

 succeeding years having cautiously limited their operations, the supply was 



