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15. Where satisfactory information, supported by affidavit made before a 

 justice of the peace or before any other competent party, is received by the 



Commissioner of Crown Lands, or other officer or agent of the Crown Lands 

 Department, that any timber or quantity of timber has been cut without authority 

 on Crown, clergy, school or other public lands, and describing where the timber 

 can be found, the Commissioner, officer or agent, or any one of them, may 

 seize or caused to be seized in Her Majesty's name the timber so reported to be 

 cut without authority, wherever .it is found, and place the same under proper 

 custody until a decision can be had in the matter from competent authority. 



16. Where the timber so reported to have been cut without authority on the 

 public lauds has been up with other timber into a crib, dram, or raft, or in any 

 other manner has been so mixed up at the mills or elsewhere as to render it 

 impossible or very difficult to distinguish the timber so cut on public lands with- 

 out license from other timber with which it is mixed up, the whole of the timber 

 so mixed shall be held to have been cut without authority on public lands, and 

 shall be liable to seizure and forfeiture accordingly, until satisfactorily separated 

 by the holder. 



17. Any officer or person seizing timber, in the discharge of his duty under 

 this Act may, in the name of the Crown, call in any assistance necessary for 

 securing and protecting the timber so seized. 



18. Whenever any timber is seized for non-payment of Crown dues, or for 

 any other cause of forfeiture, or any prosecution is brought for any penalty or 

 forfeiture under this Act, and a question arises whether the said dues have 

 been paid on such timber, or whether the timber was cut on other than 

 the public lands aforesaid, the burden of proving payment, or on what land 

 the timber was cut, shall lie on the owner or claimant of the timber, and 

 not on the officer who seizes the same or the party bringing the prosecution. 



19. All timber seized under this Act shall be deemed to be condemned, unless 

 the person from whom it was seized, or the owner thereof, within one month 

 from the day of the seizure, gives notice to the seizing officer 01 nearest officer or 

 .agent of the Crown lands office, that he claims or intends to claim the same; 

 failing notice, the officer or agent seizing shall report the circumstances to 

 the Commission of Crown Lands, who may order the sale of the said timber by 

 the officer or agent, after a notice on the spot of at least thirty days. 



20. (1) Every judge having competent jurisdiction may, when he deems it 

 proper, try and determine such seizures, and may order the delivery of the timber 

 to the alleged owner, on receiving security by bond, with two good and sufficient 

 sureties to be first approved by the agent, to pay double the value in case of 

 condemnation. 



(2) The bond shall be taken in the name of the Commissioner of Crown 

 Lands to Her Majesty's use, alfd shall be delivered up to and kept by the 

 Commissioner. 



(3) If the seized timber is condemned, the value thereof shall be forthwith 

 paid to the Commissioner of Crown Lands or the agent, and the bond cancelled, 

 otherwise the penalty of such b^nd shall be enforced and recovered. 



Every person availing himself of any false statement or oath to evade 

 the payment of Crown dues, shall forfeit the timber on which dues are attempted 

 to be evaded. 



