10 REPORT OF THE No. 3 



The lands leased during the year were less by 24.818 acres although col- 

 lections on new and old areas considerably increased. (See Appendix No. 3.) 



Military Grants 



During the year six certificates were surrendered and one patent was 

 issued. Under the Act approximately 13,998 certificates were issued and of 

 these 1,027 are still outstanding. 



The above has no reference to the special privilege accorded returned 

 Canadian overseas soldiers of the Great War, who are entitled to acquire, free 

 of charge, a farming location in Northern Ontario, subject, however, to all 

 settlement regulations. Sixty-seven returned men took advantage of this 

 opportunity during the year. Because of failure to comply with the regu- 

 lations, fifty-seven, previously located under these regulations, forfeited their 

 locations, which is an improvement on the previous year when sixty-seven 

 locations were cancelled. 



Tourist Lands 



. The growth in popularity of our Provincial parks as health and recreation 

 resorts was most notable throughout the year; each of the three great parks, 

 Algonquin, Rondeau and Quetico, reports an increase in tourists with a cor- 

 responding increase in revenue. It is encouraging to note that most reliable 

 reports from the Algonquin and Quetico Parks indicate the wild life in a healthy 

 state. Close observation and a checking up of wild life evidence on all ranger's 

 beats in Algonquin Park show an increase in the big game and also in fur-bearing 

 animals such as beaver, marten, mink, etc. Deer is everywhere abundant in 

 the greater portions of this park, notwithstanding the too frequent pronounce- 

 ment of those well intentioned critics of the so-called wolf menace. Deer are 

 seen daily about the logging camps, along the trails and in the farther recesses 

 visited by the Rangers. They are wandering around headquarters, houses 

 and stables every night. Throughout the year the Rangers secured fifty-one 

 wolves within the park, and this year are using guns, traps and snares to add 

 to their spoils. The generally expressed opinion based upon isolated and 

 unreliable data that Algonquin Park is the breeding spot of wolves is not borne 

 out by the actual facts gathered on the ground by those who are twelve months 

 within the confines of the park. It is the belief amongst the honest hunters 

 who frequent the vicinity of the park for their annual outing, that the park is 

 well sustaining one of the many purposes for which it was created, that is, a pro- 

 tected reservoir of wild life from which constantlv flows a stream of game that 

 has vsucceeded in maintaining the supply in neighbouring localities which long 

 since would otherwise have been run dry through the ever growing army of 

 quick repeaters. 



The closest supervision to adequately protect these cloistered creatures 

 from unscrupulous hunters and migratory poachers is necessary, and while 

 vigilant efforts in this behalf are being exercised it may be found advisable to 

 augment our park stalTs at critical periods of the year to make enforcement 

 of the park laws and regulations more effective. 



Rondeau Park in Kent County, a quaint sequestered nook of attractive 

 grandeur in the southwestern peninsula has some 250 summer cottages repre- 

 senting a summer population of over 1,000. Last year the capable and highly 

 respected superintendent, who had been efficiently carrying on for a number of 

 years, passed to his reward, and the Department is about to undertake an in- 



