1928 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND FORESTS 13 



sales, exceeded ten square miles each. Purchasers from the big operator in 

 logs and pulpwood to the small jobber in all lines were represented. The areas 

 sold, with the prices bid, and the successful tenderers may be found in Appendix 11. 



Some of the largest operators who acquired areas are as follows: 



The Shevlin-Clarke Company, Limited, whose mill at Fort Frances cuts an 

 average of ninety million feet per annum. This company has a payroll of 

 $1,000,000 and employs 800 men throughout the summer and sixteen to 1,800 

 in the winter operations. 



The J. A. Mathieu, Limited, control a very substantial mill at Rainy Lake 

 in the vicinity of Fort Frances and employ for their winter undertaking 1,000 

 men, and for their summer, 300. 



The Fort Frances Pulp and Paper Company, who have recently completed 

 an addition to their paper plant and are producing an average of 80,000 tons of 

 newsprint each year. This company have succeeded for many years in con- 

 ducting a paper mill at this point of very substantial capacity without 

 having a single limit from the Crown, the first having been acquired during the 

 past year under public competition when under 100,000 cords were secured, 

 less than their requirement for one year. 



The very existence of Fort Frances is dependent upon the continuance 

 of these enterprises, and the logging companies with but two season's timber 

 supply ahead and the Pulp Company with practically none assured except 

 what may be picked up from settlers, small jobbers and an occasional licensee 

 from the Crown, are exercising some concern as to the Government's attitude 

 with respect to additional areas to be ofTered. 



It is very urgently claimed that with investments of such proportions 

 assured supplies for a reasonable period in advance should be furnished and 

 financing would be less onerous. 



Where such a local condition obtains and the timber contiguous to these 

 mills is such that it should be cut, the Department would be unwise to withhold 

 the timber from competitive sale. 



Austin & Nicholson on the C.P.R. in the Sudbury district. The Abitibi 

 Fibre Company on the Transcontinental in Cochrane, The Temagami Timber 

 Company on the T. & N. O. Railway in the Temagami region and Carpenter- 

 Hixon on the north shore at Blind River, all active and important concerns, 

 were purchasers throughout the year. In Eastern Ontario, Gillies Bros., 

 Limited, secured a white pine limit on the Montreal River in the districts of 

 Nipissing and Temiskaming for the furtherance of their plant at Braeside, 

 Ontario, where they have one of the finest sawmills of the province. 



In each case of the outstanding sales, the purchaser as it may be seen is an 

 active operator and the owner of a going concern. 



Logging 



In last year's report, because of the instability of the lumber market, 

 grave doubts were expressed regarding the advisability of the operators in pro- 

 ceeding to cut to an extent equivalent to the year 1926. The doubts were not 

 unfounded as the actual output for the year 1927 just closed clearly indicates 

 a decided reduction from the previous season. A marked decline in the cut of 

 Red and White Pine is worthy of note, there being some 70,000,000 feet B.M. 

 less produced. Only 45,464 cubic feet of waney timber is recorded as against 

 183,754 cubic feet for the year 1926. Of course, this type of timber has almost 

 reached its limit and the comparatively small quantity involved in either in- 

 stance has no great relation to general logging of pine for lumbering. 



