278 REPORT OF THE No. 3 



lating the Doyle scale into its cubic volume equivalent, which will preserve 

 undisturbed the equities established by the sales contracts, for there can surely 

 be no truer index as to what the purchaser had in mind to buy when he made his 

 bid than what he actually cut after the bid was accepted. 



For greater clearness, let us assume the case of a timber sale in 1906 at 

 $12.00 per 1,000 Doyle scale, (the $12.00 covering both Crown dues and bonus). 

 Here the lumberman bids $12.00 for the amount of logs that will scale 1,000 

 feet, board measure, by the Doyle rule. By reference to the records of the timber 

 cut on that limit during 1907 it will quickly be found just how many cubic feet 

 of logs were required to yield the 1,000 feet, board measure, Doyle rule, he was 

 paying for. If a more conservative basis were desired, the converting factor 

 might be based on the cut of the two seasons following the timber sale, thus in 

 case of the sale in 1906, used as an illustration, the converting factor might be 

 based on the returns on the timber cut on the limit during the two following 

 logging seasons of 1907 and 1908. If the average log cut on this limit during 

 the two years following the sale should prove to be thirteen inches in diameter 

 it would take 211 cubic feet of logs to give the lumberman his 1,000 feet as 

 scaled by Doyle. Thus we find an exact parity between $12.00 per 1,000 feet 

 as scaled by Doyle rule, and $12.00 for 211 cubic feet as measured by actual 

 volume, and during the years 1907 and 1908 the amount of money paid the 

 Province by the operator on this limit would have been the same whether paid 

 on the basis of $12.00 per 1,000 feet, Doyle rule, or $12.00 for each 211 cubic 

 feet, or in other words, $5.69 per hundred cubic feet. And if in all subsequent 

 years the lumberman operating on this limit had paid his Crown dues on a basis 

 of $5.69 per hundred cubic feet, he and the Province would each be rightfully 

 receiving what they were entitled to under the contract entered into at the 

 time this timber was sold. 



From this example it will be clear that a converting factor that gives equit- 

 able adjustment as between buyer and seller may quickly be worked out for 

 every scale that has been made since the Doyle rule was adopted in 1879, and 

 once determined, this converting factor is valid as long as the contract obtains 



For timber limits disposed of before 1879 it would be equitable to accept the 

 then relation between Doyle rule and its cubic volume equivalent as determined 

 by the cubic volume and scale of the average log cut during, let us say, the 

 five-year period following the adoption of the Doyle rule, namely; 1880 to 1884. 



In its practical application to those old timber limits, a change from the 

 Doyle rule scale to a cubic volume scale as suggested above will increase the 

 amount of Crown dues paid into the Provincial Treasury. It is evident, however, 

 that it is equitable that an owner of these old timber limits should not receive 

 more cubic feet of wood for his unit of Crown dues than he did in 1880 to 1884. 

 A change to cubic volume measurement with an adjustment by a converting 

 factor (obtained as outlined) merely makes a correction for the fact that the 

 Doyle rule requires so much more cubic volume of wood to scale one thousand 

 feet board measure with our present small logs than it did with the larger logs, 

 1880-1884. In other words, under this adjustment the limit owner would again 

 be receiving the identical volume of wood per unit of Crown dues which he re- 

 ceived in the early eighties. The practical effect on the amount paid for logs 

 cut from areas recently sold will be slight; in some cases possible nil. In any 

 event, any change obtaining will be, as has been shown, equally fair to buyer 

 and seller. 



