280 ■_ REPORT OF THE No. 3 



tive and a very convenient converting factor. The 115-cubic-foot converting 

 factor now in use is from 15 per cent, to 25 per cent, above actual wood volume. 



(5) Re Method of Selling Timber. 



Prior to 1906 sales of timber limits were conducted on the basis of inviting 

 bids for a lump sum, known as a "bonus" which was to be paid in cash at the 

 time of the sale, this bonus being the sum which the purchaser was willing to pay 

 over and above the regular Crown dues, which in all cases are paid as the timber 

 is cut. 



Since 1906, the bids have been invited on a per 1,000 foot basis; the amount 

 bid to be paid together with the Crown dues as and when the timber is cut. 

 The payment of the entire purchase price as and when the timber is cut has 

 many advantages over the former system. Perhaps the greatest advantage is 

 the better prices which are realized under this plan of sale. The fact that higher 

 prices may be realized, is due, in part, to the fact that a much larger number of 

 lumbermen can compete at a sale where the timber is to be paid for as cut, as 

 purchases under this plan are much more easily financed. It also implies a 

 much less expensive examination of the tract by the prospective purchasers in 

 advance of the sale, in as much as this examination would confine itself chiefly 

 to the quality of the timber and the cost of logging, a knowledge of the approxi- 

 mate amount of the timber being sufficient when the payment is to be made on a 

 measured basis as the timber is cut. 



It has been urged by some that the former system of a lump sum "bonus" 

 was desirable from a standpoint of immediately interesting the lumbermen in a 

 larger financial way in the tract, and thus enlisting his very especial interest in 

 protecting it from fire; also that the comparatively small payment for the timber 

 as it was cut presented but little temptation to improperly influence the culler 

 in the measurement of the logs. As regards honest measurement, it may be 

 admitted that in lessening the amount that a thief can get, one somewhat de- 

 creased the risk of theft. The thing to do, however, in the measurement of 

 wood sold by the Province is to make it impossible for anyone to steal it and get 

 away with it. The improvements suggested in this report in conjunction with 

 what the Department has already done during the past year, as noted above, 

 will, I am sure, speedily end any such practice. It is, of course, true that the 

 larger the financial interest of the owner, the greater is his interest in preventing 

 fire. Efficient fire protection can, however, best be developed by provincial 

 organization. There are many reasons for this. Sufficient here to say that the 

 safety of any particular tract is in a very large measure assured by work done 

 far beyond its boundaries. In any event the added interest of the lumbermen 

 owner in protecting from fire a limit purchased on the lump-sum-bonus plan is 

 not a value that has been created by the method of sale. The fire hazard, which 

 the lumberman necessarily assumes under these circumstances, is a factor which 

 he as a business man must have discounted for at the time he made his bid to 

 purchase the tract. 



(6) Re Selling Small Quantities of Timber. 



The Shevlin-Clarke case has clearly shown that large timber sales made in 

 recent years without public competition were not legally so made. It would 

 appear that there is not any essential legal difference between the lack of auth- 

 ority for the selling of these larger tracts and the apparent lack of authority for 

 the granting of permits to cut small quantities of timber, cordwood, ties, etc. 



