14 



Second, the regulations regarding the sale of timber limits to 

 lumbermen. 



FOREST FIRES. 



No person who has visited the Saguenay District, the Upper 

 Ottawa, the shores of Lake Superior, and the Albany River 

 Country, can be blind to the fact that forest fires have been a 

 source of vast ruin. Many hundreds of square miles have been 

 laid waste by them, and these fires are generally, the result of 

 carelessness or wilful criminality. There are Acts of Parliament 

 in both the Provinces of Quebec (Act of 1870) and Ontario (Act 

 of 1878) laying down regulations for their prevention, and 

 imposing fines for neglect of these regulations ; but forest fires 

 continue, and no one appears to be punished. Lumbermen and 

 others are ready to blame the Indians for carelessness in regard 

 to their camp fires, but are not white men more frequently 

 blameable, and with their greater knowledge and intelligence more 

 criminally culpable ? The statutes, however, are defective. That 

 for Ontario provides that no person shall start any fire on or near 

 a forest, between the first of April and the first of November, 

 except for the purposes of clearing land, cooking, obtaining warmth, 

 or for some industrial purpose, and then in a very indefinite way 

 goes on to require that when clearing land " every reasonable 

 care and precaution" shall be observed. Now, why should it not 

 be made unlawful to start fires in the woods at any time of the year 

 except for such purposes ? and even with the object of clearing 

 land, why should this virtually unrestricted permission be given 

 during the midsummer months, when there is most danger from it 

 and least necessity for it ? The Quebec Statute goes a step 

 farther and forbids the starting of any fire at any time whatever 

 except for the above recited purposes, and in cases of clearing of ' 

 land, makes it unlawful between the ist July and the ist Septem- 

 ber. Now this close period might be very safely extended in both 

 provinces to the period between the isth June and the isth Sep- 

 tember, or even the ist June and ist October, without interfering 

 in the slightest degree with the necessities of the settler, and thus 

 the heated term would be entirely passed. Both Acts provide in- 



