1907 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS, FORESTS AND MINES. 155 



Strict Regulations. 



"And whereas, it has been further represented to us that a great part of 

 the country in the neighborhood of Lake Champ] ain, and between Lake 

 Champlain and the Eiver St. Lawrence abounds with woods, producing trees 

 fit for masting for our Royal Navy and other useful and necessary timber 

 for our navy constructions; you are therefore expressly directed and 

 required to cause such parts of the said country, or any other within your 

 government that shall appear on survey to abound with such trees and 

 shall be convenient for water carriage, to be reserved to us and to use your 

 utmost endeavor to prevent any waste being committed upon the said tracts 

 by punishing in due course of law any persons who shall cut down or destroy 

 any trees growing thereon, and you are to consider and advise with our 

 council whether some regulation that shall prevent any sawmills whatever 

 from being erected within your government without a license from you 

 or the Commander-in-Chief of our said province for the time being, may 

 not be a means of preventing all waste and destruction in such tracts of land 

 as shall be reserved to us for the purposes aforesaid," 



It is to be regretted that these instructions as regards the maintenance 

 of the timber reserves were not carried into effect, the new rulers no doubt 

 finding many matters of a more urgent character on their hands, and pos- 

 sibly concluding as observation revealed the vastness of the supply, that 

 solicitude for the future was superfluous. Had the far-sighted policy out- 

 lined by the British Government been followed, and a timber reserve main- 

 tained in each township in addition to such extensive reservations of pine- 

 growing lands as are indicated in this document, with the adoption of pre- 

 cautionary measures against waste and destruction, the agricultural fertil- 

 ity of large overcleared tracts now suffering from srreatly diminished pro- 

 ductivpnpsq would have been retain<^d, and extensive areas now rendered 

 unproductive by being denuded of their timber, would still contribute to 

 our national prosperity. 



Pine Lands Reserved 



Twelve years afterward in 1775 the same views were still entertained 

 by the British authorities. Again, the setting apart of pine-bearing lands 

 was enjoined, Guy Carleton, "Captain General and Governor-in-Chief of 

 the Province of Quebec and all territories dependent thereon," receiving 

 among other instructions, the following in relation to pine bearing lands. 



"It is our will and pleasure, however, that no grant be made of any 

 lands on which there is any considerable growth of white pines fit for mast- 

 ing for our Royal Navy, and which lie convenient for water carriage, but 

 that vou do cause all such lands to be set apart for our use, and proper 

 Regulations made, and Penalties inflicted to prevent trespasses on such 

 tracts, and the cutting down and destroying the trees growing thereon." 



The Rules and Regulations for the conduct of the Land Office Depart- 

 ment, issued in Quebec under date of February 17th, 1789, were based upon 

 the same principle of preserving in the hands of the Crown, any tracts of 

 land of a specially valuable character either by reason of their location or 

 their natural products, and confining the grants made to individuals to 

 ordinary agricultural lands. The following is the text of the regulations 

 dealing with the subject: — 



