1907 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS, FORESTS AND MINES. 178 



tions be inserted — that is to say — "And provided also that no part of the 

 'parcel or tract of land hereby granted to the said and his 



heirs, be within any reservation heretofore made and marked out for Us, 

 Our heirs and successors by Our Surveyor General of Woods, or his lawful 

 deputy, in which case this Our grant for such part of land hereby given and 

 granted to the said and his heirs forever as aforesaid, and which 



shall, upon a survey thereof being made, be found within any such reserva- 

 tion, shall be null and void and of none efi'ect, anything herein contained to, 

 the contrary notwithstanding." 



PEOVINCIAL EEYENUE FEOM FORESTS. 



The earliest step towards making the forest resources of the Province a 

 source of revenue and so securing to the public a share of the wealth drawn 

 from the public domain was taken in 1826. Previous to this date, as has 

 already been mentioned, the only persons authorized to cut timber on the 

 public lands were the contractors for the Royal Navy, or those holding 

 licenses from them. It is hardly surprising that this monopoly, from which 

 the people derived no benefit, was continually infringed upon by unlicensed 

 lumbermen, who pursued a very active and profitable illicit trade, despite 

 all attempts of the officials to suppress it. The manifest unfairness of the 

 system, b^th to the general public and to the persons desiring to engage in 

 lumbering, but debarred from doing bo in a legitimate manner, led to the 

 termination of the contractors' monopoly, and the inauguration of a system 

 under which any one was at liberty to cut timber on the ungranted lands of 

 the Ottawa lumber region, on 'payment of a fixed scale of rates to the Crown. 

 The following Proclamation, issued by Sir Peregrine Maitland, Lieutenant- 

 Governor of Upper Canada, announced this important change: — 



Upplk Canada. 

 P. Maitland, 



Lieutenant-Governor. 



George the Fourth by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom ol 



Great Britain and Ireland, King, Defencler of the Faitli. 



To all to whom these presents shall come Greeting : 



Whereas for the more effectually preventing the recurrence of sucn 

 abuses as have heretofore prevailed in the prosecution of the trade in tim- 

 ber in the parts of this Province, bordering on the River Ottawa, and to 

 the end that the public interest may be more certainly advanced, the com- 

 merce in that important article of exportation the better regulated, and more 

 equal justice observed with regard to all our subjects desirous of participat- 

 ing in the said trade; 



We have thought fit to order and direct that, until our pleasure herein 

 be further made known it shall and may be lawful for all our subjects 

 inhabiting our Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, freely to enter into 

 our woods and forests in such parts of our said Province of Upper Canada, 

 situated along the banks of the River Ottawa, or upon the banks of the 

 waters running into the said river, and a convenient distance from the same, 

 as shall not have been surveyed and divided into concessions aiid lots, and 

 to cut and carry away such oak and pine timber as may be fit for the''purpose 

 of exportation. 



