1907 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS, FORESTS AND MINES. 177 



plainly their interest to advance as little money as possible on taking tlie 

 license out, tlie quantity cut greatly exceeded that for which the licenses 

 were given. 



"This was productive of no actual loss to the Government as the whole 

 of the timber was paid for at Quebec. 



"When the timber arrived at Quebec, Mr. Charles Shireff was in the 

 habit of proceeding thither to collect the Crown dues, and upon his own 

 authority, introduced a system of taking mercantile bills in lieu of the 

 bonds originally given. 



"The purchasers of the timber being generally wealthy merchants, the 

 personal security for the payment of the duties was increased rather than 

 diminished by substitution of the security of the Lower Canada merchants 

 for that of the lumbermen, and although strictly speaking money ought to 

 have been insisted upon, I am not aware of any very material loss which 

 has occurred from the system of taking bills, at the same time it must have 

 been a great convenience to the merchants not to be called upon for money 

 until they had an opportunity of shipping the timber and drawing on London 

 against the proceeds." 



Lax Methods 



The outcome of the system was unfortunate and entailed a consider- 

 able loss to the Province. The Shireifs, being left to manage the collection 

 of dues practically in their own way without any regular or efl&cient Gov- 

 ernment supervision, in the year 1831 appointed Jones, Murray & Co., 

 Quebec, a branch of the Montreal house of Horatio Gates & Co., reputed to 

 be the most wealthy merchants in Canada, as their agents to make collec- 

 tions. By the failure of these firms after they had been some years acting 

 in this capacity, and other irregularities arising from the business com- 

 plications in which the Shireffs were involved, a shortage of several thousand 

 pounds in the ret\irns of money collected for timber dues was occasioned. 



The laxity of administration which rendered such a condition of 

 affairs possible in the management of the Woods and Forests Department 

 was typical of the entire executive system of the period. The abuses of 

 the Government were specially noticeable in connection with the disposal 

 of the Crown domain. 



In defiance of both the letter and the spirit of the official instructions 

 repeatedly issued by .the Home Government and of all sound principles of 

 national economy, a system of reckless, and profuse alienation- of the public 

 resources had come into vogue, which seriously retarded the settlement and 

 development of the country, discouraged productive enterprise, and by the 

 impoverishment and discontent which resulted, contributed much to swell 

 the volume of popular disaffection towards the local governing class, which 

 culminated in the Rebellion of 1837. The exhaustive investigation made 

 by Lord Durham into the causes which led to that ill-fated outbreak, fully 

 exposed the extent of the mis-government and corruption which had pre- 

 vailed for many years, and the prodigal manner in which the natural 

 resources of both Provinces had been wasted by the officials entrusted with 

 their management. The abuses obtaining in connection with the disposal 

 of public lands have so intimate a relation to the question of lumbering 

 regulations and the general conditions of the lumber industry during the 

 ante-Rebellion era, that many of the facts detailed in the evidence appended 

 to Lord Durham's celebrated report, as well as some of the conclusions 

 embodied in that epoch-making document, are directly pertinent to the 

 matter in hand. 



