182 REPORT OF THE No. 3 



Q. **Do you imagine any land has been purchased with this inten- 

 tion?" 



A. "I could not say that no land has been purchased with this view, 

 but no sales have been made in surveyed townships. I cannot bring myself 

 to believe that they have been made to any great extent." 



Q. "Have you not reason to suppose that the large purchase of 90,000 

 acres to which you have referred in Gaspe, was made with this view?" 



A. "It was avowedly so, I was myself informed so by the purchasers."- 



Q. "What was the price at which this land was sold? 



A. "Varying from Is. 8d. to 4s. per acre." 



James Hastings Kerr, a land agent, gave very explicit evidence as to 

 prevalence of the practice of buying land solely for lumbering purposes. 

 Some of the more striking portions of his testimony are here reproduced. 



Q. "Have you had an opportunity of acquiring information as to the 

 disposal of timber in the Province (Lower Canada) by the Crown?" 



A. "I have." 



Q. "Does the system appear to you to be a good one?" 



A Bad System. 



A. "It does not. It does not yield that revenue to the Crown which it 

 ought in fairness to do, and which I believe might without injury to the 

 dealer in timber be easily derived from it. The practice within these three 

 years has been for the Crown to dispose of licenses to cut timber at public 

 sale by tender and overbid. The upset prices on timber are determined by 

 the Governor, upon the recommendation of the Commissioner of Crown 

 Lands, and were until last year as follows: — White pine square timber, 

 ^d. per foot; red pine. Id. per foot; white pine logs of 12 ft., for deals, 4d. 

 each; spruce pine logs of 12 ft. for deals, 2d. each; red pine logs, 7|d. 

 each. At the sales of last year the price of white pine logs was increased to 

 6d. and^ spruce to 2|d. This price is eveji now much less than the Govern- 

 ment might fairly ask not only in proportion to the selling price of that tim- 

 ber in England, but also to its value in the Northern Continent of America. 

 At a very early period it is certain that there must be a great demand in the 

 United States for Canadian pine and spruce timber." 



Q. "But thrf prices you have named are only the upset prices for the 

 tender?" 



A. "I know of no case where an overbid was made upon the tender, 

 except in one instance, and that was only by mistake." 



Q. "Then in point of fact there is no competition at the sale?" 



No Competition for Timber Limits. 



A. "None. There is a perfect understanding among the buyers that 

 none of them shall bid more than the upset price." 



Q, "So that in reality the prices called upset prices are fixed prices?" 

 ' A. "They are." 



Q. "And are in your opinion too low, having reference to the value 

 of the timber in the markets, of Canada, Britain and the United States?" 



A. "Decidedly so." 



Q. "You believe that there will occur soon in the United States a great 

 demand for Canada timber; upon what grounds do you form that opinion?" 



