190 REPORT OF THE No. 3 



the concurrence of the Legislative Council. Tlie following year, however, 

 the subject was brought before a Joint Committee of the two Houses, and a 

 bill to appropriate the casual and territorial revenues passed in both 

 branches of the Legislature. The royal assent to the measure was, However, 

 refused, but it was intimated that the objections entertained to it were such 

 as could easily be removed. 



Meanwhile the greater question of the union of the Provinces began to 

 engross public attention. In> the discussion of the subject the surrender 

 of the casual and territorial revenues in return for the granting of an ade- 

 quate civil list was one of the points insisted on by the Upper Canada Assem- 

 bly. The Act of Union adopted by the British Parliament in- 1840 in con- 

 ferring responsible government upon the people of Canada, placed in the 

 control of the Legislature all territorial and other revenues at the disposal 

 of the Crown, subject to certain charges, the principal of which was the civil 

 list for the payment of the salaries of the Governor, Judges ancl other 

 officials amounting to £75,000. 



UNDER THE UNION. 



The system of disposing of licenses to cut timber on the Crown domain, 

 which, as has been shown, was managed with great laxity, under the Gov- 

 ei'nment of Upper Canada^ yielding a mere fraction of the sum which it 

 might have contributed to the revenue under proper regulations, engaged 

 the attention of the administration of the United Provinces at an early 

 date. On the 30th of March, 1842, instructions as to the granting of licens^ 

 were issued by the Hon. John Davidson, Commissioner of Crown Lands, to 

 James Stevenson, Collector at By town, as Ottawa was then named, with 

 the object of ensuring greater strictness and introducing the principle of 

 competition among lumbermen. The following are some of the more 

 important rules laid down : 



"The Licenses to be granted during the present year are to contain 

 the same conditions as heretofore, as it respects the prices for the timber, 

 the terms of payment, and the manner in which the timber is to be 

 measured. 



"All Licenses are to be granted for a fixed period from the date of 

 License, after which the right of any person over the limit which it 

 describes is to cease and determine : 



To Irvduce Competition. 



"When application is made by an individual, other than the party who 

 occupied the limit djiring the preceding year, and where there is no reason 

 or order to withhold a renewal of license in favor of the person who 

 occupied it during the preceding year, such application shall be suspended 

 until the first of August, unless the person who had the license the preceU- 

 ing year shall, in the meantime, come forward and request a renewal; then 

 it shall be at your discretion either to dismiss the first application, or 

 within ten days after the application of the person who worked the limit, 

 offer it at public sale and adjudge it to the highest bidder (the party who 

 held the license the preceding year being entitled to bid first at the upset 

 price), with the condition that the party to whom the limit may be adjudged 

 shall pay the auctioneer's fees, deposit one-fourth of the purchase money, 

 and give sufficient security for the remaining three-fourths before four 

 o'clock of the day of the sale ; and in the event of his failing to do so, the 

 limit to be assigned to the next highest bidder who can comply with the con- 

 ditions of sale. 



