1907 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS, FORESTS AND MINES. 191 



By Public Sale. 



"If two or more applications be received on tLe same day for a limit 

 not worked upon the preceding year, or not worked upon accordinp: to the 

 true spirit and meaning of the license granted, the limit shall be offered at 

 public sale within ten days after the applications are received, on the con- 

 ditions stated in the previous paragraph as to auction fees, deposit and 

 security. 



"When sufficient information is laid before you to assume that the 

 terms and conditions of the license, granted for a particular limit, have 

 not been strictly complied with, or that the party is charged with having 

 trespassed on the limits of others, it is at your discretion to refuse, to the 

 party complained of, license to cut timber; but, at the request and expense 

 of the party, you may name a D.P.S. to examine into the complaint, and 

 if his report shall rebut the charge, the License may be renewed or one 

 issued for some other limit. 



Amount to he Cut. 



"The quantity of timber to be inserted in the License, and which the 

 parties bind themselves to take out, is to be estimated at 5,000 feet for every 

 mile in length, and no greater extent of limit than 10 miles is to be licensed 

 to any individual on any one place." 



Wilful trespass by license holders upon Crown property not included 

 within their limits was declared to be punishable by the cancellation of the 

 License and the seizure of the timber so cut. District agents in surveyed 

 townships were charged with the duty of protecting from trespass the 

 Crown property within their agencies, the Bytown collector being instructed 

 to furnish them with every assistance to prosecute trespassers. 



The provisions above quoted for the disposal of licenses, in certain 

 cases, by sale to the highest bidder, seem to be the earliest practical recog- 

 nition of the advantages of the auction system, afterwards extended from 

 time to time, and finally adopted altogether with such satisfactory results 

 both to the lumber trade and the public interest, securing to the Treasury 

 the full value of lumbering privileges, while affording exact and even- 

 handed justice to all applicants. 



The receipts of the old Province of Upper Canada for timber sales for 

 the year 1839 were £8,244, and for the period commencing January 1st, 

 1840, and ending 9th February, 1841, £18,8Sl, a difference probably due 

 to irregularity in the methods of collection rather than fluctuations in the 

 trade. 



The timber receipts for Canada under the new regime were £37,572 in 

 1842, £46,301 in 1843, and £28,828 in 1844. 



While, as has been shown, the British statesmen who in the early days 

 of the colony directed, or rather endeavored to direct, the course of the 

 Colonial Executive, fully realized the importance of maintaining timber 

 reserves, there is little in the proceedings of the rulers of Canada under the 

 system of responsible government to show that they appreciated, to any 

 extent, the desirability of preserving the forests as a source of future supply. 

 Such, in fact, was the general prevalence of the idea that the timber 

 resources of the country were practically inexhaustible, coupled with ignor- 

 ance as to the possibility of at the same time realizing a periodical crop 

 and preserving the productiveness of the area from which is was taken unim- 

 paired; that even had more enlightened views been held by those charged 

 with the administration of affairs, Ihey would .have mot with popular oppo^i- 



