1907 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS, FORESTS AND MINES. 229 



lots, and effect purchases of them, subject to conditions of settlement which 

 they have no intention of fulfilling. This, though illegal, can no more be 

 prevented, when parties are determined to infringe the law, than can 

 stealing." 



Setter's Timber to Apply on Purchase. 



The same abuse received a good deal of attention at the hands of the 

 Department during the year 1860, when energetic measures were taken by 

 the Commissioner to abate the evil. Previous regulations for the sale of 

 public land had somewhat contributed to foster the abuse, for while the 

 settler was permitted to cut down and burn any timber in the course of 

 clearing the land, if he sold any of it he became liable to be treated as a 

 trespasser. The evident absurdity of such a regulation, coupled with the 

 difficulty in enforcing it, naturally led to its being set at defiance and 

 encouraged a spirit of lawlessness and antagonism to the authorities, which 

 led to other inroads upon the forests. New regulations were issued under 

 which the settler was allowed to cut and sell the timber growing on the 

 lot purchased by him, provided the value of the timber was applied in pay- 

 ment of the purchase money due the Crown, and that conditions of settle- 

 ment, including the building of a dwelling 16 by 20 feet, the clearance of 

 five out of every hundred acres and actual residence for six months had been 

 fully fulfilled. He was also required to take out a license and pay a fee of 

 |4. In his report for 1860 Hon. Mr. Yankoughnet thus refers to the extent 

 to which plundering of the public domain was still carried on : — 



Trespassers. 



"As a further step towards legitimizing the lumber trade, I have found 

 it necessary to put in force the existing laws of the country against tres- 

 passers in the public forests. Hitherto these forests have been treated in 

 some sections of the Province as if they were public commons where every- 

 body might enter and cut and slash as he pleased. When seasons of par- 

 tial prosperity in the lumber trade arrived, a great rush into the manufac- 

 ture of lumber, and particularly of hewed lumber, generally followed, 

 nearly always resulting in over-production and in over-production too of 

 a badly manufactured article. Instances have come to my knowledge this 

 season of individuals of one section of the trade endeavoring to encourage 

 this over-production by entering into contracts for the delivery next sum- 

 mer of from 75,000 to 100,000 feet of timber, notwithstanding that the party 

 who undertook to furnish it had no timber berth of his own, and relied only 

 on trespassing in the public forest, or in fraudulently obtaining timbered 

 iots out of a lumberer's license to enable him to fulfill his contract. To 

 allow this trespassing to continue would be injurious to the general interests 

 of the trade and of the country ; it would also be unfair towards the licensed 

 lumberman who conforms to the law, and under its protection embarks his 

 capital in making the many improvements necessary to enable him to get 

 his lumber to market with advantage." 



After referring to the antagonism arising between settlers and lumber- 

 men, the latter complaining of the inroads of settlers upon the best timbered 

 lots within their limits, while the settlers advanced as a grievance that 

 lumbered-over lots came into their hands depreciated in value, the report 

 pointed out the obvious remedy against this continued clashing of interests : 



