242 REPORT OF THE No. 3 



of consumption now going- on, that is really for the benefit of 

 foreign countries at the expense of Canada, many years will not have elapsed 

 before our own tanneries will be seriously crippled, if not closed altogether, 

 for lack of that which we are now so freely giving away to others, we shall 

 be no longer able to compete successfully with other countries in the manu- 

 facture of leather; and a large portion of our forest land will not only be 

 denuded of that which constitutes its chief value, but will be rendered 

 practically unfit for settlement. Under these circumstances, your committee 

 feel it their duty to press upon the Government the necessity of adopting 

 such measures as may be calculated to check the evil complained of." 



The particular method favored by the Committee for dealing with the 

 matter had been previously indicated in a brief preliminary report pre- 

 sented to the House on the 4th of May, which reads as follows : — 



"Your Committee have made a careful enquiry as to the extent of the 

 Hemlock forests in different parts of the country and the rate at which the 

 consumption of bark is proceeding in connection with the tanneries, etc. 

 They find that a very large proportion of the bark annually taken from the 

 forest is exported to the United States, threatening in a very short time to 

 diminish materially the supply for home consumption. 



Export Duty Recommended. 



"Your Committee, therefore, feel it their duty to urge upon the Govern- 

 ment the expediency of imposing an export duty of one dollar per cord 

 upon Hemlock Bark, with a view of checking the wholesale destruction of 

 our Hemlock forests now going on." 



No action was taken by the Government in the matter. The proposal 

 met with the active opposition of the interests affected and a number of 

 petitions against the imposition of an export duty from those engaged in 

 the industry, and the farmers in the respective neighborhoods where it was 

 carried on were presented, and as no counter agitation re-inforced the Com- 

 mittee's recommendation the subject was dropped. 



Bearing on Present Problems . 



The conditions disclosed by this investigation and the considerations 

 influencing the conclusion reached by the Committee have been presented 

 somewhat more fully than is warranted by the intrinsic importance of the 

 enquiry, on account of their bearing upon similar questions of an inter- 

 national character, affecting the management of our natural resources, 

 which are likely to arise with increasing frequency in the future. The 

 case of the exportation of hemlock bark and extract presents a striking 

 analogy to the question of the shipment of saw logs in an unmanufactured 

 state — and the forcible presentation in the report above quoted of the injury 

 sometimes involved to the permanent and substantial interests of the coun- 

 try by the toleration of a lucrative though temporary and wasteful exploita- 

 tion of raw material to be manufactured abroad, is full of significance in 

 its application to the existing situation. 



UNDER CONFEDERATION. 



The report of Hon. Stephen Richards, the first Commissioner of Crown 

 Lands for Ontario, for the year 1868, contains the following paragraph 

 relating to the Woods and Forests Branch. 



