254 REPORT OF THE No. 3 



SETTLER'S EIGHTS TO PINE TIMBER. 



LuTnhering and Settlement. — The Land Act of 1841. 



One inevitable consequence of the failure to discriminate between 

 agricultural and non-cultivable lands in tbe past, has been the frequent 

 clashing of interests between the settler and the lumberman. The former 

 having taken up land in a district covered by timber license found that 

 after he had acquired full ownership in all other respects, the pine growing 

 nn his lot could be cut and carried away by the lumberman at his pleasure. 

 The latter on his part complained that the value of his limit was continually 

 being impaired by the inroads of settlers, who took advantage of the con- 

 ditions of the land-granting system to obtain title of occupancy to lots with 

 the object of clearing the land of its timber. In the earlier days of settle- 

 ment the difficulties arising from this source were not serious, the incom- 

 ing agricultural population naturally sought the most fertile and accessible 

 areas, the operations of the lumbermen being largely confined to a region 

 loo distant and sterile to attract those in search of homesteads. Under the 

 system then prevailing the lumberman explored the country until he found 

 a heavily timbered area and then applied for a license, which he usually 

 got on terms which involved a very trifling return to the public in propor- 

 tion to the value of the privileges granted. When the Government began 

 t(i realize the worth of the timber resources of this country, and to endeavor 

 (o secure for the public treasury a larger share of their value, they adopted 

 a policy of as far as possible disposing of the pine before throwing the land 

 open for settlement, and in laying out timber limits, included large tracts 

 of agricultural land with the non-cultivable districts which formed the 

 principal pine-producing area. Moreover, the operations of the lumber- 

 men, continued for a series of years, tended of themselves to attract settle- 

 ment in and around the pine woods. The men employed in the lumber 

 camps often squatted in the neighborhood, made small clearings and raised 

 a little produce during the summer, looking to employment in the shanties 

 in the winter time as their main source of subsistence. Thus small settle- 

 ments grew up, and as population throughout the Province increased and 

 it became necessary for those seeking homes to look farther afield, the demands 

 of those engaged in the lumber trade and the opening up of the country 

 through their operations attracted many to the debateable ground. Some 

 who took up land in the lumbering region no doubt had an eye to the value 

 of the timber on their locations as affording the means of eking out a 

 livelihood during their first years of occupancy, while in other cases the 

 conditions of settlement were abused by those who merely wished to acquire 

 a colorable title in order to strip the land of its timber without intending 

 to establish themselves permanently as settlers. A survey of the legislation 

 respecting the disposal of public land shows that it was many years after 

 the union of the Provinces before the difficulties arising out of the con- 

 flicting interests of lumbermen and settlers became sufficiently pronounced 

 to render it necessary to define their respective rights by legal enactment. 

 "An Act for the Disposal of Public Lands" passed immediately after the 

 union in 1841 prohibited the abuses which had prevailed to so grave an 

 extent before the era of Responsible Government, in the indiscriminate 

 granting of large tracts of land under various pretexts, by limiting free 

 grants of land to fifty acres to be made only to actual settlers. Neither in 

 this Act nor in an amending enactment passed in 1849 to remove doubts as 

 to wh,"ether under the provisions of the former measure the Crown had 

 power to release escheats and otherwise modify the law is there any mention 



