258 REPORT OF THE No. 3 



licensee to use all such watercourses contiguous to his property, whether 

 originally adapted for floating timber or capable of being made so by the 

 construction of slides, the removal of obstacles to navigation or other 

 improvements, is in fact essential to the utilization of the timber growing 

 on the higher and more remote areas, and its refusal would render lumber- 

 ing over a large proportion of the public Domain an unprofitable pursuit. 



Caldwell vs. McLaren. 



In the year 1881 a question of vital interest to the lumber trade was 

 raised in connection with the right of one lumberman to use floatable streams 

 which had been improved by another, who regarded them as his private 

 property. Peter McLaren, who had made improvements on two streams, 

 tributaries of the Mississippi river in Lanark county, refused to permit 

 W. C. Caldwell, another lumberman, to run his logs over the improvements. 

 The matter came before the courts and streams were held to be private pro- 

 perty. As no fewer than 234 streams in the Province were in the same cate- 

 gory, this decision, if allowed to stand, would have had a paralyzing effect 

 upon the lumber trade, as the berths upon the upper waters of these streams 

 could at any time be cut off from access to navigable waters at the will of 

 the riparian owners below them. In the public interest, the Ontario Legis- 

 lature, at the session of 1881, passed an Act settling the question, by giving 

 every one the right to float logs and timber down rivers, streams and creeks, 

 but providing for the payment of reasonable tolls for the use of improve- 

 ments. Before giving the text of this notable and fiercely contested measure, 

 which for some years constituted one of the principal issues in Ontario 

 politics, it may be well to glance at previous legislation on the same subject. 



The earliest Act dealing with the floating of lumber on streams is "an 

 act to provide for the construction of aprons to mill dams over certain 

 streams in this Province," passed in 1828, After reciting that ''whereas 

 it is expedient and found necessary to afford facility to the inhabitants of 

 this Province engaged in the lumber trade, in conveying their rafts to 

 market as well as for the ascent of fish in various streams now obstructed by 

 mill dams, for the accommodation of those residing at a distance from the 

 mouths thereof," it enacts as follows: 



"That from and after the first day of May in the year of our Lord, one 

 thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, every owner or occupier or owners 

 or occupiers of any mill dam which is, or may be legally erected, or where 

 timber is usually brought down the stream on which such mill dam is 

 erected, or where salmon or pickerel abound therein in this Province, who 

 shall neglect to construct or erect a good and sufficient apron to his or their 

 dam as hereinafter set forth, shall for such offence, yearly and every year, 

 forfeit and pay the sum of twenty-five pounds of current money of this 

 Province, one moiety thereof to His Majesty, his heirs and successors for the 

 public uses of the said Province, and the support of the Government thereof, 

 and the other moiety of the said sum to any person who shall sue for the 

 Fame in any of His Majesty's courts of record within this Province. 



Improvements to Darns. 



"And be 'it further enaic'ted by the authority aforesaid — that every 

 such apron shall be erected and constructed in the following manner, that 

 is to say : such apron shall not be less than eighteen feet wide, by an inclined 

 plane of twenty-foiHr feet eight inches, to a perpendicular of six feet, and 



