1907 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS, FORESTS AND MINES. 261 



Statutes of Ontario, and any other law conferring rights in mill-dams shall 

 remain the same as if this Act had not been passed. 



8. All persons driving saw logs, or other timber rafts, or crafts, down 

 any such river, creek, or stream, shall have the right to go along the banks 

 of any such river, creek, or stream, and to assist the passage of the timber 

 over the same by all means usual among lumbermen, doing no unnecessary 

 damage to the Ijanks of the said river, creek or stream. 



9. Every person entitled to tolls under this Act may make rules and 

 regulations for the purpose of regulating the safe and orderly transmission 

 of saw-logs, timber, rafts or crafts over or through such constructions or 

 improvements, but no such rules or regulations .shall have any force or effect 

 until approved of by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, and the Lieuten- 

 ant-Governor in Council may revoke and cancel such rules and regulations 

 so made and approved, and from time to time approve of new rules and 

 regulations, which the person so entitled to tolls, as aforesaid, shall have 

 the power to make. 



10. If any suit is now pending the result of which will be changed by 

 the passage of this Act, the court or any judge of such courts, having author- 

 ity over such suit, or over the costs, may order the costs of the suit, or any 

 part thereof, to be paid by the party who would have been required to pay 

 such costs if this Act had not been passed. 



Act Disallowed. 



The Act was disallowed by the Dominion Government which had taken 

 Mr. McLaren's side in the controversy. The Ontario Legislature re-enacted 

 the measure in 1882 and 1883, on each of which occasions the Dominion Gov- 

 ernment repeated its action. Simultaneously with the political struggle 

 a legal conflict between the private contestants was going on in the Courts. 

 When it reached the Privy Council the question was finally settled in favor 

 of Caldwell. This legal victory decided the fate of the Act. When re-en- 

 acted for the fourth time in the year 1884 the Dominion Government yielded 

 and allowed it to become law. 



Slides and Dams. 



Extensive provincial works have from time to time been undertaken in 

 the construction of slides and the removal of obstacles to the floating of 

 timber. The amount of public money expended on slides, etc., on the 

 Ottawa River and its tributary streams up to the 1st of January, 1845, was 

 £24,682. An Act passed in that year made provision for levying tolls in 

 connection with Public Works of this character, in accordance with which 

 a schedule of slidage rates as authorized by the Governor in Council, was 

 published in the Canada Gazette of May 3rd, 1845. The receipts for slidage 

 dues on the Ottawa slides for 1846 were £946. The revenue from this 

 source steadily increased with the growth of the lumber trade, until in 1866 

 the total receipts for slidage dues amounted to |63,483. Since Confedera- 

 tion these dues have formed part of the revenue of the Dominion. 



Timber Slide Companies , 



The amount expended by private enterprise on improvements to 

 facilitate the descent of timber down rivers and streams has considerably 

 exceeded the public expenditure for that purpose. According to a returia 

 made on May 28th, 1853, by A. J. Russell, Surveyor of Crown Timber 

 Licenses at Bytown, to an address of the Legislative Assembly, the 



