1906 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



501 



SALE E PUBLIC AUCTION. 



The prinaie of valuing stumpage 

 for sale piloses by offering it at 

 public auctio has long found favor in 

 the older p:?inces, and I note that 

 British Coluibia has recently taken 

 legislation roviding for its adoption. 

 There can b mo doubt that public auc- 

 tion after amle advertisement and op- 

 portunity ic inspection is by far the 

 simplest, mst equitable and, above 

 all, the most itisfactory method of de- 

 termining th market value of standing 

 timber. 



This sale jz public auction may take 

 either one : two forms: (i) The 

 stumpage das (i. e., the price to be 

 paid per thosand feet when the tim- 

 ber is cut) ray be fixed in advance of 

 the sale, an bids may be asked for a 

 lump sum r "bonus," which will rep- 

 resent the stimatcd value of the 

 stumpage oer and above the fixed 

 stumpage aes, or (2) bids may be 

 asked on th amount of stumpage dues 

 to be paii >er thousand feet board 

 measure wen the timber is cut. 



THE BOX'S SYSTEM OF AUCTION. 



The fir.- nethod, which may for 

 short be tened the bonus system, has 

 found genc.il acceptance almost to the 

 exclusion c the second. The advant- 

 ages claim 2 for it are : 



(1) The it yields at once a large 

 revenue * le provincial treasury ; 

 and 



(2) The it gives the purchaser of 

 the stumpae a larger interest in pro- 

 tecting the orest from fire. 



ADVAKE PAYMENT OF FOREST 

 REVENUE. 

 The payient in advance in the form 

 of a bonr of a portion of the esti- 

 mated vaie of the stumpage to be 

 cut durin a period of years is in 

 reality a iscounting of the future 

 revenue-prducing capacity of the for- 

 est. This lethod of realizing a large 

 present rtairn from what is a per- 

 manent pDvincial asset capable of 

 yielding aegular annual income can, 

 it seems t me, be justified only as a 

 means of leeting a financial emer- 



gency of the gravest character. It is 

 worthy of remark in this connection 

 that even the stress of war has never 

 led the forest-owning countries of Eu- 

 rope to resort to this method of tem- 

 porary relief for their depleted treas- 

 uries. 



FIRE PROTECTION. 



It is evident that the payment in ad- 

 vance of a portion of the value of the 

 timber must give the lumberman a 

 larger interest in the protection of the 

 timber purchased from fire. The ad- 

 vantage to the forest of the interest 

 thus created is, however, more ap- 

 parent than real. The interest created 

 centers naturally in the protection of 

 such timber as is avaiable for the ax 

 under the terms of his purchase. The 

 greatest danger from fire is not, how- 

 ever, on areas bearing mature or semi- 

 mature timber, but on cut-over lands 

 and such as bear quite young conifer- 

 ous stands. It is evident that the mo- 

 tive for protecting an area from fire, 

 created by an advance payment of 

 stumpage, disappears as soon as an 

 operator removes all the timber in 

 which he has a financial interest. It 

 might be added that it is a mistake to 

 suppose that in determining the 

 amount of "bonus" which he is pre- 

 pared to bid on a proposition, the lum- 

 berman or pulp manufacturer does not 

 discount for the danger of subsequent 

 loss by fire and the expense involved 

 in future fire ranging. 



It will bear emphasis in this connec- 

 tion that a province's ultimate financial 

 interest in young coniferous stands 

 and cut-over lands may be quite as 

 great as in areas at present bearing 

 mature timber; and also that any di- 

 vision of interest or responsibility in 

 so vital a matter as forest fire protec- 

 tion is attended with the gravest 

 dangers. 



DISADVANTAGES OF THE BONUS SYSTEM. 



The disadvantages of the bonus sys- 

 tem may be discussed (1) from the 

 standpoint of the operator and (2) 

 from that of the province. 



1. From the operator's standpoint: 

 ( 1 ) Capital Tied Up The payment 



