Woodland Taxation. 



169 



The following table gives the annual "ground rent" pay- 

 ment per square mile for the different provinces and on Dom- 

 inion lands, and the sums to which these annual payments 

 amount for different periods of from 30 to 100 years. In this 

 computation money is reckoned to be worth 6% compounded 

 annually, which is below rather than above the mark for capital 

 invested in immature forests on wild lands. 



Relation of Ground Rents to Conservative Lumbering. 



From this table a lumberman may see at a glance what 

 his tax bill will be when he returns for a second logging on his 

 lands. To make a second logging profitable he must find on his 

 return a stumpage value, over and above the then government 

 stum, page dues, sufficient to offset the two following items before 

 he can reap any return other than interest for his invested money : 



(i 1 The value of the trees which he refrained from cutting 

 at the first logging together with compound interest on this 

 value at, say, 6%. 



(2) The tax bill, which at $5.00 per annum will have 

 amounted to $ 419 at 30 years 

 1,539 at 50 years 

 9,352 at 80 years or 

 30,697 at 100 years. 



Particular attention is directed to the manner in which 

 the tax bill runs up the longer the time between loggings. This 

 is the most significant feature of all taxation where the tax is 

 annual and the return periodic as has already been fully discussed. 



The whole influence of a ground rent is towards early utili- 

 zation and clean cutting with the abandonment of the land after 

 the destruction of the forest. The practical effect of this tendency 

 in any given case will be in proportion to the amount of 

 the tax. In Ontario and Quebec where the rate is $3.00 per 

 square mile over large areas, the injury is least; in British Col- 

 umbia where the small mill owner must pay $160 per square 

 mile, it is greatest. 



