164 Canadian Forestry Journal. 



money, is that the timl^er must be cut as quickly as possiVjle- 

 No operator can afford to hold it to give the thrifty young timber 

 a chance to come to maturity, and, therefore, the timber market- 

 able at the present time is cut off, the limit is thrown up, and 

 sooner or later the fire gets the timber that has been left standing, 

 which under conservative management, would have been 

 more valuable to the holder and to the Government, than that 

 which has been logged. 



In the first place there should be a regulation that these 

 licences will be renewable from year to year so long as merchant- 

 able timber remains thereon, coupled if necessary, with a regu- 

 lation requiring holders of more than a limited number of licences 

 to manufacture a certain proportion. 



"Then there should be some kind of a graduated scale of 

 rentals. I do not suggest an immediate reduction of the rental, 

 because the Government of the Province must have money — 

 they want it for fire ranging, if for nothing else — but suppose 

 for the first five years, a rental of $125 per square mile were 

 collected, for the next five years, if the holder had erected a mill, 

 and was manufacturing a reasonable amount of lumber, and was 

 holding these licences to give a permanence to his operations, let 

 the rental be fixed at $50 per annum; for the third five years, re- 

 duce the rental to $25, and continue that rate thereafter, so long 

 as timber remains and a sawmill is operated. By this scale each 

 mile of timber would produce $1,000 for the Government in 

 rentals during the first fifteen years, and a revenue of $25 per 

 annum after that period. 



"Lumbermen in the interior, who now contribute much 

 the larger half of the special licence fees of the Province, under 

 some such plan as here outlined, would add to their holdings, 

 the Government would get a greater revenue for the next few 

 years, more timber would be taken up, and once taken up, there 

 would be the owners in addition to the fire rangers we hope to 

 have appointed, to assist in protecting it against fire; a greater 

 permanence would be given to lumbering operations, and better 

 than all else, from a forestry point of view, the millmen or loggers 

 would be able to so plan and carr}^ out their cutting as to con- 

 serve the forest resources of the country — young growing timber 

 would become a valuable asset to the country instead of being 

 neglected and allowed to be destroyed. 



"This suggestion is recommended to the attention of this 

 Convention, and if, after discussion, the principle of it is approv- 

 ed, as I hope it will be, no doubt the Government will strongly re- 

 commend it to the attention of the Provincial Government. 



"Personally, I look for many good results to the forestry 

 interests of this Province from this Convention. The discussions 



