188 Canadian Forestry Journal. 



granted to the person offering the highest cash bonus. The 

 rentals were increased in 1895 to fifteen cents per acre, and again 

 in 1903 to twenty-five cents per acre, subject, however, to a re- 

 duction to fifteen cents per acre upon the lessee proving that he 

 had a mill appurtenant to his lease, capable of cutting at least 

 1,000 feet per day for each 400 acres included in his lease in actual 

 operation, and cutting that amount at least six months in the year. 

 By the Act of 1888, the Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works 

 was empowered to grant special licenses, valid for one year, to 

 cut timber from Crown lands. The area covered by the license 

 was limited to 1,000 acres, and the fee paid for the license was 

 $50.00. Subsequently the area was reduced to 640 acres, to be 

 taken up in one block with the boundary lines running to t: e 

 cardinal points, and the fees have been increased ■'"oSHO.OO per 

 annum for licenses covering lands west of the Cascades, and 

 $115.00 per annum for licenses east of this range. The Act of 

 1888 also authorized the issuing of Hand Loggers' Licenses — all 

 timber cut under license being subject to the royalty of fifty 

 cents per thousand. The Hand Loggers' license was a personal 

 one, and only gave authority to the person named therein to cut 

 timber as a hand logger. The fee was $10.00 per annum and the 

 logger had the right to cut timber from any Crown lands that 

 were not held as timber limits under lease or license. 



When the present Government assumed ofhce, there were 

 thus three methods by which a person could obtain the right to 

 cut timber from Crown lands, namely, under lease, under special 

 license, and under hand loggers' license. It was deemed advis- 

 able to simplify this state of affairs, and in 1905 the provisions of 

 the Land Act authorizing the granting of timber leases we-e 

 repealed, so that now the right to cut and carry away timber can 

 onlv be granted by way of a license. The lumbermen, how^ever, 

 complained that they were much handicapped in their business 

 and the industry retarded by reason that special licenses were 

 not transferable, and only renewable at the discretion of the 

 Chief Commissioner and not as a matter of right; that such a 

 license gave no stability of title and that capital could not be 

 secured under such conditions. The Government considered 

 their complaints to be well founded, and by the Act of 1905 it 

 was proAnded that licenses then existing should be transferable, 

 and the holders thereof could elect to have their licenses made 

 renewable for sixteen successive years at the same fees per annum 

 as were then paid therefor, namely, $140.00 or $115.00, as the 

 licenses covered lands west or east of the Cascade Mountains. 

 The royalty payable on timber cut under such licenses was in- 

 creased to 60 cents per thousand feet. The same Act provided 

 that all special timber licenses thereafter issued should be trans- 

 ferable and renewable for 21 successive years. This legislation 



