148 



Canadian Forestry Journal. 



nient is nil as yet, and but little develop- 

 ment would return them their few 

 dollars. The man whom it would hit 

 inost is the speculator in limits, the 

 man who is allowed by the present 

 systein to gamble with millions of the 

 people's property without paying for 

 it. He would have to settle down to 

 business in keeping with the spirit and 

 intent of the license law and make his 

 money (and it would be good money, 

 too) in a way slower than gambling. 



That this change would lead to an 

 immediate "slaughter" of the forest 

 is not necessarily true at all. The 

 people, in their government, have ample 

 power to prevent this by raising the 

 stumpage or by direct" prohibition of 

 wasteful and destructive cutting. 



The claims that the lumber industry 

 would receive a serious backset, that 

 "development" is stopped, that roads, 

 towns, etc., etc., would not be built, 

 may be true in part. But it will be a 

 very small part only. These "nugget 

 hunters" did not come until prices 

 warranted their coming. The men who 

 will build mills and do business will 

 come whenever there is money in the 

 lumber business. This will depend on 

 prices of the large markets, which in 

 turn are in no wise affected bv the 

 license and its character. 



Give the real lumberman his timber, 

 all he wants of it, and at a price where 

 he can make money, but prohibit all 

 future gambling through the transfer- 

 able license. 



The transferable license is class legis- 

 lation and has worked in favor of few 

 and against the many. The small 

 logger is crowded out, monopoly has 

 taken -his place. The transferable li- 

 cense has led to "stampede," "nugget 

 hunting" location, to a premature boom- 

 claim business with all its gamble and 

 mischief. The transferable licen.se has 

 given to aliens as well as citizens the 

 property of the people by the inillions 

 of dollars. 



The transferable license has per\'erted 

 the license system, and has worked in 

 the direction of complete alienation of 

 forest property. The license is a permit 

 and the transfer power has made the 

 permit into a deed. 



The transferable license, like the un- 

 wise and premature selling of timber 

 lands in the United States, has been 



largely responsible for much of the 

 forest destruction, the robbing of our 

 children and the devastation of our 

 land. It will do the same for British 

 Columbia that it has done for Ontario. 



The transferable license has compli- 

 cated the license to a point where not 

 only the ownership of the forest but 

 even the proper regulation of the busi- 

 ness of the forest is largely prevented. 



It has tied the hands of the people 

 and prevents thein from asserting their 

 moral duty. 



The transferable license is at the root 

 of all evil in the disposition and the 

 inanagement of the Canadian forest. 

 It should go. 



Dr. Clark's Opinions. 

 Dr. J. F. Clark, formerly Provincial 

 Forester for Ontario, has, since entering 

 the lumber industry in British Columbia, 

 taken a position of proininence and his 

 opinion, coming from one who is a 

 trained forester and is likewise familiar 

 with business conditions in the province, 

 carries considerable weight. Part of his 

 evidence before the Forestry Commis- 

 sion is as follows: — 



The Tenure of Licenses. 



The limited tenure feature of timber 

 licenses is, in view of the large amount 

 of timber to be sold, a direct and most 

 powerful incentive to wasteful logging 

 and also utterly prohibitive of any 

 forestry practices on the part of loggers. 

 Twenty-one years is too short a time 

 for a logger who is looking to the future 

 to plan for future crops of trees, and 

 hence that term prohibits forestry 

 measures so far as he is concerned. So 

 far as the logger who cares nothing for 

 the future of the forest is concerned, he 

 could have no objections to a limited 

 tenure, provided there was a harmoni- 

 ous relation between the timber to be 

 cut, the markets available and the time 

 allowed in which to cut it. When the 

 tenure was fixed at twenty-one years 

 there were but a few hundred sections 

 under license and future development 

 in this line were not and could not have 

 been foreseen. 



A failure to bring the tiine liinit on 

 licensed timber into hannony with the 

 amount of timber so licensed wouW^in- 

 evitably result in the embarrassment of 

 all logging and lumber manufacturing 

 enterprises by forcing a chronic Ftate of 



