Canadian Forcslri/ Journal, XIarch. 1918 



1593 



British Columbia Forest Facts 



By the Editor of '' Industrial Progress" 



1. Commercial Forest Area — over 

 (35,000,000 acres, or about one-fifth 

 the total of Canada. 



2. Stand of saw-timber — over 400,- 

 000,000,000 feet B.M., or about more 

 than half the total amount oi Canada. 



3. The annual growth is about 

 6,000,000,000 feet B. M., or about 

 one-sixth the total annual cut of the 

 United States. 



Who Owns It 



1. Commercial Forest Area — the 

 public owns five-sixths of it outright: 

 nine-tenths of the other sixth it owns 

 in partnership with timber lease and 

 license holders. 



2. Stand of Saw-timber. — The pub- 

 lic owns one-half oi it outright; four- 

 fifths of the other half in partnership 

 with timber lease and license holders. 



3. The public has an equity in 

 nearly every foot of timber in the 

 Province. For every thousand feet of 

 timber cut and sold (except from land 



Crown-granted before 18(S7) a royalty 

 of 50 cents or upward must be paid 

 to the public treasury. 



What it Brings 



1. Yet the annua! direct revenue to 

 the Public Treasurv from the forests 

 is §2,500,000. It IS one-quarter the 

 total public revenue. It helps build 

 roads and schools. It keeps the taxes 

 down. 



2. The wood-using industries now 

 distribute. $30,000, 000 per year in the 

 Province. Over 80 per cent, of that 

 is spent for labour and supplies. They 

 contain over half the capital invested 

 in the Province; they employ over 

 half the labour; they pay over half 

 the wages. 



3. Utilization of the total annual 

 growth would bring in and distribute 

 $150,000,000 yearly in the Province. 

 Utilization of the total stand would 

 bring in and distribute over $5,000,- 

 000,000 altogether. 



'Tatronage" Makes Farewell Bow 



The war on patronage in appoint- 

 ments to the public forest services has 

 gained a signal victory during the past 

 six weeks. Definite orders have been 

 given by the Dominion Government 

 that in future no appointments to the 

 Dominion Forestry Branch, which 

 has charge of forest protection in the 

 three prairie provinces and part of 

 British Columbia, shall be made by 

 any authority other than the Board 

 of Civil Service Commissioners, which 

 sits at Ottawa. There does not ap- 

 pear to be at the present time any 

 way in which this most valuable 

 order can be abrogated or modified in 

 future. Certain it is that the selec- 

 tion of men for the field services of 

 the Dominion Forestry Branch are 

 (for the first time in history in the 

 hands of the Director ot Forestry and 

 his responsible officers. This can be 

 counted a most tangible gain, par- 



ticularly by the people of the western 

 provinces, for whose service these 

 officers are retained. 



The Canadian Forestry Associa- 

 tion waged a continuous campaign 

 for several years past against the 

 practice of appointing men to the 

 Federal and Provincial Forest Ser- 

 vices on the basis of their political 

 qualifications. The system played 

 havoc with discipline and was costing 

 the country heavily in useless ex- 

 penditures. 



Word also comes from Toronto that 

 the Government is appointing a Civil 

 Service Commissioner who will have 

 authority over all appointments. A 

 ciualifying not a competitive exam- 

 ination is the system that the Gov- 

 ernment thinks will serve the re- 

 quirements of Ontario best. 



Hon. I. B. Lucas declared in the 

 Legislature that the proposed step 



