1688 



Canadian Forestry Journal, May, lillS 



Firmer Handling of Crown Forests 



During the passage of the two 

 Bills in the New Brunswick Legis- 

 lature creating a Forest Service, the 

 personnel of which will be under 

 control of a non-political Board. Hon. 

 K. A. Smith, Minister of Lands and 

 Mines made some interesting ex- 

 j)lanations of the problems which the 

 forest administration of the province 

 has been called upon to solve. 



"The tremendous rise in the price 

 of pulpwood has given an impetus 

 far beyond anything ever experienced 

 before in this province, to the cutting 

 of this wood. As a natural sequence 

 trespassing is a common occurrence 

 requiring great vigilance on the part 

 of the scalers in reporting these 

 trespassers, who are now required to 

 pay a penalty stumpage of $3.75 per 

 cord or in superficial feet $7.50 per 

 thousand. One of the hard probleins 

 I found in taking over the adminis- 

 tration of affairs in this office was to 

 knosv how to deal fairly with the 

 settler on Crown lands in disposing 

 of the pulpwood he cuts in making his 

 clearing. 



"If it were a matter dealing with 

 bona fide settlers, then the problem 

 would be a simple one, but where the 

 records of the department show that 

 a very large proportion do not fulfill 

 the requirements of the settling act, 

 it will be seen at once the question of 

 dealing out justice is approached 

 with a great deal of difficulty. Ac- 

 cordingly I gave orders that all green 

 pulpwood cut outside of the first ten 

 acres be subject to a stumpage of 

 $3.75 per cord, burnt wood $1 per 

 cord and payment be exacted by the 

 department. When it is shown that 

 the settler has complied in every way 

 in homesteading his lot, then 75 per 

 cent, of the stumpage collected will be 

 returned to him. 



Gel Clear of Politics 



"My proposal for this new Crown 

 land policy is to remove the ad- 

 ministration of the forests to a very 

 large extent, if not altogether, from 

 the sphere of politics. It is proposed 



to combine the following services, 

 viz.: Protection of forests from fires; 

 scaling of lumber cut on Crown lands, 

 and protection of game, with one 

 efficient staff the chief officer of 

 which will be the director of forest 

 surveys under a board consisting of 

 the Minister, the Deputy Minister, 

 the Director of the Forest Branch 

 and two others, one representing the 

 leaseholders and one representing 

 the owners of Crown granted timber 

 lands. 



The board will have authority to 

 appoint the necessary staff to carry 

 out these duties and the men em- 

 ployed to possess the necessary 

 qualification after examination. 



A new up-to-date fire service to be 

 inaugurated to include the organiza- 

 tion of sufficient competent men to 

 cope with forest fires in all parts of 

 the province, whether on Crown or 

 granted lands; building telephone 

 lines in the forest; erection of lookout 

 stations; cutting fire trails; necessary 

 tools for fighting fires; gasoline en- 

 gines for railway work; in short, 

 everything that experience has taught 

 is necessary in the prevention of the 

 great fire evil. 



More Money for Treasury 

 On the first of August, 1918, the 

 licenses which were sold in the year 

 1893 and not renewed under the 

 legislation passed in the year 1913 

 will expire. There was strong in- 

 lluence brought to bear that we shall 

 allow the licensees to pay the bonus 

 and interest, an amount that would 

 equalize the payments made by those 

 who renewed their licenses under the 

 legislation referred to, but the gov- 

 ernment thought it would be more 

 advantageous to the province to 

 allow these lands to go up for sale. 



