1732 



Canadian Forestry Journal, June, 1918 



work, failure to perform which would 

 be most likely to cause them 

 troublr In this way, fire pro- 

 tection is likely to suffer unless some 

 specialized inspection is provided Lo 

 see thai it gets its reasonably fair 

 share of attention. The provision 

 of such inspection by the Railway 

 Commission has unquestionably sup- 

 plemented to a ver>- valuable degree, 

 the ordinary supervision by railway 

 officials, on Dominion chartered lines. 

 There is, however, no legal provision 

 for such outside or supplementary 

 inspection, so far as the Government 

 Railways are concerned. 



To a certain extent, this defic- 

 iency has been overcome through the 

 expenditure of money by private and 

 provincial government agencies, co- 

 operating with the Government Rail- 

 ways management. Failing adequate 

 action by the Dominion Govern- 

 ment, which should have set the 

 pace for the privately-owned lines, 

 instead of the reverse, it became 

 imperative that limit-holders and 

 provincial governments in eastern 

 Canada should protect their valuable 

 timber properties by themselves un- 

 dertaking work, very largely at their 

 own expense, which privately owned 

 lines are required by the Dominion 

 Government (through the Railway 

 Commission) to perform without cost 

 to timber owners and provincial 

 governments. The inconsistency and 

 unfairness of this attitude on the 

 part of the Dominion Government 

 are, of course, perfectly' obvious. 



Thus, we see, in Ontario, the 

 provincial Forestry Branch main- 

 taining fire patrols along the Trans- 

 continental, only one-third of the 

 cost being reimbursed by the Depart- 

 ment of Railways and Canals. 

 There is no provision for an outside 

 inspection of fire-protective appli- 

 ances on engines, which has proven 

 itself so valuable on private lines in 

 preventing the occurrence of fires. 

 The report of the Provincial Forester 

 for 1917 states that 60 per cent, of the 

 railway fires in the province during 

 that year occurred along the Trans- 

 continental, where the worst con- 

 ditions exist. This proportion is 

 twice to three times as high as it 



should be, considering the total mile- 

 age of other lines. 



In Quebec, the situation is very 

 much the same. On the Transcon- 

 tinental west of Parent, a special 

 patrol is maintained by the Forest 

 Service. East of Parent the patrol 

 north of the St. Lawrence is main- 

 tained by the St. Maurice Forest 

 Protective Association, and on the 

 south shore by the Southern St. 

 Lawrence Forest Protective Associa- 

 tion. The Dominion Government 

 pays one-third the salaries of the fire 

 rangers on this railway patrol, the 

 balance being borne by the associa- 

 tions and the Provincial Govern- 

 ment jointly. The Government 

 Railways management also furnishes 

 gasoline and oil for the power speeders 

 used on this patrol, co-operates in 

 keeping the speeders in repair and 

 maintains a fire-fighting tank car 

 at Monk station. 



In New Brunswick, the provincial 

 Forest Service maintains a power 

 speeder patrol through Forest sections 

 along the Transcontinental and Inter- 

 national railways, the Government 

 Railways management paying one- 

 third the salaries of the fire rangers in 

 question, and co-operating along much 

 the same lines described above. In 

 this province, a special inspector of fire 

 protective appliances on engines is 

 given qualified inspectors of the prov- 

 incial Forest Service. In this respect, 

 developments here are in advance of 

 those in Ontario and Quebec. 



It is, of course, understood that 

 the Government Railways manage- 

 ment issues the usual standard in- 

 structions to section men and other 

 regular employees relative to extin- 

 guishing fires, and also that the 

 special patrols above referred to are 

 regatded as necessary to supplement 

 whatever the section forces may be 

 able to do in this direction. 



In Nova Scotia, so far as known, 

 there are no special co-operative 

 arrangements, the railway and the 

 province each handling its own fire 

 protective work independently. 



In Manitoba we have boih ex- 

 tremes. On the Transcontinental, 

 between Elma and the Ontario bound- 

 ary, the Government Railways main- 



