Canadian Forestry Journal, November, 1917 



1405 



Public Meetings in New Brunswick 



Well-attended lectures at Saint John, Freder- 

 icton, etc. ---Some Urgent Maritime Problems. 



A second series of public meetings 

 was held during November in New 

 Brunswick by Mr. Robson Black, 

 Secretary of the Canadian Forestry 

 Association. With the co-operation 

 and hearty assistance of such bodies 

 as the Saint John Board of Trade, the 

 Fredericton Science Club, and leading 

 lumbermen and clubs of other cen- 

 tres, well-attended lectures were de- 

 livered. The itinerary included 

 Woodstock, Fredericton, St. Stephen, 

 Saint John, Sackville, Bathurst and 

 Campbellton, and by a most generous 

 co-operation of the leading news- 

 papers verbatim reports of the ad- 

 dresses were spread by means of their 

 columns to most parts of the pro- 

 vince. 



The Association has added to its 

 equipment for use in these public 

 meetings motion picture films and a 

 portable motion picture machine. 

 These are in addition to an excellent 

 stereopticon equipped to 'dissolve' 

 pictures on the screen in full colors. 



Public Sentiment 



The difficulties in the way of more 

 advanced forest conservation policies 

 in New Brunswick are of such a nature 

 as to make a persistent educational 

 campaign the key to progress. Gener- 

 ally speaking, the people of the pro- 

 vince are not seized of the reasons for 

 a change in old-fashioned public 

 policies aiming to perpetuate the 

 forest supplies. The pleasant super- 

 stition of super - abundant forest 

 wealth has been so long accepted as 

 to form a very substantial volume of 

 indifference when forestry subjects 

 are mentioned. This, in turn, has 

 exerted very little pressure on suc- 

 cessive administrations at Frederic- 

 ton. Only in very recent years 

 have thinking citizens in large num- 

 bers awakened to the serious peril 



facing the whole economic structure 

 of New Brunswick, should the forests 

 fail. That the forests actually are 

 failing has been forced upon the 

 realization of the most casual on- 

 looker. The yield per square mile, 

 the quality of the yield, have both 

 been running down hill. Good timber 

 becomes increasingly inaccessible. 

 The farther the Forest Survey goes, 

 the lower becomes the average rate 

 of yield, the greater becomes the per- 

 centage of relatively barren timber- 

 lands. New Brunswick's position as 

 relates to her forest supplies is grave 

 enough to cause every lumberman, 

 every jobber, every townsman, to 

 hold up both hands for an immediate 

 application of conservative woods 

 methods under the supervision of 

 competent government officers. 



Happily, the Forest Survey and 

 Land Classification, instituted by the 

 late Government, is being continued 

 at full swing by the Foster adminis- 

 tration, the new Minister in charge of 

 forests, Dr. E. A. Smith, giving tathe 

 Forestry Division the most thorough 

 support and encouragement. 



Fire Protection Reforms 



At the next session of the Legis- 

 lature, it will not be unreasonable to 

 look for a revision of the whole fire 

 ranging system of the province, sub- 

 stituting for the system of County 

 Wardens (efficient in spots) a cen- 

 tralized organization under command 

 of the Provincial Forester, Mr, Prince. 

 This will go far to rid the province of 

 forest fire losses, for although New 

 Brunswick has travelled in great 

 good luck during the past few sum- 

 mers, the total timber waste during 

 the past twenty years has been 

 enormous. Settlers' fires are allmyed 

 to run in absolute freedom, inviting 

 from day to day a repetition of the 



