NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



Your Honour, Ladies and Gentlemen : It affords me a great deal of 

 pleasure indeed to extend a most cordial and hearty welcome to all who have 

 come to visit us today and take part in the proceedings of the first Forestry 

 "Convention that has ever been held in the Province of New Brunswick. It is 

 never too late to learn, and it has been borne in for some time on the 

 Government that it is necessary in the interests of this Province that we 

 should amend our policy in regard to the great lumber industry of this 

 Province, which is one of the greatest industries we have, our chief one, 

 indeed, and therefore last winter we introduced legislation, whereby the 

 Government was authorized to adopt certain measures which we considered 

 would be in the interests of the Province. For many years the lumber 

 industry of this Province, and the Forests were allowed to look after them- 

 selves. No great care was given to their protection, and the consequence is 

 that the Province has been depleted of millions of dollars worth of valuable 

 lumber ; but, as I have said, it is never too late to learn, and we have at 

 length arrived at the conclusion that some new measures must be taken to 

 protect this great industry. Therefore, feeling that it would be wise on the 

 part of the Government to' have the opinion of experts on this important 

 question, not only from our own Province and from the Dominion, but from 

 all over the continent, we were authorized by law to hold a Forestry Con- 

 vention and to invite the public to attend. We have invited gentlemen 

 from the United States, from the Dominion of Canada and from other 

 Provinces of the Dominion, and I am pleased to extend to those gentlemen 

 who have found it convenient to attend at this season of the year, a most 

 cordial welcome on behalf of the Province of New Brunswick. I regret that 

 some of the gentlemen who were invited, principally from the United States, 

 .have been unable to attend. Among these is Mr. Pinchot, the Chief of the 

 Forestry Service of the United States at Washington, whose regrets will be 

 read. He expresses much sorrow at not being able to attend, but as Con- 

 gress is sitting, he is unable to be here, and we are obliged to do without 

 the benefit of his great knowledge on Forest protection. 



I have prepared a short paper on the past history of the Lumber Industry 

 of the Province, which I will now read. I may say that in carrying on the 

 work of this Convention, it is our desire that the addresses should not be of 

 inordinate length, and after each address it is open to any gentleman present 

 to open up a discussion on the matters spoken of in the address. I think it 

 :has been found in other Forestry Conventions, notably the one at Ottawa, 



