30 NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 



The following persons then addressed the meeting : 



The discussion was opened by Attorney General Paisley. 



HON. WILLIAM PUGSLEY 



Attorney General 



I think we must all agree that the addresses delivered by His Honour, 

 the Ex-Governor of the Province and by Mr. Stewart, the President of the 

 Dominion Forestry Association and Chief of the Dominion Forestry Bureau, 

 were of the most admirable character. They gave us a great deal of infor- 

 mation and were calculated to arouse a great deal of interest in the minds 

 of all concerned for the welfare of our country. In listening to the addresses 

 with which we were favored, I have been impressed with the fact that the 

 idea has been brought out, that so far as the Crown lands of the Province 

 are concerned, it will be quite feasible to make such regulations and to take 

 such precautions for the future management of the Crown property as will- 

 preserve the forests to the people of the Province. While not unduly inter- 

 fering with the settlement of the country, it is calculated to preserve the 

 tlow of the streams through the forests owned by the Crown, and also to 

 preserve the water powers. But no reference has betn made to the laiul 

 which has been granted, to the streams and rivers which are flowing through 

 lands which have passed from the Crown into the hands of private persons. 

 I know that in a great portion of the Province, particularly the southern 

 portion of the Province, in my own county, the County of King's, the land 

 has nearly all been granted, and on the head waters of the streams the 

 forests have been cut away, and these great difficulties, to which reference 

 has been so eloquently made, are occurring, and will continue to occur to a 

 great extent in the future. In the beautiful valley where I was brought up, 

 the Sussex Valley, I can remember as a boy when the country was well 

 forested, with a beautiful stream running through that valley, having plenty 

 of water in it all the season, flowing between comparatively narrow banks- 

 Today, there is a broad expanse of gravel ; hundreds of acres of valuable 

 soil have been carried away by the great floods which come down in the 

 spring of the year, and then in the dry season of summer there is scarcely 

 any water at all in that creek. Now, what I would like to be informed upon, 

 is as to whether or not, in the opinion of Mr. Stewart he has had occasion 

 to give great thought to the questicm it would be consistent with a fair 

 regard of the rights of private individuals that there should be some legisla- 

 tion which would prevent this devastation going on in the future. Whether 



