NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 133 



looked back to the books of reports and have seen the records of the thous- 

 ands and thousands of feet of valuable pine which have been shipped out of 

 the district wherein we now stand. Following on from my own native dis- 

 trict along the valleys of the Saguenay, and up through the St. Maurice, to- 

 day it is practically gone, and there is nothing left in this valuable section 

 for the benefit of mankind but a small portion. And is there not food for re- 

 flection in this ? 



Statisticians come before us and tell us of the inexhaustible forests of 

 the Dominion of Canada. As a politician, which I am slightly, I have some- 

 times faith in statistics when they suit a particular purpose, but as a practi- 

 cal lumberman I have but little faith in them ; and it is your duty, and I am 

 proud to see the interest your Government and legislators are taking in this 

 important business, that is, in the preservation of the next most valuable 

 for the benefit of mankind in general your valuable trees, of which you in 

 the Province of New Brunswick and we in the Province of Quebec hold the 

 largest portion today. Resources such as these are the only means to pro- 

 tect you and protect this Canada of ours. 



First, we must look for a means to protect ourselves from that terrible 

 <enemy of fire. How this is to be done is left in your hands. It is solely in 

 the hands of the lumberman, as far as the Province of Quebec is concerned, 

 as Mr. Price has said. I may be a little ahead of my time when I would 

 suggest to the lumberman, not only in the Province of Quebec, that some 

 system may be devised whereby we can escape from the ravages of fire 

 which cause such heavy destruction to the forests, and I will put my idea 

 before you today ; that is, if it were possible to have protection by a system 

 of Marconi signals on the mountain ranges at the main points of the country. 

 These forest fires are certainly something that deserve the attention of every 

 lumberman. 



Secondly comes the question of our great waterways, for this is very 

 important, and we in the Province of Quebec have seen important changes 

 in the different waterways of our country. Not only in the interests of 

 lumbermen and farmers, but in the interests of trade and commerce, it is our 

 duty to protect the great water powers given to this country of Canada. A 

 great writer, of Boston, not long ago said that the water powers of Canada 

 would make even the great industrial powers of Carnegie at Pittsburg shake 

 with fear, and we certainly should do all in our power to protect those water 

 powers. 



