NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 153 



per month was the usual wage for good men, while today $28.00 to $35.00 

 is paid, you can readily see how the laboring man has benefited by the im- 

 proved state of the lumber business. No class lives better and spends money 

 more freely than they do when earning good wages and every trade benefits 

 by their prosperity. The government a few years . since passed a lien law 

 protecting them for wages earned in connection with logs, the principles of 

 Tvhich are both equitable and just and recently has passed more legislation 

 to protect the laboring man. 



I might here refer to the Government's arrangement with the Salvation 

 Army and others for the importation of labor. With the increased work in 

 the manufacture and shipping and the improvement in all industries in New 

 Brunswick and the stricter attention paid by the farmer to agriculture, not 

 going out to work in the mill as formerly, the call of the west which was 

 responded to by so many of our young men, it has become necessary for 

 more labor to be brought into our country. All industries were more or less 

 hampered for the want of labor last season. I would like, however, to im- 

 press on the Government and through them on the parties bringing out the 

 men, that from what I have seen ofi the Salvation Army and other importa- 

 tion that the right class of men are not being picked. We do not want men 

 who have not been used to labor or who have been looking for work, and 

 not wanting to find it, nor men who have been brought up to easy employ- 

 ments, but we need rugged, sober men, active, industrious; men of medium 

 stature, good physique, married men preferred, who know what labor is and 

 are prepared to do it without complaining. We have in our Province a 

 working class intelligent, industrious, active and we want men imported who 

 can take places alongside of them and be of assistance and not a hindrance. 



With so many interests dependent on the maintenance and preservation 

 of our forest areas, is it any wonder that a Government that has done so 

 much for the benefit of our Province and assisted agriculture and other in- 

 dustries, passed equitable laws to protect the working men, should now 

 turn its attention to this important subject and try to find out what can be 

 done to perpetuate our forest wealth and at the same time deal fairly with 

 the vested rights. 



The question, therefore, arises, how can we best maintain permanently 

 the revenue from the timber limits and in connection with this, how can we 

 . protect this valuable revenue producer from fire ? 



The Government made a wise move at the land sales of 1893, when they 



