96 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



banks, are matters which may, if not properly adjusted, cause temporary incon- 

 venience, but no permanent harm can come to the community by delaying their 

 adjustment. 



But whether fertile lands are turned into deserts, forests into waste places, 

 brooks into torrents, and rivers changed from means of power and intercourse into 

 means of destruction and desolation these are questions which concern the 

 material existence itself of society. There are ill advised procedures which, with- 

 out causing immediate trouble or injuring present interests, insidiously undermine 

 the very foundations of your national structure, and which, if not checked in time, 

 cause irreparable loss and these we must attack first. 



In the last analysis all prosperity, power and happiness of a nation is based 

 on two factors : man and soil. The permanent prosperity of your nation depends 

 on the moral character of its people and on the wisdom with which your natural 

 resources, the soil in particular, are used. 



In spite of the fact that you have still a vast unsettled empire, to my mind the 

 most pressing problems of Canada which urgentty require adjustment with a view 

 to a satisfactory future, are proper immigration, colonization and land policies. 

 These three problems are most closely related. They are, indeed, interdependent 

 and the one cannot be solved without touching the others. 



As to tHe first two I can only briefly warn you against repeating the mistakes 

 of our neighbours in considering quantity rather than quality, rapidity in amassing 

 wealth and expansion of trade instead of character and solidity, the ultimate 

 national aims. If you have any conception that Canada is capable of enduring 

 as a nation for a thousand years, do not be in a hurry to dispose of your 

 resources wastefully. Do not think that permanent prosperity comes from 

 opening up all your mines at once, marketing all your timber as rapidly as pos- 

 sible, disposing of all your farm lands lavishly. 



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Develop wisely rather than rapidly, and at every measure that is presented 

 with a view to increase of speed, look sharply to make sure that the factor of safety 

 is not neglected. 



'All the great diversity of activities, of industries, of sources of wealth, which 

 characterize the modern civilization and give employment to the millions, have 

 their origin more or less directly in that primary source of wealth, nay of life itself, 

 the soil. 



And next to it stands water. Soil and water are our richest treasures, the 

 waste of which threatens the very foundations of a commonwealth. The fertility 

 and the stability of the soil are in closest relation to water conditions and these again 

 are most directly dependent on the condition of the soil cover. 



