CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 105 



Government control. Now, gentlemen, I believe that when this is achieved, the 

 Province of Quebec will have solved the problem of the greatest revenue for the 

 settlers established on her domain, and at the same time for the lumbermen who 

 only ask to draw private gain from their limits at the same time that they enlarge 

 the national fortune. T TT~ 



Pulpwood, that useful commodity, has attracted to this Province foreign 

 capital, especially from the United States. This question of pulp is of the highest 

 importance and the exploitation of the raw wood that produces it forms the subject 

 of numerous controversies. Moreover, I believe that it is important to withdraw 

 this important question from party discussion. The proposal made by the Presi- 

 dent at the opening of this meeting, supporting the recommendation of the Premier 

 of the Province of Quebec, to refer this question to a Royal Commission, ought, in 

 my judgment, to be adopted by this congress, in order that necessary measures may 

 be taken to protect our pulp and the exportation of our wood. Mr. President, from 

 the opening of this congress, I have been deeply impressed by the recommendation 

 which you made to withdraw this intricate question from the domain of politics. I 

 am a partisan of the existing Government, one of its most devoted supporters, but I 

 am convinced, in spite of the great advantages which a Government might draw 

 from a political point of view from this question that it would be wise to withdraw 

 it from the realm of politics to put it into the hands of competent men who may 

 evolve a solution of it for the province and for the country. 



The immense forests which we have under license in the Province of Quebec, 

 and those which are still unexploited and which belong to the Crown, make us hope 

 for a prosperous future for the forest industries, and especially for that of pulp. 

 May I be permitted to refer to a report which has just been submitted to the 

 Chamber by the Hon. Minister of Lands? It contains valuable information, 

 and shows the especial interest in this forest question, which is of vital importance 

 to our Province. We have in our Province of Quebec 228 million acres of land, 

 of which 130 million are wooded, according to official statistics, I quote literally: 



"In this field of labour so vast and so important, the operations of the year have 

 consisted especially in rendering the superintendence of the cutting of wood more 

 efficacious and in obtaining a more regular and complete understanding of the 

 rights under which they are carried on, neglecting nothing which could assure 

 greater protection to our forests either in the prevention of fires or in restrictive 

 measures relating to excessive cuttings contrary to law." 



This impresses me, and I remember that being at Ottawa some days ago, I met 

 there one of the largest timber limit holders in the Province of Quebec, the Hon. 

 W. C. JCdwards, who directed my attention to the fact that in the regions of Labra- 

 dor there were immense forests which had been devastated with the object of estab- 

 lishing certain fisheries or certain settlers; that fire had been set there in order to 

 clear a tract of land, and that even a great economist had recommended the settlers 

 to do this. Gentlemen, we have seen this in the Province of Quebec also, in various 

 places. I consider that it is a crime to allow settlers to set fire to the woods with 

 the intention of clearing a garden or the few acres of land demanded by the regu- 

 lations establishing a settler; I say that this constitutes a great danger, and that 

 it has been a greater error in the past which has contributed in a large degree to the 

 devastation of our forests, and which has in this way certainly destroyed at least 

 twenty-five to thirty per cent, of the forest wealth of the Province of Quebec. 



I continue the reading of the report of Hon. Mr. Turgeon: 



