CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 107 



which are made to obtain information concerning the lands which may be obtained, 

 the timber limits in which foreigners might invest capital. The United States 

 especially, is busy acquiring our forest domain, and we shall draw much foreign 

 capital to our shores, on the condition that pulpwood shall not be exported, but 

 that the manufacture of pulp and the various industries which flow from it shall 

 be carried on in the Province of Quebec. Here is a question of vital interest, and 

 I say that it is the duty of all the citizens of this country to interest themselves 

 in it, and I am proud to see so many distinguished men assisting at this congress. 



"Some forest reserves have been established, and these reserves are designated 

 thus: Saguenay, Labrador, Lake St. John, St. Maurice, Maskinonge, Ottawa, 

 Chaudieres, Riviere Ouelle, Temiscouata, Rimouski, with the parks of Gaspe and 

 the Laurentides, including an area of 107,821,653 acres, comprising collectively 

 one of the vastest forest territories which has been so far set aside for this object 

 in all of North America." 



This has all been done within a very few years, and the Government of the 

 Province of Quebec, anxious to protect her domain, has thought it right to put 

 these immense districts, into forest reserves, in order that, being under Government 

 control, they may be more efficiently protected. 



"Furthermore, we mus.t not overlook the fact that there still remains intact 

 all that part of the basin of James Bay and of Hamilton River comprised within 

 the new boundaries of the Province of Quebec, having an area of about 93,000,000 

 acres, of which, having deducted thedenuded regions, forty per cent, is well wooded." 



Until the present time, gentlemen, the valley of the St. Lawrence, the valley 

 of the St. Maurice and that of the Ottawa, as the " Eastern Townships," have been 

 all that has been counted upon, for establishing a forest domain which should be 

 exhaustible and this, unfortunately, is constantly threatened with exhaustion 

 but we have in the regions of Labrador, from the river St. Marguerite to the shores 

 of Labrador, a forest domain which covers forty per cent, of this territory. 



Some of the experts said this morning I believe Mr. Stewart did as well as 

 Mr. Piche that the farther we go toward the north, the smaller the timber 

 becomes. Gentlemen, we are going, I believe, to have a forest reserve which shall 

 be the pride of the Government, and maps were drawn only a few months ago 

 which indicate the various forest districts under the control of Government 

 which are to remain as forest reserves. We have immense water powers at our 

 disposal, and I say that we should have, for the protection of the forest, guards in 

 all sections of the Province of Quebec. At present we can only count on a few 

 forest guards. We have 130 million acres of forest lands in the Province of Quebec, 

 and we have only fifty or sixty men to watch them. We ought to have at the 

 mouth of each river and they are to be counted by hundreds up to the coasts 

 of Labrador we ought to have forest guards to inform those who come to settle 

 how to protect their property and at the same time the public domain, from ruth- 

 less destruction. 



I continue to quote from the report: 



"Concerning the domain of the Crown properly so called, and of the various 

 services connected with it, I have nothing to mention which has not already 

 formed the subject of previous remarks. This is the case with the Seigniory of 

 Lauzon, and with the properties of the Jesuits; and all which treats of these tracts 

 figures in the accompanying appendices. See 7, 75 and 77." 



