CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 9 



I had the honour, as well as the responsibility, of being at the .head of the 

 Department of Crown Lands and. Timber of this Province, and during that 

 short time my attention was drawn to this important subject. For many 

 years it has been recognized as an extremely important subject. We have 

 not, however, made very much progress in Ontario, beyond pretty effective 

 fire-ranging, for the protection of our forests from fire, and the setting apart 

 of some forest reserves. So far as the Government of the Province has 

 gone, these have been, in my opinion, very important steps. It is pretty 

 generally admitted that when the late Honourable A. S. Hardy introduced 

 legislation and carried out the necessary steps for setting apart Algonquin 

 Park for all time as a reserve, no more important and more praiseworthy 

 policy was ever carried out in connection with timber reserves and forest 

 preservation. (Applause). I am not claiming any merit for originality 

 when I say that while I acted as Commissioner of Crown Lands, I expounded 

 a policy which was carried out to some extent, and that was, that areas 

 of land in this Province unfitted for agricultural purposes, and which on 

 account of being rocky and otherwise unfavourable could not be advan- 

 tageously used for agricultural purposes, should be selected and set apart 

 as forest reserves. (Applause). I commenced the practical carrying out 

 of that policy by setting apart three or four townships in the eastern part 

 of the Province and comparatively close to the water front, in the counties 

 of Addington and Frontenac. Those areas, unfitted for agricultural purposes, 

 which had been timbered as an old limit, were purchased from the limit 

 owners for a comparatively small amount, and they are now coming on 

 with considerable rapidity as pine forest reservations. (Applause). The 

 expenditure for the purpose of protecting it was comparatively nil. A man 

 in the neighborhood was engaged at the very small salary of $500 or $600 

 a year, and it was his duty to take all necessary precautions against fire. 

 Little or no danger of fire exists, because the whole area is almost sur- 

 rounded by a chain of little lakes. A second growth of pine is coming on, 

 and when I last heard from the reservation it was doing well. The follow- 

 ing year I caused to be set apart a reservation in the western part of the 

 Province, east of Port Arthur. In the year after that, my attention was 

 devoted to taking official steps by means of a departmental trip in which 

 Mr. Southworth, who is prominent in this Assembly (applause) Mr. 

 White, the Deputy of the Department, and others, spent some time in going 

 through the area now known as the Temagami Preserve. After I left the 

 Department my successor introduced the necessary legislation for the set- 

 ting apart for all time of the Temagami Reserve. (Applause). The point 

 that I desire to make is that there can be found in this Province areas 

 which will never be fit for agricultural purposes, which have been burned 

 over, and on which a second growth is coming on, and that each year should 

 see the selection and setting apart of a considerable portion of the Province 

 to be held and sacredly protected as 'a Forest E/eserve for all time. (Hear, 

 hear, and applause). So far as this generation is concerned, or probably 

 the next generation, and perhaps a generation or two after that, no fruit 



