CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 95 



directions, and as these matters are taken up in a practical business way, 

 there is no question that all systems no matter what they are can be 

 improved from year to year. I must say that the fire-ranging system estab- 

 lished here by our predecessors is being carried on and brought into perfec- 

 tion to-day, and I venture to say it will stand close investigation; that there 

 is far less timber burned per mile or per acre that is, timber standing in 

 the name of the Crown, in which the system of fire-ranging or patrol has 

 been placed and is carried on from year to year than that which is carried 

 on and supervised to a certain extent by the licensees of the timber limits 

 of the Province. There is one direction in which I think this Association 

 might educate public opinion, that is, in waking up the holders of timber 

 limits to patrol their own limits, in which they should be more interested 

 than the Government which represents the people; that they must make greater 

 efforts to protect the standing timber than they have done in the past. I 

 know there are some practical lumbermen sitting before me who have given 

 a great deal of thought to this question, and are trying to make that system 

 more perfect, and I know that the Government of the Province to-day is 

 alive to the importance of the question. I wish to say that the Association 

 assembled here to-day has done a great educational work, and I would ask 

 that in the resolutions which you pass here and at future meetings you will 

 devote time to criticizing the system in this Province I am not speaking 

 for the others in what way it can be improved, and as the head of the 

 Department, I will be only too glad to welcome your criticism (applause) 

 welcome any practical suggestions you may make, and be only too glad to 

 carry them out. (Applause). There is no man, bar none, that is giving 

 greater thought to these questions than my able assistant, Mr. White, 

 (Applause). There is no man who has studied these questions, or who has 

 given his best time and best thought as to how this can be improved. And 

 I hope and trust that the Association wil get down to practical ideas, prac- 

 tical criticism, practical suggestions, and I assure you I will welcome them, 

 and that we will endeavour to take the good meat out of any suggestions or 

 any resolutions passed. (Loud applause). The Government last year moved 

 on one step farther. They put in the estimates the small sum of f5,000, but 

 that has been expended, a great portion of it in buying up waste territory 

 up in the western part of the Province. We don't propose to devote it all 

 to the north country. While there is much there that can be done, yet there 

 are tracts of country in the older parts of the Province that we can well 

 afford to buy and place under the care of the Agricultural College, or of 

 Doctor Fernow's Department, to work out in a practical way, and let us 

 have territory which will benefit the water courses of the older parts of the 

 Province and the game and animals, so that they will have some place to 

 rest where they know they are safe; and so that the students of forestry 

 will acquire practical knowledge in places easier of access than the north 

 part of the country. I want to thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for the 

 opportunity of expressing my views. I didn't come here to make a speech, 

 but rather to listen and get any practical ideas I could, and to assure you 



