CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 121 



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SENATOR EDWARDS' REPORT. 



ROCKLAND, ONTARIO, December 31st, 1908. 



To The Right Honourable Sir Wilfred Laurier, 

 Ottawa, Ont. 



DEAR SIR WILFRID,- 



As requested by you, as Acting Minister of the Interior, I, accompanied 

 by Mr. R. H. Campbell, Chief of the Dominion Forestry Branch (as repre- 

 sentatives of Canada), attended the Convention of the National Rivers and 

 Harbours Congress, held at Washington on Wednesday, Thursday and 

 Friday, the ninth, tenth and eleventh days of December last; and I beg to 

 present the following report : 



The Convention was presided over by the Hon. Joseph Ranssdell, and was 

 addressed by many leading men, including His Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, 

 the Right Honourable James Bryce, the Ambassador of Brazil at Washing- 

 ton, the Vice-President of the United States, Hon. Joseph Cannon, Speaker 

 of the House of Representatives, Hon. James Garfield, Secretary of the 

 Interior, Mr. Andrew Carnegie, and many other prominent men, including 

 Senators, Congressmen, State Governors, and leading citizens representing 

 manv and varied interests. 



The addresses and papers read were of the most interesting character, 

 the general trend being in the direction that the waterways of the United 

 States, which played such a very important part in the. transportation prob- 

 lem in the early history of the country prior to the introduction of railroads 

 and their great development, had dwindled relatively into the filling a some- 

 what unimportant place in the carrying trade of the country, for two reasons, 

 viz: because of the increased facilities offered by the railways, and the 

 diminishing supply of water in the many rivers and streams of the country 

 due to the clearing up of the forests. Possible and useful as were the internal 

 waterways of the country in its early history, it is found they cannot be 

 utilized in the same way today, unless artificial means are applied. It is 

 clearly the bounden duty of the Central Government, the Governments of 

 the various States, and the people generally, to take up this most important 

 matter vigorously, for several reasons. Among others I would mention: 

 The necessity of a uniform supply of good water for domestic use in the 

 interest of public health, and the need of water for irrigation purposes. 

 Furthermore, the time has now arrived when, with our agricultural, indus- 

 trial and commercial development, not only will the various great railway 

 systems be taxed to their fullest capacity, but the waterways will also need 

 to be improved and utilized for the carrying trade of the country. With 

 the diminishing domestic coal supply, it is in the best interests of the country 

 that, for the purpose of manufacturing and supplying light and heat, the 

 many and possible water powers should be made available and improved. 

 Different portions of the country naturally had various improvements to 

 suggest, of lesser or greater importance, up to and including the gigantic 

 proposition of so improving the great Mississippi waterway as to make pos- 

 sible ship navigation from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Whether 

 this great enterprise is ever accomplished or not, I believe that numerous 



