126 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



work of the representatives of the people, those very limits that he purchased 

 are begun to be stolen from him; and the Crown is robbed and the lumber- 

 man is robbed. And that is what is going on in Canada to an enormous 

 extent. All that you require to do is to bring about, through your represen- 

 tatives, an entirely new condition of affairs. The forests, depleted though 

 they may be, have still sufficient to supply Canada and its wants in timber 

 for all time to come, although I disagree with the quantity which my friend, 

 Mr. White, stated yesterday. 



Mr. WHITE: Thank you. (Laughter.) 



SENATOR EDWARDS : We have not and never had as much timber as a 

 great many people think we have; but we still have a very considerable 

 quantity. I dislike to speak of myself, but I will tell you what I am doing. 

 I am a strong believer in forestry, a great believer in the preservation of the 

 forest, and a firm believer in getting limits in such a way that we can go 

 on in perpetuity. (Hear ! hear !) So strong a believer am I in that position 

 that I will never build a mill or any other part of an industrial establishment 

 of anything but concrete. We built a large shop at Ottawa this last sum- 

 mer, and one the summer before, of solid concrete and steel; not a particle 

 of wood was used but in the windows and doors. I am the President of a 

 company that has built a mill in Bathurst, N.B., this very summer that is 

 constructed in the same way. I am glad to see the representative from New 

 Brunswick here, and I will ask him to help me to do what I am doing for 

 the Province of New Brunswick, that is, to build and cut in such a way a* 

 to bring about perpetuity. (Hear hear). I don't think I need tell you that 

 1 am a radical of the radicals. (Laughter.) That is a pretty well known 

 fact. (Hear ! hear !) And I am going to make a confession on the spot I 

 am a large holder of timber limits of which I should never have owned a 

 foot. The country never should have sold one single foot of its timber area. 

 (Applause.) And if the policy had been pursued that has been advocated 

 here to-day, of simply cutting the old timber and letting the young timber 

 come on, the fact is that we would have more timber to-day in Canada than 

 when we began to cut (Hear! hear!) 



Mr. WHITE : And kept the fire out. 



SENATOR EDWARDS : That is a great safeguard keeping the fire out. 

 That and the theft on the part of those pirates I have already named are 

 the two great dangers. (Laughter.) Now, I just want to make a remark 

 about fire protection in case I should forget it ; and I want to give the Ontario 

 Government the very highest credit for what they have done. (Hear, hear.) 

 No matter what their sins are to-day, or may have been, the inauguration 

 of the fire patrol system in the Province of Ontario, which was brought into 

 effect fully twenty years ago wasn't it, Mr. White? 



Mr. WHITE: 1885. 



