CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 127 



SENATOR EDWARDS : That is twenty-four years ago has saved the Pro- 

 vince of Ontario millions upon millions of dollars. (Hear, hear and 

 applause.) It was inaugurated in Quebec, I think, about ten years after- 

 wards, after I took Mr. Flynn, the Crown Land Commissioner, into the woods 

 and shewed him the destruction by forest fires. Coming down the Gatineau 

 he telegraphed ahead and had the lumbermen meet him at Ottawa. Eight 

 there and then that system was inaugurated ; and bad as our forest fires may 

 be in some instances to-day, they were ten or twenty times as bad before 

 that system was inaugurated. (Hear, hear.) The best thing that Ontario 

 and all the other Provinces can do is to preserve in every possible way their 

 forests against that great destructive element of fire. (Hear, hear.) What 

 are its causes? What is it that brings about fires in the forest? Clearing 

 the land is answerable for a great deal. The squatter and illegitimate set- 

 tler are answerable for a great deal. The explorer, the hunter and the 

 fisherman are also answerable for a great deal. But in my humble opinion 

 one of the worst things that can possibly be had is a railway running 

 through a forest area. (Hear, hear and applause.) I have opposed, and 

 always opposed, the running of railways through a forest area. In Parlia- 

 ment I have always taken that position and will always continue to take it. 

 Nio matter what the facilities of the average lumberman are, so far as the 

 transportation of their supplies are concerned, it is better to keep the rail- 

 ways out of the forest, and go to the expense of carting in the supplies 

 required. 



A DELEGATE : Where would you run the railways ? 

 Mr. WHITE : The C. P. E., for instance? 



SENATOR EDWARDS : The C. P. E. doesn't run, from Quebec till it gets 

 beyond Winnipeg, anywhere through what was a timber area when it was 

 built north of Lake Superior. 



Mr. WHITE : It burned up a good deal of that country. 



SENATOR EDWARDS : Let us have it to as little an extent as we can. 

 Don't project railways away up north into the areas that are no good for 

 anything but timber. (Hear, hear.) 



Mr. PRICE : Where would you have built the railway from Quebec to 

 Lake St. John? It runs through a timber district entirely. 



SENATOR EDWARDS : I would have built it to the moon. (Laughter.) 

 DELEGATE : You are radical, now. 



SENATOR EDWARDS : We listened this morning to what the Dominion 

 G-overnment is doing in the way of managing its forest reserves. That is 



