CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 139 



SENATOR EDWARDS : Where are your operations? 

 MR. WILSON: In Quebec, at Grand Mere. 



SENATOR EDWARDS : That is beyond the region of law. (Laughter.) 

 MR. BERGEVIN : It is the same law all over. 

 MR. LITTLE: A different administration of the law, that is all. 



MR. WILSON : Last summer we could not arrest a man. We knew he 

 set the fires. We knew they spread from his clearing, but according to the 

 present law he could not be arrested or convicted, because we did not see 

 him light the fire. You are absolutely handicapped in your patrol system 

 when you can't do anything to enforce your law. If an employee of a com- 

 pany sets fire to that land, the company should be made responsible, and they 

 would very soon that their men would not set any more fires. (Applause.) 



To add to the injustice of this procedure, no definite plan of selecting 

 lands for settlement has been followed, and no skillful or even careful 

 examination of the soil and other conditions has been made. Lands are 

 allotted practically wherever the intending colonist wishes, and this 

 has enabled many speculators to take up good timber lands, cut off 

 the timber, and abandon them. There is no diameter limit to which 

 the settler must cut, and regulations regarding the wasting of timber to 

 be obeyed, so that the settler can cut all his wood down to four inches 

 on the stump and sell it to the pulp mills. He slashes down a few 

 acres, sets fire to the debris, burns up untold quantities of wood which he 

 could have used for firewood, often sets fire to the remainder of his forest, and 

 more often than not burns large areas belonging to the adjoining limit- 

 hoider. The pittance which the Government obtains from the sale of these 

 lands to settlers and the meagre revenue from their taxes in no measure 

 makes up for the loss of revenue and the destruction of property occasioned. 

 Then, too, the laws requiring colonists to fulfil the conditions of settlement 

 are hardly ever enforced, the certificates are often falsely sworn to by the 

 ranger too often an ignorant and venial man. There is an authentic case 

 of a ranger, who was taken by a settler, in winter, and shown a lake as the 

 "clearing" required by law. An instance of the lack of examination, where 

 lots are asked for, was shown in the last election, when a member of parlia- 

 ment said that he rrjust have lots for some of his constituents in order to win 

 the election in his district. Several - of these lots were on precipitous hill 

 sides and valuable only for the timber and one of the constituents wished to 

 establish a saw mill. The sales were made, but, in justice to the Govern- 

 ment, I will say that when the matter was brought to its attention some of 

 the lots were cancelled. The intentions of the Government are good and its 

 rules and regulations for the cutting of timber are most just and fair, but 

 the lack of trained and reliable rangers practically nullifies them. Since the 



