CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 141 



MR. BERGEVIN : Don't you think it would interfere with the shanty 

 work in the winter time ? 



MR. WILSON: No; the only thing is, you would have to get a better 

 class of jobbers and show them that they must obey the law. The jobbers 

 and the settlers said to us last summer, "Why, what is the use of our obeying 

 the laws? The company makes the laws." And when I said, "The Gov- 

 ernment makes the laws, not the company," they laughed at me. There has 

 been no attempt to enforce laws in the back districts. The settlers and the 

 rural population are absolutely defiant of the laws; they don't care anything 

 about the laws. Take, for example, your game laws. In some parts of the 

 Province they are not enforced at all because the territory is so big; it is 

 impossible to get reliable and honest men who will go out there and do their 

 duty. Most of the men get very small salaries ; in some cases they are afraid 

 of the flies, ad in others they are afraid to travel out in the woods. You can't 

 get enforcement with that kind of men. I have seen men go out with a canoe 

 and a gun and a bottle of gin, and paddle out to a lake, and go back and spend 

 the rest of their time in the villages ; those were fire rangers. You ask any- 

 body through the section and they will tell you that these things are abso- 

 lutely true. The Government is trying to do the best it can; but it is an 

 enormous territory to cover. There is a lack of trained men, a lack of sym- 

 pathy among the people for these men to do their duty, and I don't see how 

 you are going to expect them to do it. But I do say that it is perfectly feas- 

 ible to make the limit holders take care of the timber according to the Gov- 

 ernment regulations. They are willing to do it, and if they get any assur- 

 ance of the tenure of the lands, and any assurance of fair treatment, they 

 will be only too glad to protect from fire and waste ; and there is no reason 

 why they should not bear the burden of some of these regulations. (Applause.) 



The limit-holders, be it said to their credit, have lived up to the laws 

 very close, especially the large pulp and paper companies, one of which (The 

 Laurentide Paper Co.), has not only made stricter cutting regulations than 

 those of the Government, but has conscientiously and efficiently enforced 

 them. The system of lumbering, as practised, is responsible for some waste of 

 timber and for methods which, while at present keeping down the cost of 

 logging, will in future very much raise it, probably to a point incommensur- 

 ate with the corresponding rise in the value of lumber, pulp and paper. 



At present the system in common, I might say universal, use is the fol- 

 lowing. Contracts are made with the so-called big jobbers for quantities 

 which range from 100,000 to 300,000 logs; a "log" in this section being from 

 13 feet six inches to 13 feet 8 inches long. The big jobber generally sublets 

 his contract to the small jobber, in quantities from 5,000 to 100,000 logs. The 

 big jobber builds the main roads on which provisions must be hauled and 

 puts in a "cache" which he stocks with provisions and which he sells at a 

 profit. In subletting his contracts he usually figures on making a profit of 

 fifty cents per thousand feet, B.M. The limit nolder gives the head con- 



