70 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



This, the board says, in a resolution which was adopted, 

 would be a change for the better all round, would be favour- 

 able to social conditions and tend toward the more successful 

 settlement of the farming lands. The board, in this connec- 

 tion, discussed the return of the soldiers and endorsed the co- 

 operation land settlement scheme for them along the lines 

 laid down in the report of the Returned Soldiers' Commission. 



The value of the surveys being made for purposes of classifying 

 land will depend on their accuracy. When complete surveys have 

 to be made, and railways, roads, lakes, creeks, swamps, and other 

 physical features have to be correctly delineated, great labour and 

 expense is involved. It will be many years before any province in 

 Canada can face the expense of making a complete survey of all 

 or any considerable part of their territory. What is more practicable 

 is a partial survey and classification of all the land, with a complete 

 topographical survey of the more valuable and thickly settled areas, 

 and the preparation of development schemes by all municipalities. There 

 is also urgent need for complete surveys of areas within and adjoining 

 cities and towns. 



In the Australian system of surveying land regard is paid to 

 the physical conditions in fixing the sizes and boundaries of the farms, 

 to the purpose for which they are to be used, and to their boundaries. 

 For instance, the Land Acts of Victoria, dealing with the Crown lands, 

 while dividing the colony into arbitrary divisions for purposes of 

 administration, enables the unalienated lands within these divisions 

 to be divided into classes for purposes of agricultural use, such as 

 agricultural or grazing lands, pastoral lands, swamp or reclaimed 

 lands, auriferous lands, state forest, timber and water resources. 



In each large district there is a Lands Classification Board, 

 each board consisting of three persons competent to classify the land. 

 Even the tenure under which the land is leased or its suitability for 

 sale varies according to the class under which it comes. The farms 

 range in size from 200 acres of first class agricultural land to 1,280 

 acres of third class grazing land. There is a limit to the area of land 

 which may be leased by one person, varying from 640 acres of first 

 class land to 1,000 acres of second class land. 



The Board of Land and Works of Victoria can also purchase 

 and replan or reclaim areas of good agricultural land, and dispose 

 of it to settlers after improvement. A similar scheme of purchase, of 

 such land as is not being put to adequate or proper use, is needed 

 in Canada. The re-planning of such land would encourage its re- 

 settlement, would enable fewer roads to be set apart and better roads 

 to be made, and would permit of development schemes being pre- 



