242 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY 



A comprehensive survey of the social, physical and industrial con- 

 ditions of all rural territory should be made, with the object of ascertain- 

 ing, first; the main facts regarding the problems of rural life and rural 

 development in territory already settled and organized; and, second, more 

 precise information than is now available regarding natural resources 

 in unorganized territory. 



The survey should be so prepared as to enable constructive proposals 

 to be formulated regarding the economic development of the natural and 

 industrial resources of the country, and regarding the location of new 

 towns, railways and highways. 



It should include a complete inventory and an additional survey of 

 all lands which have been already surveyed and homesteaded with a view 

 to securing their settlement under proper conditions and to devising 

 means to lessen injurious speculation. 



It should deal with questions of taxation and assessment of land and 

 buildings for provincial and local purposes. 



Settlement of remote areas should be suspended while the survey is 

 being made; and further Crown lands should not be alienated until after 

 proper plans of development have been prepared and certain preliminary 

 improvements carried out, and only then when it is definitely ascertained 

 that the land can be put to economic use. 



Detailed topographical maps showing all existing physical conditions 

 should be prepared for the most valuable and thickly populated parts 

 of the Dominion and the cost distributed over all branches of government. 



With regard to the need of an extended topographical survey, this 

 seems to be a matter on which there is only one opinion among leading 

 surveyors.* It is not suggested that the present methods of surveying, 

 indexing and describing the land should be superseded, but that they 

 should be extended so as to utilize topographical information that is 

 contained in the field notes of surveyors. This information could be 

 usefully shown on the maps and used as the basis for proper plans 

 of development. In the different branches of the Department of the 

 Interior consideration is being given to the sub-division of land from 

 other points }f view than that of simply obtaining the most accurate 



*"I quite agree that our survey is incomplete." Dr. Deville, Surveyor-General 

 of Canada. 



"It is time to improve the methods and further survey the land that was sur- 

 veyed in the old days Our Homestead Act is entirely out of date. It did good 



work in the start but it has outgrown its past In laying out towns the work 



should be given to expert town planners. J. S. Dennis, Assistant to the President 

 C.P.R.; President Can. Soc. of C.E., D.T.S. From addresses at the tenth annual 

 meeting of Association of Dominion Land Surveyors. 



