544 



Canadian Forestry Journal, May, jpi6. 



nipeg and Moncton, on the Trans- 

 continental, there are a great many 

 miles of forest owned by other par- 

 ties, and if we pay the St. Maurice 

 Association $4,000 to protect their 

 limits we will have to do the same 

 thing over the entire line from Win- 

 nipeg to Moncton. Of course, we 

 know that all of the railways now 

 maintain tank cars, which are filled 

 with water and kept at convenient 

 points along the road, so that in the 

 event of a fire one of these cars can 

 be brought to the spot within a short 

 time and the fire can be extinguish- 

 ed. That system is working well. 

 Everything should be done by the 

 railway, but it struck me that it was 

 hardly fair for a private company 

 owing limits along the railway to 

 say : we are going to maintain our 

 own men to watch our own limits, 

 but we want you to pay a portion of 

 the expense. The matter came be- 

 fore me during Mr. Cochrane's ab- 

 sence, and that is the position I 

 took. I referred it to the manage- 

 ment at Moncton to get their opin- 

 ion as to what should be done, and 

 also suggested that whatever was 

 done would have to apply to the 

 whole system ; there must be one 

 policy throughout the system. 



The True Position. 



"Mr. Bureau : From the minister's 

 statement one would believe that 

 the St. Maurice Protective Associa- 

 tion was going begging for the 

 $3,500 from the Government. That 

 is not the fact. The fact is that the 

 Transcontinental Railway Company, 



like other railway companies, under 

 the law is obliged to keep its right 

 of way clear to prevent forest fires. 

 The Transcontinental railway does 

 not do it. It is complained that the 

 Transcontinental railway, through 

 the neglect of its officers, was expos- 

 ing the forest to be burned. Fires 

 did catch from the engines, owing to 

 the lack of proper precautions, and 

 these fires cost the association from 

 $3,500 to $4,000. They ask the Gov- 

 ernment to recoup them the money 

 they have been obliged to expend 

 owing to the negligence of the Gov- 

 ernment. That is not a question of 

 policy, but a question of fair dealing 

 as between man and man. 



A Promise of Reform. 



"Mr. Reid : I did not understand 

 that there was any claim. I thought 

 the representations were with refer- 

 ence to future operations. There is 

 no doubt at all that if the manage- 

 ment is not doing its duty in pro- 

 tecting that part of the road as the 

 law requires, and as it is protected 

 in other parts. I will bring it to the 

 attention of the management and 

 see that whatever is necessary to put 

 the Transcontinental in exactly the 

 same position as other roads, so far 

 as protection is concerned, is done. 



The Cover Picture 



The photograph reproduced on 

 the cover of the Journal this month 

 was taken on the Nelson River, 

 Canada, and shows a group of fire 

 rangers. 



From HON. JULES ALLARD, Minister of Lands and For- 

 ests, Quebec, May 2, 1916: "I have no hesitation whatever to 

 state that the Canadian Forestry Association has rendered the 

 greatest services to the country and that the work it has done has 

 contributed in a great measure to a more judicious operation of 

 our forests and to the adoption of more efficient means to secure 

 their conservation. It performs a work of very great value which 

 deserves the encouragement of our population." 



