Canadian Forestry Journal. June. i()i6. 



595 



raft is built entirely of mercantile 

 and marketable lumber and timber, 

 is in no sense water-tight and there- 

 fore depends entirely upon buoy- 

 ancy and not displacement in the 

 ordinary acceptance of the technical 

 meaning-. The ever-chang-ing strain 

 which must prevail is provided for, 

 without which anv floatino; bodv 

 would go to pieces in any storm. 

 The midship section is decidedly 

 ellipsoid, the deck being turtle back 

 for economic reasons readily appar- 

 ent to the competent ship designer 

 or marine architect who will give 

 due consideration to the problem. 

 Tozving Problem. 



"Towing has been fully consider- 

 ed, including the cause and preven- 

 tion of the snapping of the tow-line 



and the ship-raft will be steered 

 from the after-deck of the towing 

 vessel. Sea rafts of the type sug- 

 gested may be made up entirely of 

 marketable timber and lumber, and 

 no lumber need be cut or bored for 

 constructive purposes. The entire 

 outside layer could be composed of 

 slabs which have no marketable 

 value in Canada:, but would be use- 

 ful here. 



"This is an outline of Captain 

 Midford's project. If he can make 

 it successful he will be doing a ser- 

 vice to humanity, for the ships can 

 thus be relieved of wood cargoes for 

 more pressing services." 



Captain Midford is taking up his 

 suggestion with the authorities in 

 Canada. 



The Taxpayer's Soliloquy 



Reprinted from "A Matter of Opinion" a Booklet Issued by the 



Association. 



"I never knew how much red 

 blood there is in Figures until the 

 Council made me Chairman of the 

 Finance Committee down at the 

 City Hall. When a fellow realizes, 

 as I soon did, that every dollar in 

 the local treasury rings a' bell in the 

 taxpayer's pocket, he gets an un- 

 canny feeling that tax money be- 

 longs to a different tribe from any 

 other money. 



"Last winter I spent a week on 

 the borders of the Temagami Forest 

 Reserve in North Ontario. Two 

 miles from the village a lumber firm 

 were taking out pine logs for their 

 mills in Quebec. I said to the woods 

 superintendent one day: "This busi- 

 ness looks like easy money : Nature 

 does all the work and you step in 

 and lift the crop." And then I began 

 telling him about the hard time I 

 had^ running a Finance Committee 

 in a city of fifteen thousand. 



"You don't know how much 

 harder it would be," he replied, "if 

 this forest-crop was left unharvested 

 a few years." 



"What difference would that 

 make ?" 



"You are a taxpayer?" I nodded. 



"And provincial administration is 

 not paid for direct by municipalities, 

 but by special revenues." 



"Quite true." 



"Did you know that the Ontario 

 government takes from $1,500,000 to 

 $2,500,000 tolls from the timber 

 every year?" 



''I certainly never heard of that." 



"And that British Columbia gets 

 $2,300,000 and over from her lumber- 

 men?" 



"Sounds impossible." 



"While Quebec is made richer by 

 about $1,500,000 a year from the 

 same source — the timber." 



