134 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



Dr. Jost naturally asks how this condition is to be remedied, 

 and states he considers the laws unsatisfactory to deal with it. So 

 far as future development is concerned, however, there is adequate 

 power under the Nova Scotia Town Planning Act to effectively con- 

 trol the situation if the Act is properly administered. 



There is also the necessity for preventing owners of lands, which 

 form the natural drainage areas of districts, from withholding ease- 

 ments for the proper drainage of areas belonging to adjoining owners, 

 even when such adjoining owners are willing to make adequate com- 

 pensation. Power is also required to deal with the frequent cases in 

 which the public suffers owing to roads and streets being blocked in 

 sub-divided areas by reason of the conflicting interests of adjoining 

 owners. Expensive and wasteful plans are often the result of sub- 

 divisions being made of separately owned properties, without any 

 co-ordination and, often, at such intervals of time, that no one can 

 foresee when one plan is submitted how contiguous areas will be 

 affected. 



Fire Prevention in Rural Areas 



The preparation of development schemes designed to eliminate 

 the most injurious forms of speculation on the one hand, and to secure 

 uniform by-law administration of sanitation and building construc- 

 tion on the other hand, would do much to remove the principal 

 causes of loss of life and money due to fire. 



The per capita loss from fire in Canada is one of the highest 

 in the world and is increasing. During the last 50 years the fire 

 losses have amounted to $350,000,000; in 1890 they were $5,500,000 

 and in 1914 they were $21,500,000, an increase of 290 per cent as 

 against an increase of only 67 per cent in the population. The 

 value of buildings erected in 1914 was $91,000,000 and of this amount 

 $21,500,000 was spent to repair fire losses. The total cost of fires 

 and fire protection in 1914 was $45,000,000.* 



The loss in Canada which is due to fire is a tax on all classes of 

 industry, and is severely felt in rural districts and small towns. The 

 burden of the loss has to be borne directly or indirectly by every 

 citizen. In proportion as the risk of fire is greater, the cost of insur- 

 ance has to be increased. Although buildings are more scattered 

 in country districts, they are, for that very reason, less satisfactorily 

 provided with water supply under pressure. The consequence is 

 that high insurance has to be paid upon them, and the risk of loss in 



* Address of Sir Clifford Sifton, Eighth Annual Report Commission of Conser- 

 vation. 



