366 Canada. 



voices of prominent Canadians, like that of Sir Henry 

 Joly de Lotbiniere had been heard before in advo- 

 cacy of a more far-seeing policy, the meeting of the 

 American Forestry Congress at Montreal in 1882 may 

 be set as the date of the inception of this movement 

 in Canada. 



The definite result of that meeting was the inaugu- 

 ration of forest fire legislation in the various provinces. 

 In the Province of Ontario, the Fire Act of 1878, 

 which had until then remained a dead letter, was im- 

 proved, in 1885, by inaugurating a fire ranger system, 

 in which limit holders pay one-half the cost of the 

 rangers. In New Brunswick a fire law was passed in 

 1885, followed in 1897 by the introduction of the 

 Ontario ranger system. In 1883 Nova Scotia passed a 

 forest fire law, which, like that of New Brunswick, 

 remained ineffective for lack of machinery; this was 

 not provided until 1904, and has worked most satis- 

 factorily. Recently a forest survey of the Province 

 was begun. Quebec also enacted fire legislation in 

 1883, but did not provide means to carry it into 

 effect until 1889. Since at first only $5,000 annu- 

 ally was allowed for its execution, and by 1901-2 not 

 more than $7,226 was expended for fire protection over 

 an area of 40 million acres, its effectiveness may be 

 doubted, until, in 1905, a special Forest-Protection 

 Branch, with a ranger system after the Ontario pat- 

 tern was organized. Ontario in that year, on one- 

 quarter the area, had already increased its expenditure 

 for protection to $34,200 with effect, and in 1906 ex- 

 pected to spend $90,000 from the provincial treasury, 

 in addition to $70,000 to $80,000 contributed by limit 



