ILLUSTBATED GUIDE. H 



CHAP. IL 



DUTIES OF THE PBOVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS AS REGARDS THE 

 PRESERVATION OF THE FORESTS. 



In the hands of the different provincial governments 

 lie the chief means of preserving our forests : I mean the 

 power of legislation. 



A great part of the woodlands of the Dominion still 

 remains in the hands of the governments of the different 

 provinces. Our statesmen thus possess the power of 

 doing all that is necessary to protect our forests from 

 decay and ruin. 



I shall content myself in this place with pointing out 

 the way in which our legislators should proceed with a 

 view to the immediate preservation of our timbered 

 districts. 



My own opinion is, that a law declaring that, as a 

 general rule, no woodland, unfit for cultivation when 

 cleared, shall for the future be granted to settlers, would 

 be the first direction-post in the right road. What do 

 we see now-a-days ? A vast extent of land, utterly 

 valueless from an agricultural point of view, has been 

 conceded ; the first settlers have cleared off the wood, 

 and have immediately vanished from the scene. Their 

 successors, dying of hunger on these ungrateful soils, 

 have also vanished, and taken their departure for the 

 stranger's land. There lies the land, stripped for ever of 

 its natural wealth ; utterly useless, and lost . to all the 

 ends of rural economy. Had the government retained it 

 in its own hands, it would now be returning a revenue ; 

 wood lor fuel and for building could be sold from it ; 

 and, certain rules for the preservation of the growing 

 timber being observed, the restoration of the forest 



