RAILWAY FOREST FIRES 



"4. The Board may order, upon such terms and conditions 

 as it deems expedient, that fire guards be established and main- 

 tained by the company along the route of its railway and upon 

 any lands, of His Majesty or of any person, Ijong along such route, 

 and, subject to the terms and conditions of any such order, the 

 company may at all times enter into and upon such lands for the 

 purpose of estabHshing and maintaining such fire guards thereon, 

 and freeing, from dead or dry grass, weeds and other tmnecessary 

 inflammable matter, the land between such fire guards and the line 

 of railway." 



It will be noted that these provisions fall naturally into six classes, 

 namely : 



(i) The use of fiare protective appliances on locomotives. 



(2) The estabUshment and maintenance of a staff of fire-rangers 

 for special patrol work. 



(3) The regulation of locomotive fuel. 



(4) The clearing of rights of way. 



(s) The financial responsibility of railway companies for fire 

 loss due to railway locomotives. 



(6) The construction and maintenance of fire guards along railway 

 lines. 



The first and fovirth of these were included in the original Rail- 

 way Act of 1903, and have been carried forward without change into 

 the present Railway Act. 



The sixth, relating to fire guards, was included in the Railway Act 

 of 1903, in the paragraph relative to the use of fire-protective appUances 

 on locomotives, and was later expanded, in 1909, and re-enacted in 

 191 1, as shown in subsection 4 of Section 298 above. The modification 

 gave the Board authority to specify the conditions under which fire 

 guards shall be constructed, with especial reference to entry for that 

 purpose upon the lands of His Majesty or any other person. 



The financial responsibility of railway companies for fitre losses 

 was included in the original Railway Act of 1903, and was shghtly 

 modified in the revision of the Act of 1906 ; it was again amended in 

 1909, then in 19 10, and was re-enacted in its present form in 191 1, as 

 shown in Subsections 1,2, and 3 of Section 298 above. The later action 

 of the Board in regulating the kind of locomotive fuel to be used was 

 forecast in Section 269, enacted in 1906. 



The requirement as to the establishment of special patrols by rail- 

 way companies, was enacted in 191 1, due in considerable part to the 

 influence of the Commission of Conservation. This is the most pro- 

 gressive, perhaps the most radical requirement of all, since in this re- 

 spect the Railway Act takes advanced ground over any other railway 



