TAX LANDS AND FORESTRY. 71 



A. They can be sold at private sale at the appraised value, but in 

 no case for less. 



Q. That covers the land sale phase of the act. When and how do 

 they become subject to homestead entry? 



A. They become subject to homestead entry as soon as they become 

 subject to sale. 



Q. What is your method in granting these entries? 



A. My method has been, first, to ascertain if the land applied for 

 was suitable for general agricultural purposes; secondly, to ascertain 

 the character of the applicant, whether he is a bona fide applicant for 

 a home or whether he is making application for speculative purposes. 

 If the land is found to be suitable for agriculture and the applicant 

 bears a proper recommendation, it has always been a pleasure to me to 

 grant a homestead certificate, but in. no other case. 



Q. Who decides when the lands shall be offered at public sale? 



A. The Land Commissioner and the Auditor General. 



Q. What determines yourself and the Auditor General as to holding 

 the public sales? 



A. The rights of the people in the localities where the lands are 

 located, as about 75% of the sale immediately reverts back to the county 

 where the lands are located. Many of the township and county boards 

 petition and ask for the sale of the lands. 



Q. The quantity of the land and the date of sales are within the 

 discretion of the Commissioner? 



A. Yes. The Auditor General has nothing to say about it. 



Q. About what proportion of the purchases made of these lands are 

 made at the public sale and what proportion at private sale? I mean 

 now, speaking of lands outside of cities and towns. 



A. The private sales are very much greater. 



Q. What determines the price? Merely the examination of the ap- 

 praisers that go over it? 



A. The appraisers; and, of course, estimates that we form on general 

 principles, as to location, isolation of the land, and general conditions. 



THE PRETENDED SETTLER OR TIMBER PIRATE. 



Extract from a paper read by Hon. W. C. Edwards before Canadian 

 Forestry Association and referred to by the Commissioner of the Land 

 Office in the foregoing statement : 



The mere pretence of settlement goes on as a means of plundering 

 the public timber wealth of the country. Men take up land under the 

 pretence of settlement. They comply with the necessary forms, hold 

 the land long enough to sell the timber upon it, and then abandon 

 their "farms." Being a plunderer who merely assumes the disguise 

 of a settler, this man has no interest. If, by carelessness in carrying 

 on his own petty and illegitimate operations, he should start a fire, 

 he loses nothing. 



In my opinion, at least ninety per cent, of the forest destruction in 

 Ontario and Quebec had been due to settlers setting fires for the pur- 

 pose of clearing the land. 



There is a way to clear land by burning without destroying the coun- 



