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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 44

Timber Lands

page 51

Timber Lands,

Provisions are made in the Act for disposing of the timber lands so as to benefit the greatest possible number of settlers, and to prevent any petty monopoly. In the subdivision of townships, consisting partly of prairie and partly of timber land, such of the sections as contain islands, belts, or other tracts of timber may be subdivided into such number of wood lots, of not less than ten and not more than twenty acres in each lot, as will afford one such wood lot to each quarter section prairie farm in such township.

The local agent, as settlers apply for homestead rights in it township, shall if required apportion to each quarter section one of the adjacent wood lots, which shall be paid for by the applicant at the rate of SI.00 per acre. When the claimant has fulfilled all requirements of the Act, a patent will issue to him for such wood lot.

Any homestead claimant who, previous to the issue of the patent, shall sell any of the timber on his claim, or on the wood-lot appertaining to his claim, to saw-mill proprietors or to any other than settlers for their own private use, shall be guilty of a trespass and may be prosecuted therefor, and shall forfeit his claim absolutely.

The word timber includes all lumber, and all products of timber, including firewood or bark.

The right of cutting timber shall be put up at a bonus per square mile, varying according to the situation and value of the limit, and sold to the highest bidder by competition, cither by tender or by public auction.

The purchaser shall receive a lease for 21 years, granting the right of cutting timber on the land, with the following conditions: To erect a saw mill or mills in connection with such limit or lease, of a capacity to cut at the rate of 1,000 feet broad measure in 24 hours, for every two and a half square miles of limits in the lease, or to establish such other manufactory of wooden goods, the equivalent of such mill or mills, and the lessee to work the limit within two years from the date thereof, and during each succeeding year of the term;

To take from every tree he cuts down all the timber fit for use, and manufacture the same into sawn lumber or some other saleable product;

To prevent all unnecessary destruction of growing timber on the part of his men, and to prevent the origin and spread of fires;

To make monthly returns to Government of the quantities sold or disposed of—of all sawn lumber, timber, cordwood, bark, etc., and the price and value thereof;

To pay, in addition to the bonus, an annual ground-rent of $2.00 per square mile, and further, a royalty of 5 per cent, on his monthly account;

page 52

To keep correct books, and submit the same for the inspection of the collector of dues whenever required.

The lease shall be subject to forfeiture for infraction of any of the Conditions to which it is subject, or for any fraudulent return.

The lessee who faithfully carries out these conditions shall have the refusal of the same limits, if not required for settlement, for a further term not exceeding 21 years, on payment of the same amount of bonus per square mile as was paid originally, and on such lessee agreeing to such conditions, and to pay such other rates as may be determined on for such second term.

The standard measure used in the surveys on the Dominion is the English measure of length.

Dues to the Crown are to bear interest, and to be a lien on timber cut on limits. Such timber may be seized and sold in payment.

Any person cutting timber without authority on any Dominion lands, shall, in addition to the loss of his labour and disbursements, forfeit a sum not exceeding æ3 for each tree he is proved to have cut down. Timber seized as forfeited shall be deemed to be condemned, in default of owner claiming it within one month.