Lumbermen, however, found it cheaper to buy the land, making only part payment, and after cutting the best timber, forfeiting the land; contractors who had the monopoly for cutting the timber for the royal navy cut also for their own account; corruption and graft pervaded the administration, which enriched its followers with the revenues obtained from the timber licenses and otherwise. The strong hand which, in the absence of a strong government, lumbermen were driven to use in order to protect themselves from piracy by their neighbors, or else to perpetrate such, brought about many bloody conflicts. The general maladministration of the so-called “Family Compact” besides other grievances, caused the revolution of 1837, which, although readily put down, led to the union of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada in 1841, and to reform of the abuses. It was then, that, after the new governor-general, Lord Durham’s admirable report on the situation, the home government turned over the administration (in part at least) and revenues of the crownlands to the several provincial governments. At that time in New Brunswick, where a thriving export trade had been early established the dues on $2 million worth of production were involved, and in Quebec and Ontario the income amounted to between $200,000 and $300,000.
But even then, the immediate revenue, and not any concern for its continuation animated the administration of the public or crown forests. The free-hand sales for nominal sums were changed into licenses to cut, and in order to secure larger returns these were by and by put up at auction for competitive bids, the premium or “bonus” being paid for the limits, (i.e., a limited territory on which the holder or licensee had the exclusive right to cut), in addition to the fixed dues or charges per unit for the timber actually cut. Later, to discourage the holding of timber limits for a rise of prices, an annual cut of first 1,000, then 500 feet per square mile of holdings was required. To still further accelerate the use of the licenses to cut, the Crown Timber Act of 1849 limited the license to one year, and provided for an eventual limit in size of the grants. All these provisions forced to more rapid cutting and overproduction, and depression in the lumber market was the result, the supply in 1847 being 44 million feet to meet an export of 19 million.
New rules were promulgated in 1851, introducing a ground rent system, a set price being paid per square mile of limit, and doubling the ground rent for unused limits each year. Needless to say, the impracticability of this geometric progression in ground rents became visible in a few years.
The final present systems in the disposal of timber limits, varying in detail, were gradually perfected in varying manner by the several provincial governments, but they agree in general principles, in that they grant limits for a certain time, some by the year, others by periods, usually 21 years, during which certain conditions as to establishment of mills and amount of manufacture without waste must be fulfilled, and a ground rent, a bonus, and timber dues for all timber cut are to be paid by the limit holder, details and prices varying and being changed from time to time. A diameter limit below which trees are not to be cut also mostly prevails. Lately, sales by the thousand feet B. M. have been inaugurated in Ontario, and sale by the mile is to be abandoned.
As a rule licenses become negotiable and can be transferred upon paying a small fee per square mile.
The governments reserving absolute rights to change conditions of this contract at any time, the interest of the licensee is to cut as fast as he can; other unsatisfactory conditions leading in the same direction.
A Department of Crown Lands in the Dominion government and in each province (in Nova Scotia the Attorney-General acting as head) administers the lands. Scalers or cullers attend to the measuring of the cut. The revenue derived by this system by all the provinces amounts now to round 4.5 million dollars per year, Ontario leading with about 20,000 square miles now under license, (mostly pine), producing in 1910, $1,835,000; the yearly average for the decade ending 1910 was 13⁄4 million dollars, and some 41 million dollars have altogether accrued since 1867; Quebec, with over 70,000 square miles under license, (mostly in spruce,) producing only about $700,000, nearly 30 million dollars having accrued during the 43 years, or at the rate of $418 per square mile, two-thirds of which from dues.
Since land for settlement is, as in the United States, obtainable by homestead and other entries, a good many fraudulent applications under guise of settlement have curtailed the revenue, until now closer scrutiny of the fitness of land for settlement is made.
The retention of the lands by the government is naturally a feature which would permit and should have earlier induced conservative forestry methods, but the immediate revenue interest has had and still has a more potent influence than considerations of the future.