Division of Act. "Timber lease" means any lease for the cutting and removal of Crown timber for any purpose, granted under this or any former Act of the Legislature: "Timber leasehold" means the lands specified and comprised in any timber lease: "Timber licence" means any special timber licence, pulp licence, hand-logger's licence, or other licence for the cutting and removal of Crown timber for any purpose, granted under this or any former Act of the Legislature: "Timber limit" means the lands specified and comprised in any timber licence. 3. This Act is divided into twelve parts, relating to the following subjects: PART I. FOREST BRANCH OF DEPARTMENT OF LANDS. 4. For the purpose of administering and carrying out the provisions of this Act, there shall be in the Department of Lands a branch known as the "Forest Branch." 1912, c. 17, s. 4 (1). 5. The Forest Branch shall have jurisdiction over and shall control and administer all matters relating to or in anywise connected with forestry, and particularly, and without restricting the gener ality of the foregoing provision, shall have jurisdiction over and shall, subject to and in compliance with the provisions of the Statutes of the Province for the time being in force, control and regulate, receive and administer, or invoke and enforce, as the case may be: (a.) All the rights, properties, interests, claims, and demands of the Crown in right of the Province in Crown timber: (b.) All revenues and moneys of the Crown in right of the Province arising from forestry, Crown timber, and grazing: (c.) Conservation of forests: (d.) Reforestation: (c.) Prevention of forest fires: (f.) Sales and dispositions of Crown timber: (g.) Cutting, classifying, measuring, manufacturing, branding, and exporting of trees, timber, and products of the forest: (h.) Statutes, rules, and regulations relating to the regulation of forestry, the protection of forests, and the grazing of Crown lands. 1912, c. 17, s. 4 (3). staff. 6. A Chief Forester, a Supervisor of Scalers, and such District Appointment of Foresters and other officers, clerks, and servants as are required for the proper conduct of the Forest Branch may be appointed pursuant to the provisions of the "Civil Service Act," all of whom shall hold office during pleasure. 1912, c. 17, s. 4 (2) (redrawn). 7. No officer, clerk, or servant of the Forest Branch shall have, acquire, or hold, directly or indirectly, any property or interest in any timber lease or timber licence, or hold any licence or authority from the Crown in right of the Province to utilize or deal with any timber or product of the forest, or engage or have any interest in any business carried on in the Province having as its object the utilization or dealing in any timber or product of the forest. 1912, c. 17, s. 4 (5) (part, redrawn). Members of staff dealing in Crown prohibited from timber. of Minister. 8. It shall be the duty of the Minister to make a report to the Annual report Lieutenant-Governor of the conduct of the Forest Branch up to the thirty-first day of December in each year, which report shall be laid before the Legislative Assembly. 1912, c. 17, s. 4 (4). 9. The Lieutenant-Governor in Council may constitute any por- Forest districts. tion of the Province a forest district, and declare by what local name it shall be known, and may from time to time extend, reduce, subdivide, or annul any existing forest district or merge it in whole. or in part in the consolidation of two or more forest districts. 1912, c. 17, s. 5 (part). PART II. Cutting of timber PREVENTION OF TRESPASS UPON CROWN TIMBER LANDS. 10. (1.) It shall be unlawful for any person, without a timber lease or a timber licence in that behalf, to cut or remove any trees, prohibited. timber, or products of the forest upon or from any Crown lands. without licence (2.) Every person who violates the provisions of subsection (1) Penalty. shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a penalty of not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than five hundred dollars. 1912, c. 17, Exception in favour of travellers and explorers. No rights acquired by person who unlawfully cuts timber. Seizure of timber unlawfully cut. Forfeiture where timber unlawfully cut is mixed with other timber. Payment of stumpage where timber unlawfully cut is removed beyond reach of Crown. Recovery by action. Evidence. 11. This Act shall not be construed to inflict penalties upon travellers or upon persons engaged in scientific pursuits or exploration in respect of cutting timber for actual bona-fide needs. c. 41, s. 2. 1922, 12. (1.) If any person, unlawfully or otherwise than is permitted by this Act, cuts, or employs or induces any other person to cut or assist in cutting, any trees or timber on any Crown lands, or removes any trees or timber so cut, or any products of the forest from any Crown lands, he shall not acquire any right to such trees, timber, or products of the forest or any claim to any remuneration for cutting, preparing the same for market, or conveying the same to or towards market, nor shall any lien be acquired on such trees, timber, or products of the forest, any other Statute notwithstanding. (2.) Any such trees, timber, or products of the forest may be seized by the Minister or any officer of the Forest Branch, or any person acting under the authority or by direction of either of them, and shall, if cut on or removed from any timber leasehold or timber limit, be sold for the benefit of the Crown, subject to the lawful claims of the lessee or licensee. 1912, c. 17, s. 63 (part). 13. Where timber has been cut unlawfully or otherwise than is permitted by this Act on Crown lands, and has been made up with other timber into a crib or raft, or in any manner has been so mixed up as to render it impossible or difficult to distinguish the timber so cut from other timber with which it is mixed up, the whole of the timber so mixed up shall be held to have been cut unlawfully, and shall be liable to seizure and forfeiture unless the timber so cut is separated by the holder satisfactorily to the officer making the seizure. 1912, c. 17, s. 64. 14. (1.) Where any trees or timber or products of the forest, cut or removed as mentioned in section 12, have been removed or dealt with in such a manner that, in the opinion of any officer of the Forest Branch, a seizure of the same under the provisions of this Part is impossible, inconvenient, or inadvisable, the person who cut or removed the same, or caused the same to be cut or removed, shall pay to the Crown such sum in lieu of stumpage and royalty on the same as the Minister may determine. The certificate of the Minister stating the amount so determined shall be conclusive evidence of the sum payable. (2.) The sum so payable may be recovered with costs by action as for a debt due to the Crown in any Court of competent jurisdiction. 1920, c. 44, s. 13 (redrawn). 15. In all cases arising under this Part it shall be incumbent upon the defendant to prove his authority to cut or remove, and the averment only of the person seizing or prosecuting that he is employed or acting under the authority of this Act shall be sufficient proof thereof, unless the defendant proves the contrary. 1912, c. 17, s. 63 (part). PART III. DISPOSITION OF TIMBER BY THE CROWN. 16. Crown timber which is subject to disposition by the Crown Disposition by shall be disposed of only by the Minister pursuant to the provisions Minister. of this Act and the regulations. 1912, c. 17, s. 10; 1914, c. 32, s. 4; 1921, c. 28, s. 3 (redrawn). licence by public 17. (1.) The Minister may from time to time, at the instance of sale of timber any applicant, or otherwise, advertise for sale and sell by public competition. competition in the manner prescribed in the regulations a licence to cut and remove any Crown timber which is subject to disposition by the Crown. purchase licence. (2.) Every offer to purchase a licence under this section shall in- offers to clude an offer on behalf of the person making the same to pay to the Crown, in addition to all royalties and taxes reserved or imposed by Statute: (a.) The cost incurred by the Forest Branch in cruising, sur- preliminary (c.) Such stumpage or additional sum, being not less than the upset price fixed by the Minister as the person making the offer is willing to pay for the privileges of the licence. (3.) The cost of cruising payable under subsection (2) may be Expenses of fixed by the Minister, in his discretion, to include a reasonable sum cruising. to cover the actual and necessary expenses incurred by the original applicant for the licence in the preliminary cruising of the timber, such sum not to exceed the cost of cruising ordinarily incurred by the Forest Branch under similar circumstances, which sum shall be paid over to the original applicant in the event of his making a bona-fide offer to purchase the licence and failing to obtain the same by reason of the acceptance of another offer therefor. stumpage value less (4.) Where the stumpage value to the Crown of the timber com- Sales where prised in the licence proposed to be sold is less than one thousand than $1,000. dollars, the Minister may remit all or any part of the charges Power to reject offers. Contract of purchase. Subsequent sale without further advertisement. Pulp licences. Limitation of pulp of mill. specified in clauses (a) and (b) of subsection (2), and may make the sale without advertisement and in such manner as he may prescribe. (5.) The Minister may, in his discretion, reject any or all offers made for the purchase of the licence. (6.) Upon the acceptance of an offer for the purchase of the licence, a contract, in writing, which shall constitute the licence, shall be entered into in a form approved by the Minister. 1917, c. 36, s. 4; 1918, c. 44, s. 3 (part). 18. Where a licence has been advertised for sale by the Minister and no offer to purchase is received, or no sale is made, the Minister may at any time, without further advertisement, sell the licence upon the terms and conditions previously advertised and applying to the licence, except that the amount payable by the purchaser shall not include any sum in respect of expenses incurred by the original applicant for the licence in the preliminary cruising of the timber. 1917, c. 36, s. 4; 1918, c. 44, s. 3 (part). 19. (1.) Where the Crown timber, the licence to cut and remove which is proposed to be sold, is chiefly valuable for the manufacture of wood-pulp, the licence shall be described as a "pulp licence," and the Minister may require every person making an offer therefor to produce proof that he is the owner of a mill for the manufacture of wood-pulp or paper of a capacity approved by the Minister; or, in the alternative, may require from such person a bond of fifty thousand dollars and such other guarantee as the Minister may think fit for the erection and completion of a mill for the manufacture of wood-pulp or paper within a time and of a capacity approved by the Minister. (2.) Pulp licences issued to or held by any person shall be appurlicences to capacity tenant to the mill in respect of which they were issued, and the total area held under such licences in respect of any mill shall be governed and limited by the output capacity of the mill, and shall not comprise at any one time more than thirty years' supply of pulpwood for that mill. Forfeiture of licence in case of (3.) Where the holder of a pulp licence fails to carry out the erection and completion of a mill in the manner and within the time required under subsection (1), or, except with the consent in writing of the Minister, fails to maintain in operation the mill in respect of which the licence was issued, and where the failure of the holder continues for three months after notice by the Minister mailed by registered mail to the last-known address of the holder, as shown by the records of the Forest Branch, or published in four consecutive issues of the Gazette, requiring the completion of the mill or its maintenance in operation, as the case may be, then, unless the written consent of the Minister is obtained extending the time for the completion of the mill or approving of it remain |