When the French took possession of the country, all the land belonged to
the king, and could be held by others only under feudal tenure, i.e., as
a gift under obligation of counter service. The whole country was placed
as a fief under the rule of the Hundred Associates, a company which also
exercised a trading and colonizing monopoly, but made no success, and
was dissolved in 1663. It was then that Richelieu introduced the system
of seigniorial tenure, the land being divided into portions of from 100
to 500 square miles, usually with a certain amount of river front, and
given outright to younger noblemen, favorites of the court, and clerics,
who were, however, obligated to subgrant to colonists, thereby becoming
so many immigration agents. These not only treated their colonists as
tenants, exacting rent and service, but exercised nearly absolute
jurisdiction within their domains, the colonists becoming virtually
serfs or retainers of the seigneurs. This condition continued until
1854, when an adjustment of rights was formulated by the Seigneurial
Tenures Act, and the government aided the “habitans” to secure their
freedom by indemnifying the seigneurs, or else by paying rent, which
was done mostly.
Under English rule, the granting of lands, without, however, the
seignorial rights, was continued. In 1784, such grants were made along
the St. Lawrence and the Bay of Quinte to veterans of the loyalist army,
some 20,000, in lots of 200 acres for privates up to 5,000 acres for
field officers. In 1791, every seventh section was ordered to be set
aside as Clergy Reserves for the support of the Protestant Church, a
measure which created much friction, and formed, especially in the Roman
Catholic province of Quebec, a chief grievance in starting the Papineau
rebellion of 1837. Some 3,300,000 acres were gradually withdrawn for
this purpose, and as far as possible leased to secure an income. Some of
these lands were sold after 1827, and finally, in 1853, a statute was
passed to sell the remainder and turn over the proceeds to
municipalities for educational purposes and local improvement.
Extensive grants and sales were made to lumbermen and speculators. In
this manner, by the granting of 13,000 acres to an American, Philemon
Wright, in 1800, the great lumber industry of Ottawa was started, and,
in 1836, another American syndicate secured about a million acres of
grants. Out of the 50 million acres granted in aid of railroad
construction, some portion must also have been in timber. By all these
methods as well as by small grants and sales to settlers a large area of
uncertain extent has become private property.
In Nova Scotia, nearly the entire government domain has passed by grant
and sale into private hands, some 6 million acres, one-half in small
holdings. Of the lands remaining in the crown at least two-thirds is on
barrens. Similarly, in Prince Edward Island, the 800 square miles of
woodland remaining are almost wholly owned privately, the 14,000 acres
of state land being, like most of the private property, stripped of its
value.
In New Brunswick over 1.6 million acres, mostly woodland (containing
over 10 billion feet) was granted to the railway company and another
million acres or so is in other private possession; a liberal disposal
of lands having been continued until 1883, when about 7¼ million acres
of timber and waste land remained to the crown.
In Quebec some 6 million acres are estimated as privately owned, mostly
in woodlots on farms. In Ontario the private woodland area of commercial
character may be over 5 million acres.
Besides the large grants which were and still are probably to the
greatest extent in timberlands, the farms in the various provinces,
according to the Census of 1901, have from 22 to 57 per cent. in
woodlots, or altogether probably in the neighborhood of 30 million
acres.
The total area privately owned may then be placed at not to exceed, say
40 million acres, and the largest part of the forest area, is still
crown lands, the government of the different provinces and the Dominion
government in the territories and in the middle provinces administering
them and deriving the revenue therefrom. This condition has prevailed
since 1837, when the home government gave up its claim to land and
revenues.
The provincial ownership extends over about 500,000 square miles. The
Dominion government owns an area of 20,000 square miles in the railway
belt of British Columbia, 20 miles on each side of the railway for 500
miles, which contains good timber, and some 722,000 square miles of land
in the middle provinces which contains practically only timber suitable
for local use.