SOMETHING FOR NOTHING ?

NO WAY!

Let us look at the General Conditions with respect to The Nepigon Pulp Limit offered for lease by Tender : 7th October, 1910

CONDITIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE NEPIGON PULP LIMIT

The successful tenderer shall enter into an agreement with the Government requiring him to construct within the limits of the territory covered by the right to cut pulpwood, or at some other place approved by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, a pulp and paper mill costing, with equipment thereof and machinery contained therein, not less than five hundred thousand dollars, and will operate the same so that the daily output thereof shall not be less than 150 tons of paper, and so that at least two hundred and fifty hands on an average shall be kept employed in connection therewith for at least ten months of each and every year.

The said sum of five hundred thousand dollars shall be expended as follows: - One hundred thousand dollars during the first year, two hundred thousand dollars during the second year, and the remainder of the said sum during the third year, it being distinctly understood that the erection of such mill and the employment of the hands aforesaid shall form part of the consideration for the price of the pulpwood, and that the cutting of the said pulpwood for the use of the mill may begin as soon as and when fifty thousand dollars shall have been expended on the erection of the said pulp and paper mill and equipment thereof.

2. The successful tenderer to have the right to cut and remove spruce, poplar or whitewood and banksian, or jack pine, 9 inches and upwards in diameter, 2 feet from the ground, sufficient to supply the mill or mills erected, for a period of twenty-one years, from unoccupied, unsold and unlocated lands of the Crown, for a distance of five miles in depth on either side of the River Nepigon and extending back a distance of five miles from the shores of Lake Nepigon, subject to such reasonable terms, conditions and regulations as to the cutting , measuring, removing and driving of the same as may from time to time be imposed  by the Governor in Council.

3. The successful tenderer shall pay dues of 40 cents per cord for spruce and 20 cents per cord for the other woods mentioned, or such other rates as may from time to time be fixed by the Governor in Council.

4. The successful tenderer to get the right to cut the wood only, and not to have any right to the soil or user thereof, except as may be necessary for the cutting and removing the wood.

5. The governor shall retain the right to sell, lease, locate or otherwise dispose of any lands included in the territory on the same terms and conditions for settlement, mining or other purposes as ordinary Crown lands situated elsewhere.

6. The successful tenderer shall not have the right to cut or remove timber of any kind from any lands already under timber ;license or permit from the Crown, or which may hereafter be placed under such license or permit for the cutting of pine during the time such license or permit is in force, or until after the pine timber has been cut therefrom, nor shall any wood be cut in or in the immediate proximity of territory covered with green merchantable pine available for lumbering purposes or which may be considered by the Government to be pine-bearing lands.

7. No wood cut on the said territory shall be exported or sold or disposed of to any other persons, but such wood shall be used for the purpose only of supplying the said mill or mills.

8. The Governor will not guarantee any particular quantity of wood nor undertake to do more than grant the right to cut such quantities of wood of the kinds aforesaid as may be on the said property.

9. Failure to erect the mill or mills and make the required expenditures within the time specified shall entail  forfeiture of the right to cut pulpwood and the bonus paid for the same.

10. Proper sworn returns for the quantity of wood cut each season shall be made to the Government in conformity with the Crown Timber Regulations, and payment shall be made for such wood not later than the first day of November in each year, and the Government shall have all the rights and powers in respect of enforcing such payments as are now provided in the case of timber cut under timber license.

11.No refuse, saw-dust, chemicals or matter of any other kind shall be placed or deposited in any river, stream or other waters which shall or may be injurious to fish life.

12.  No pulpwood, logs, timber or other material not in boats or scows shall be floated or driven or allowed to be floated or driven down or to accumulate in the River Nepigon above Camp Alexander, between the 15th days of June and November in each and every year, and the floating or driving of pulpwood, logs, timber or other material down the said river shall be subject to such further and other regulations as may hereafter from time to time be made by the Government.

13. All Indian Reserves falling within the area of any pulp limit are excluded therefrom.

DEPARTMENT OF LANDS, FORESTS AND MINES, TORONTO, 8TH JULY, 1910 (Nipigon Historical Museum Archives)

After note, September 12, 2012 : in the 1990's we thought ZERO DISCHARGE was something new, but reading # 11 we see that right from square one it was a "condition" for the pulp and paper industry of Ontario.  Now, whether it remained a condition after the  21 years ??