CHAPTER SIXTH. DEPARTMENT OF CROWN LANDS AND MATTERS CONNECTED PART FIRST THE DEPARTMENT OF CROWN LANDS. SECTION I. THE COMMISSIONER AND HIS FUNCTIONS. 1236. The Commissioner of Crown Lands, validly desig- Administranated in this chapter under the name of Commissioner, has the tion of Comadministration and direction of the Department of Crown missioner. Lands. B. N. A. Act, 1867, ss. 63, 92, 134 and 135; 32 V., c. 11, s. 1. functions. 1237. His functions, powers and duties are the following: Powers, 1. He has, throughout the Province, the oversight, control duties and and management of everything connected with the administration and sale of the public lands belonging to the Province, and of the timber and wood thereon. B. N. A. Act, 1867, s. 92. 2. He has the management of escheats. 48 V., c. 10, s. 1. 3. Fisheries on the banks of non-navigable rivers and streams, and lakes in the Province are under his control. 46 V., c. 8. 4. The carrying out of the game laws is also under his supervision. 47 V., c. 25. 5. The preparation of official plans and books of reference is under his direction. C. C. 2166 et seq.; 32 V., c. 25; 38 V., e. 15; 49-50 V., c. 11. 6. He has control over everything connected with the administration and sale of mining lands in the Province. 43-44 V., c. 12. 7. He administers the property of the Jesuits' Estates, Crown Domain, and of the Seigniory of Lauzon. 36 V., c. 8, s. 5. 8. He performs all the duties and executes all the powers of the Surveyor-General of the late Province of Canada, in respect of matters connected with this Province. 32 V., c. 11, s. 3. port. 1238. The Commissioner annually lays before the Legisla- Annual reture, within ten days after the beginning of each session, a report of the proceedings of the Department during the year then next preceding. 32 V., c. 11, s. 8. Lists of public lands for sale to be published. Lists of public lands sold to be transmit- secretary- 1239. He causes lists of the public lands for sale in the several townships in the Province to be made out from time to time, and advertised and published as he deems most advisable for ensuring general information. 32 V., c. 11, s. 34. 1240. He shall transmit, as early as possible in each year, to the secretary-treasurer of every county municipality, a list of the public lands sold, granted, leased, appropriated or set apart to any person, or for which licenses of occupation have been granted in such county municipality, during the year next preceding, and for which no patents have issued. Such lands shall be liable for the assessed taxes in the townsuch lands for ships in which they respectively lie, from the date of such sale, taxes, &c. license or appropriation; and the purchaser, at the sale of any such lands for taxes, shall, as heretofore, have in the lands so sold the same rights only as the person entitled to claim under the Crown at the time of such sale. Notice of cancellation of sales, &c., to be given to secretarytreasurers and registrars; effect as to taxes. Powers and Surveyor 2. He shall, in like manner, apprise each such secretarytreasurer of the cancellation of any license of occupation, sale, grant, lease, location or appropriation, and the registrar of every county and registration division, of the cancellation of any patent of land within such county and registration division, from which time, until resold, leased, or regranted, the land affected shall cease to be liable to taxes. 32 V., c. 11 s. 35. 1241. The powers and duties of the department and office. duties of the of the Surveyor General of the late Province of Canada, in so General to be far as regards the exercise and performance thereof within the exercised and Province, are exercised and performed by the Commissioner, or performed by the Commis- by any assistant or clerks in his department or office, or by any person whom he, by any instrument in writing under his hand, authorizes to that effect, and under such name or designation of office, as he may fix, as effectually as they might have been exercised or performed by the Surveyor General. 32 V., c. 11, s. 3 § 2. sioner. SECTION II. Appointment of assistant commissioner. Other departmental officers. Other offcers. ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER AND OTHER OFFICERS. §1.-Their Appointment. 1242. The Lieutenant-Governor in Council appoints an assistant commissioner of Crown Lands, who is validly designated in this chapter under the name of assistant commissioner. 2. He further appoints all the officers, clerks and messengers necessary for the proper administration of the Department. 32 V., c. 11, s. 4; 36 V., c. 8, s. 1. 1243. He may, from time to time, appoint officers and agents to carry out this chapter and orders in council under it. Such officers and agents are paid in such manner and at such How paid. rates as may be prescribed by order in council. 32 V., c. 11, 8. 4. §2.-Powers and Duties of Assistant Commissioner. 1244. Without prejudice to the control of the Commis- His duties sioner, the assistant commissioner has the superintendence and powers. of the other officers, clerks, messengers or servants, and the general control of all the affairs of the Department; his orders shall be executed in the same way as those of the Commissioner himself, and his authority shall be deemed to be that of the head of the Department, so that he can validly affix his signature, in his said quality, and thereby give force and authority to all acts, receipts, permits of occupation, contracts or deeds of sale, location tickets, letters-patent, adjudications, revocations of sales or locations, and all other documents whatsoever, which are or may be within the jurisdiction of the Department. 2. It is lawful for the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, from Revocation of time to time, whenever he may deem it expedient, to revoke, powers. wholly or in part, the powers of the assistant commissioner. 3. Before entering on the duties of his office, the as- He shall be sistant commissioner shall take an oath faithfully to dis- sworn. charge the same. Such oath is administered by the Commissioner, or any Oath before person appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor for that pur- whom taken. pose. 36 V., c. 8, s. 1. commissioner 1245. The Lieutenant-Governor in Council shall require, Assistant from the assistant commissioner and from every agent ap- and agents to pointed under him, security for the due performance of his give security. duty. 32 V., c. 11, s. 6. a substitute 1246. During the illness or absence of the assistant com- During his missioner, the head of the Department shall appoint another absence, &c., officer to temporarily perform his duties; and notice of such shall be appointment shall be given in writing to each officer and clerk named. of the Department. 36 V., c. 8, s. 2. SECTION III. AGENCIES AND AGENTS. § 1.-Agencies. agencies. 1247. For the purposes of this chapter, the Province is Division of divided into seventeen agencies, designated respectively Province inte as follows, viz: the Coulonge agency, the Gatineau agency, the Petite Nation agency, the Magog agency, the St. Francis agency, the Arthabaska agency, the Chaudière agency, the Montmagny agency, the Grandville agency, the Rimouski agency. Power of the Bonaventure agency, the Gaspé agency, the Saguenay agency, the Lake St. John agency, the St. Charles agency, the St. Maurice agency, and l'Assomption agency; and the Lieutenant-Governor in Council may, from time to time, determine or change the limits of any such agencies respectively. 32 V., c. 11, s. 5. (*) § 2.-Agents. 1248. Every Crown lands' agent may, if the same become Crown lands' necessary owing to the extent of his agency or the pressure of agent to aty, his business, appoint a deputy to assist him in the performance point deputy. Approval of of his duties; but such appointment, to be valid, must be required. approved by the Commissioner. Commissioner Duties of deputy. Duties of agents. Every such deputy shall perform the duties of the agent, in case of the absence or sickness of that officer, and all other duties that may be assigned to him by the Commissioner. 45 V., c. 10, s. 1. 1249. The duties of agents shall comprise the sale and locating of all public lands offered for sale, the granting of licenses to cut timber thereon or upon such lands as have been set apart for the purpose, the collection of arrears due, the settlement of conflicting claims, the inspection of lands, the protection of the public domain within their respective agencies from trespassers and depredators, and such other duties, not inconsistent with this chapter, as the Commissioner may, from time to time, think proper to assign them, and such duties shall be performed under the direction and in conformity with the instructions of the Commissioner. 32 V., c. 11, s. 9 PART SECOND. MATTERS CONNECTED WITH THE DEPARTMENT. Defining the lands." SECTION IV. PUBLIC LANDS, JESUITS' ESTATES AND OTHER PROPERTY. § 1. Declaratory and Interpretative. 1250. The term "public lands" shall be held to apply to term "public lands heretofore designated or known as Crown lands and clergy lands, which designation for the purposes of administration shall still continue. 32 V., c. 11, s. 46. (*) See orders in council for limits of agencies and sub-agencies. § 2.-General Provisions. Council may 1251. The Lieutenant-Governor in Council may, from time Lieutenantto time, make such orders as are necessary to carry out the Governor in provisions of this chapter according to their obvious intent, or make orders to meet cases which may arise and for which no provision is for carrying made by this chapter. 32 V., c. 11, s. 10 § 2. out this chapter. 1252. Such orders shall be published in the Quebec Orders to be Official Gazette and in such newspapers as the Commis- published. sioner may direct, and shall be laid before the Legislature within the first ten days of the session next after the date thereof. ent with this No such order shall be inconsistent with this chapter, Orders not to save that the powers, herein given to the Commissioner of be inconsist Crown Lands, may be exercised by the Lieutenant-Governor chapter and in Council and shall be subject to any order in council, regu- exercise of powers therelating or affecting the same from time to time. 32 V., c. 11, s. under. 10 § 2. 1253. All affidavits required under this chapter, or intended Before whom to be used in reference to any claim, business or transaction in affidavits under this chapthe Department of Crown Lands may be taken before any judge ter may be or prothonotary, or clerk of any court, or any justice of the made. peace, or any commissioner for taking affidavits in any of the courts, or the Commissioner or the assistant commissioner, or any officer or agent of the Commissioner, or any sworn land surveyor appointed by the Commissioner to inquire into or take evidence or report in any matter submitted or pending before such Commissioner, or, if made out of the Province, before the mayor or chief magistrate of, or the British Consul in, any city, town or other municipality. 32 V., c. 11, s. 36. Governor gores, &c., to 1254. Whenever there is any gore or small tract of land or Lieutenantisland, which is not included in the original survey and descrip- may, by tion of any township, and is of too limited extent to form a proclamatownship by itself, the Lieutenant-Governor may, by proclama- tion, annex tion, annex such gore or tract of land to any township, to adjacent which it is adjacent, or partly to one and partly to another of townships. any two or more townships to which it is adjacent, as he deems expedient; and, from and after the day appointed in such proclamation, or from the date thereof, if no other day be therein appointed for the purpose, the tract of land thereby annexed to any township shall form part thereof. 32 V., c. 11, s. 37. mental re 1255. Extracts from any records, documents, books or Attested copapers belonging to or deposited in the said Department, attest- pies of departed under the signature of the Commissioner or of the assistant cords, &c., to commissioner, shall be competent evidence in all cases in which be evidence. the original records, documents, books or papers could be evidence. 32 V., c. 11, s. 38. |