The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-04-26
STARTLING NEWS
FOR LUMBER MEN
Contained in an Act Passed
by Last Legislature.
SAVES MONEY TO STATE
Prevents Shipment Of N. G. Timber
Beyond Our Borders.
PRESENTED BY NICHOLSON. OF BEAUFORT
Who Seeks to Stop the Wholesale Expectation
Of the Timber Ct the State Which
Should be Utilized Within
lis Borders.

lis Borders.
Under the innocent heading of IAN Act
to Prohibit the Telling of Trees in Ger
tain Streams in Beaufort County an act
far-reaching in its Importance was
passed by the General Assembly of 1901.
1t WAS introduced by Representative
Nicholson, of Beaufort. and while some
of it's provisions apply to Beaufort county
it affects some twenty or thirty coun-
ties in the State, and its enforcement
means the addition OF thousand upon thou
sands of dollars to the wealth of North
Carolina.
The act as PASSED, condensed into a
few sentences is one that prohibits the
shipping of immense quantities of lumber
out of the State. Each year from North
Carolina there goes out between seventy
five and one hundred millions of logs.
Large lumber companies have been
leasing or buying up vast tracts of land
in the State, but this act puts stop to
this. Under its provisions there can be
no more of the immense shipments OF
lumber out of the State, the business
being so arranged that companies must
be chartered by the State to handle the
lumber and mills manufacturing must be
in North Carolina.
The act begins by stating that it shall
be unlawful to fell trees in the navigable
waters of Pamlico river or its tributaries
lying in Beaufort county, without remov-
ing such Immediately. Makes it a mis-
demeanor and provides punishment OF
five dollars or five days Imprisonment for
each offences.
But the broad application of the act
is found in the sections 8, 4 and 5, which
read thus:
Sec. g. That no corporation heretofore,
or which may be hereafter, created OF
organized under the laws of the State OF
North Carolina, whether organized and
created under the Code chapter 16, OIL
under and by virtue of any private act Of
the General Assembly shall be allowed tc
hold, either directly or Indirectly OF
through any trustee or trustees, more
than three hundred acres of timber land
or the standing timber upon more than
three hundred acres, or the right and
privilege to cut the timber upon more
than three hundred acres of land, any
thing in the charter of the said company
to the contrary Notwithstanding, unless
the said company shall have, maintain
and operate either directly or indirectly
mill or mills within the State of North
Carolina, at which the said timber shall
be manufactured. That no corporation
unless created under the laws of North
Carolina, and having it's principal place
of business in North Carolina, shall hold
more than three hundred acres of land
or the timber upon three hundred acres
OF land, or the right and privilege to
cut the timber upon more than three hun
dred acres of land.
Sec. 4. That any corporation violating
the provisions of sections three CD and
(5) of this act, shall forfeit any timber
lands, or the timber upon any lands, or
the right and privilege to cut the timber
upon said lands, in excess of three hun
dred acres.
Sec. 5. That any corporation engaged in
getting timber from the woods, shall, on
the first day of June of each year, file
with the clerk of the court in each and
every county where they are operating,
sworn stateent as to the location OF
their mills, and where Their are manufac-
turing the timber cut by them, and the
number Of acres of timber land, or tim
Der privileges they own.
Section 6 provides that the Clerk OF
the Court must hand the report provided
for to the solicitor of the district, who
must institute a suit against any corpor-
alton violating sections and of the ate
the suit to be for the forfeiture OF the
timber lands and of privileges to cut TIM
Der.
But, under section an opportunity is
given to manufacturers to locate in North
Carolina, as this section provides that the
act shall not apply to corporations created
under the laws of the State. who are
engaged in cutting or hauling timber and
selling the same to mills located within
its borders, for manufacture by the said
mills.
The act went into force from its rati-
fication, which was on the eighth day Of
March, 1901.
This act will perhaps serve as an es-
toppal upon the system Of buying lands il
blocks Of one thousand acres. Its pro-
visions are a safeguard to the lumber in
terests of North Carolina and it is not
prohibitory, for it says that when cor
porations are created under the laws Of
the State and conform to them, that such
corporations can do business in North
Carolina.
The regulations of this act mean much
to the State, for it prevents the shipping
away of woods. that can be just as well
handled in North Carolina to other
States. Its purpose is to protect all the
lumber sections of the State, and it ap-
pears that it will do so.