ent of the regulations for the protection and preservation
of White Pine trees was entrusted to Sir John Wentworth,[116] Surveyor
of the King's Woods in North America. He was a discreet and able man,
of polished manners and amiable disposition, but the office he filled
was by no means a popular one, and brought him into conflict not only
with individual owners of the soil, but on one occasion, at least,
with the Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick.

[116] John Wentworth was the last Royal Governor of New Hampshire. He
was a classmate and friend of John Adams, at Harvard. He was
an active Loyalist, and at the close of the Revolution, came
to Nova Scotia. He was made a baronet and for sixteen years
filled the position of Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. He
died at Halifax in 1820 in the 84th year of his age.

It was not many years after the establishment of the province that Lt.
Gov'r Carleton wrote the English Secretary of State:--

"Under the regulations for preserving masting timber the deputies
appointed by the surveyor of the woods have, or assume to have,
authority to seize all the pine timber which they find in the
possession of any one, though it may have been cut on his own
ground. * * * I feel it my duty to submit it to the consideration
of his Majesty's ministers whether it may not be expedient to
relinquish these restrictions on private property, which have an
evident tendency to discourage the advancement of cultivation and
settlement in the province."

Sir John Wentworth justified the enforcement of the regulations as a
matter of national importance. He quoted the experience of New England
where, after the restrictions of the surveyor general's office were
removed, the mast timber had been so largely destroyed that it was
scarcely possible to procure a cargo of large masts, and those that
were to be had were held at enormous prices. Even if the government
should grant all the land available for settlement, it did not follow,
he argued, that the efficiency of the navy should be imperilled or the
mast timber pass into the hands of speculators; nor did he think that
its preservation should be left entirely to the discretion of the
owners of the soil.

Wentworth's representation to the Home Government proved effectual at
the time; his deputies continued to range the woods, and many a tall,
stately pine bore the mark of the "broad-arrow" in toke