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# & * APRIL 3 Forest Demands Met. | 'oreh': abnormal war demands for of products, despite a shortage * th woodsmen, have been met rough the co--operation of the entire industry. _ Although the season for fire hazard is upon On-- j tario, British Columbia is assured, he said, of the use of part or all of tme fire--fighting equipment which the Province loaned to the Japan-- ese--threatened coastal area "so long as human lives are in jeopardy in any part of Canada." Mineral production of an esti-- mated aggregate value of $270,000,-- 000 reached an all--time high in 1942 and "will be surpassed for 1942." The geological program for 1942 .p.laces emphasis on the examina-- | tion of deposits of possible war materials. In municipal affairs, the gross debenture debt was reduced by approximately $12,001.000 to an * amount of $353,575,000. _ Part of the improvement, said the Premier, was due to the municipal subsidy paid by the Government to municipal authorities to be applied in the re-- duction of the general tax rate |levied on real property. In the period, 1934 to 1941, thirty-- 'seven municipalities were subject to the supervision of the department. |\ Twenty--five of these have now been | removed from the defaulting class. The Treasurer regarded as a| "notable advance" in the field nf! public welfare the Government'si recent action in providing for free | j medical services, including medicine, to all persons receiving old-ago' pensions, pensions for the blind and mothers' allowances. He revealed that the department is taking measures to implement 'a rehabilitation scheme whereby irelietoos, who are partially uncm-! | ployable, might again secure gain-- | I'Iul occupation. f Answers Crities. * f In his survey, which covere®Reach | department _ of government, thel | Premier answered--and warmly-- 'those critics who scored the Prov--' |ince for lending the Bowmanville: * | boys'* school to the Dominion Gov-i 'ernment for the housing of war !prisoners. @2 It was done, he said, at the R urgent request of the Dominion Gov-- ernment, "backed by the assurance | of the Swiss Government mediator, " that the German Government, which resented strenuously the kind of 'accommodation provided for oflicer' prisoners of war in the wilds of Northern Ontario, would be entirely! satisfied with Bowmanville and' would reciprocate by according like treatment and accommodation Ior{ our fellow--Canadians who are now ; confined in German prison camps. ' "I will leave it to the mothers of our soldier boys to find a name | , which will adequately describe those ; critics, who, while enjoying all the | comforts of Canadian home life,| would retain those comforts at the : ' # ecxpense of our gallant airmen who! are now shut up in Hitler's prisons."l he said.