A major opponent representing the popular factions in the province was Elisha Cooke Jr., a politician and major landowner in Maine, which was then part of Massachusetts. Cooke's opposition was rooted in disagreements on the currency, and the matter of logging in the Maine territory. During the Dudley administration logging interests had widely flouted the 1711 White Pine Act, British Parliamentary legislation that reserved large trees on ungranted public lands for the government's use as ship masts. Shute sought to crack down on this behavior, earning the enmity of Cooke and others. Cooke's early challenges to the law were legal in nature, but rapidly became political. In 1718 Cooke was nominated to serve on the Governor's Council by the assembly, but Shute vetoed the choice. The assembly then appointed Cooke to be its speaker in 1720. This began a constitutional argument about the governor's powers, for Shute refused to accept Cooke's appointment, claiming it was within his authority to veto it. The assembly, for its part, refused to appoint anyone else, and the following year seated a different speaker before Shute was given notice of his election.