The evils that must arise to the Province, by allowing the timber to be monopolized and hastily cut off are many. The timber standing in the Country, particularly on the Crown Lands, may be considered as so much capital or stock, to secure a permanent trade, and promote the solid improvement of the Country. Most of the lands in this Province where pine is found are intermixed with other timber, and although the precise spots on which the pine grows, are unfit for agriculture, without much labor; yet there are most always spots adjoining, where a settler may cultivate with success: so that in a lot of two or three hundred acres, there is generally enough for tillage, and a man settling on such land could always choose his spot for farming, and keep his timber to cut at his leisure. His pine so reserved would as long as it lasted serve him as a resource, from whence, after attending to his farming in the summer, he could draw returns during the winter, for such supplies as would be necessary for his family, and for improving his farm.
To make this more evident, we will suppose a man settling on a wilderness lot—like most settlers he has but little save his own labour—perhaps he has a small family—he commences with cutting down a small spot, and erecting a hut—say in the summer or fall, he then moves on his family, and looks round for sustenance till he can raise his first crop—in doing this his funds are exhausted, and he wants by his own labour to replenish them during the winter, and provide a few implements of husbandry, and nails, &c. for building a barn—now supposing his lot to be back from the river, and at a distance from old settlements where labour is wanted—what does he do?—why he resorts to his pine—to the simple manufactory before noticed, and makes a few tons, say twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty, according to his ability—carefully cutting the under brush and timber, so as to put his land where he is working in a fair train for clearing—this timber he probably gets hauled to the water on shares, if he is very poor and has no team; the returns for which the next spring, furnishes him with supplies, and enables him to continue on his land and prosecute his farming. If he cannot do without the return of his timber till spring, he applies to a merchant, who if the man is of good fame, advances him such articles as may be particularly necessary for his family. This enables him to find labour on his own lot, and stay with his family: whereas if he has no such resource, he must leave his home, and go to a distance from his family, seeking labour; and probably they may be so circumstanced as not to be left safely alone, and he has to take them with him, which breaks up his family and prevents him from settling.
If a number of families commence a settlement together, where the timber has not been destroyed, but where a fair proportion is still growing on the land, they exchange labour with each other, and by their joint exertions, manufacture and transport their own lumber to market. In this way they are enabled from year to year to prosecute their settlement and pay for their grants; the timber answering as a first crop fully grown, and a resource to make returns for necessaries.—By this method, as the pine disappears, houses and barns will rise in its place, and the country, instead of a barren waste, will exhibit flourishing settlements, peopled with a race who will know the value of their improvements; and feel their interest identified with the country: and whose attachment to the Government will increase with their growing possessions. Their children, raised on the soil, from the strong principles of early association, will feel that interest in the welfare of the country, that no transient advantage can produce; and grow up an ornament and strength to the Province. On the contrary, if the lumber is cut off by mere speculators, the land will be left in an impoverished state, much valuable timber will be wantonly destroyed, and the places from whence the timber is taken will be left an uncultivated waste; settlers will neither have the inclination or ability to occupy them. While the major part of the men employed in getting the lumber for the merchants, instead of making a comfortable provision for their families, will wear out the prime of their days without making any permanent establishment; and keep their families shifting about the country like vagrants. Their children, for the want of employment, and the direction of their fathers, brought up in idleness—their education and morals neglected, and bad habits acquired, will be the reverse of those before noticed: and many of them will become a vagrant race, unconcerned or uninterested in the welfare of the country, and in many instances a nuisance to it. While their parents, after they get unfit for the business, will be turned off in debt.
In short, it will be the most direct way to prevent the settlement of the back lands, and to produce (what is the bane of all countries) a race of inhabitants who have no interest in the soil or welfare of the Province.
Statement of the expenses on one thousand tons of pine timber, manufactured on the Wabskahagan, a branch of the river Tobique:—
| The Secretary's, Governor's, and Surveyor General's fees of office, including the charge for writing petition | 1 10 0 | ||
| Duty on 1000 tons, at 1s | 50 0 0 | ||
| Less by amount included in fees, &c. | 1 5 0 | ||
| 48 15 0 | |||
| Incidental expenses to the applicant | 0 15 0 | ||
| Surveyor's fees for measuring the timber berth | 7 0 0 | ||
| Expenses for axemen and chainmen | 5 10 0 | ||
| Travelling expenses thence and back, five hundred miles | 8 0 0 | ||
| 71 10 0 | |||
| Ten men at £5 per month, and an overseer at £10, say for six months | 60 0 0 | ||
| Six yoke of oxen, at £30 per yoke | 180 0 0 | ||
| One pair draught horses | 50 0 0 | ||
| One boat, sail, and gear | 36 0 0 | ||
| Two canoes with paddles | 6 0 0 | ||
| Sleds, chains, harness, &c. | 27 10 0 | ||
| Eleven men's provisions for six months, at 85s. per head, per month | 274 10 0 | ||
| Hay for oxen, &c. 30 tons, at £10 | 300 0 0 | ||
| Grain for ditto | 25 0 0 | ||
| Grain for ditto | 1259 0 0 | ||
| Total expense on one thousand tons of timber, at the brow ready for rafting | £1330 10 0 | ||
| Expense of rafting, anchors, cables, ropes, &c. | 50 0 0 | ||
| £1380 10 0 | |||
| Deduct for articles that may be useful another season, viz.— | |||
| Oxen, Horses, Boat, tackle, &c. | 214 0 0 | ||
| Canoes, sleds, harness, anchors, &c. &c. | 50 0 0 | ||
| 264 0 0 | |||
| £1116 10 0 | |||
From the foregoing statement (admitting it to be near the truth) it appears that the expenses on one thousand tons of timber got on the river Tobique, amounts to £1116:10:0—to which is to be added the expense and risk of taking it down to Saint John, a distance of about two hundred and fifty miles—the loss by casualties on a rapid river, where men and teams frequently break through the ice, and are swept away by the velocity of the current. When all the above expenses are deducted from the returns of the timber, it will leave but a little for those who carry on the business, and very often involves them in inextricable difficulties.
The preceding statement points out the necessity of adopting a more prudent system in conducting the timber business. Not to push the trade to such an extent—to retrench the expenses, by raising the heavy parts of the supplies near the timber districts; and to follow up the timber trade with the improvement of the country and cultivation of the soil.
Another great drawback to the prosperity of the Province is the great consumption of ardent liquors—partly occasioned by the present modes of conducting the timber business. The amount of spirituous liquors imported and consumed in the Province in 1824, at the least calculation was £120,000, exclusive of the County of Charlotte; and add to this amount the cost of the transport of the liquor to the interior and the enormous charges on the article in the distant parts of the Province, the cost to the consumer may be fairly reckoned at treble the amount, making in the whole the gross sum of £360,000 for ardent liquors alone, consumed by the inhabitants of the Province, being near twenty gallons on an average for every male over sixteen years of age.
The number of inhabitants in this Province, according to the census of last year, is seventy-four thousand one hundred and seventy-six—besides the large settlement of Madawaska and the parish of West Isles; and as it is probable the numbers in the different parishes are taken in some instances under the real amount, the whole population may be fairly rated in round numbers at eighty thousand. The subjoined statement will show the population of the different counties and parishes in 1824: