Patriotism.
We are not, in this land of diversified industries, accustomed to think of Newfoundland, with its one fish industry, as a land flowing with the milk and honey of this world's riches. Yet here is an intelligent member of our Order, living on the island, who sees his home through different eyes from those that we use. His love of country equals that of a matron of seventy years, who had lived her life on Prince Edward Island. Not only had she never been across the Northumberland Strait to the mainland of Nova Scotia, twenty-three miles distant, but she had never even been to the other or Tignish end of the island, but had spent her days at her home near Georgetown. She was a broad-minded and intelligent woman, yet to such an extent had her environment influenced her that she remarked complacently:
"I think Prince Edward Island the best spot in the world. It is central in the world of affairs, and I could not live content elsewhere."
Here are our Newfoundland Knight's opinions:
A Wealthy Country.
We claim for Newfoundland a high position. For its size and density of its population it is the wealthiest country on the face of the earth. This extreme or, as perhaps some may think, extravagant claim, which is made by us with the utmost deliberation, we base upon the following general facts:
1. The fishing season, broadly speaking, extends over three or four months of the year. During that brief working period enough is earned by 40,000 to 50,000 fishermen to supply the wants of a population of 200,000 souls.
2. Every year there is drawn out of the waters of Newfoundland wealth amounting to from $8,000,000 to $10,000,000, including the value of fish used for home consumption, and most of this product is realized and marketed within the working year.
3. This wealth is almost entirely expended in the purchase and import of goods of foreign growth and manufacture, on which an average taxation of 23½ per cent. on the value is paid.
4. The annual earnings of the fisheries, or at least an exportable earning of $6,000,000, cannot be diverted from the country by any incident of trade or competition, and cannot be mortgaged in advance except within each year.
5. That while the value of all other articles of human food has declined from 20 to 30 per cent. within the last decade, and while all articles consumed by the fishermen of Newfoundland have also largely declined, the price of Newfoundland codfish has been steadily maintained, and is now as high as ever it was.
6. That as such the producers of Newfoundland codfish hold in their hands a practical monopoly, and are certain of as unfailing a market as they are of an unfailing supply of the product.
7. That from the great diversity and extent of the area of its operations, and from the fact that the waters around the island furnish the proper food of the codfish, the annual crop of the Newfoundland fisheries is in the aggregate practically as certain in its supply as any annual crop known to commerce.
8. That this annual crop, being in the hands of the actual producers, is less affected by such financial fluctuations as affect other crops in other countries, and no such fluctuations can extend to the capital stock on which the annual crop is dependent, so as to limit the production or lessen its value from year to year.
B. Bowering.
43 Gower Street, St. John's, Newfoundland.