86 LAVISH CUTTING OF TIMBER. 



when the further increase of home prices was rendered 

 almost impossible by the equalisation of the timber duties. 

 In this alteration of our British laws, a large number of 

 those engaged in the timber trade have been inclined 

 to see the sole cause of the comparatively unprosperous 

 circumstances in which they have recently been placed. 



In so far as I have myself been able to ascertain the 

 facts of the case, I think, with many patriotic colonists, 

 that the welfare of these North American provinces 

 would on the whole, and in the long run, have been pro- 

 moted by a less lavish cutting and exportation of the 

 noble ship-timber which their v/oods formerly contained, 

 and which has already become so scarce and dear. Home 

 bounties have tempted them to cut down within a few 

 years, and sell at a comparatively low price, what might 

 for many years have afforded a handsome annual revenue, 

 as well as an inexhaustible snpply of material for the 

 once flourishing colonial dockyard. 



At the same time, it is useless to lament over past 

 mismanagement. It is easier to discern evils and their 

 causes, after they have occurred, than to prevent even 

 their recurrence. The cream of the timber trade 

 being fairly skimmed ofl*, the question, on my arrival 

 in the colony, had assumed the matter-of-fact form — 

 " How are we colonists in future to make our butter? " 



It was an acknowledged evil of the lumber trade, that, 

 so long as it was the leading industry of the province of 

 New Brunswick, it overshadowed and lowered the social 

 condition of every other. The lumberer, fond as the 

 Indian of the free air and untrammelled life of the woods, 

 receiving high wages, living on the finest flour, and 

 enjoying long seasons of holiday, looked doAvn upon the 

 slavish agricultural drudge who toiled the year long on 

 his few acres of land, with little beyond his comfortable 

 maintenance to show as the fruit of his yearly labour. 

 The young and adventurous among the province-born 



