170 



" I have since procurred some information on the points referred to, from 

 which I learn that the timber is imported directly by wealthy saw-mill proprietors 

 either by the venture of individuals singly, in so many cargoes in each year, 

 or the importation of a number of cargoes annually by several mill-men combined; 

 or it is consigned by Canadian shippers to brokers or agents to be sold on commis- 

 sion ; in the latter case, the timber is generally disposed of at auction, at which 

 the saw-mill owners purchase it, and any surplus over what they require for their 

 own establishments they sell in small quantities, sometimes a few pieces at a time, 

 to builders and country dealers of limited means who have it sawn at small mills, 

 and often by hand, at the villages in the interior for local wants. These saw-mill 

 proprietors, having virtually a monopoly of the lumber and bill stuff produced 

 from the timber imported or purchased by them at auction sales, are naturally 

 opposed to the introduction of wood goods into the market they supply in any 

 other shape than in the square log, as at present ; but it is time that the Canadian 

 lumberer engaged in the square-pine business should open his eyes to the alarming 

 waste of a material, the value of which is increasing every year ; that, in fact, he 

 is stripping his limits and disposing of his timber frequently at a loss, or at best, 

 during several years past, at a rate which seldom pays more than the cost of 

 cutting down, squaring, drawing and taking to market, while at the same time he 

 leaves in the woods as useless one-fourth of each tree he levels to the ground, 

 one-half of the timber so left being the most valuable part of the tree ; and see 

 the necessity of his turning his attention to saw-milling operations as a more 

 economical mode of manufacturing; his timber, by which he would not only benefit 

 himself by turning to profitable account what is now so wantonly wasted, but the 

 Province generally by increasing the field of labor for its people, while the 

 Provincial treasury would derive additional revenue from the material saved and 



> 



utilized. 



" It may not be out of place to mention here that saw-milling is, to a certain 

 extent, a factor in the settlement of the country, from the fact that many of the 

 employees, from their steady habits and value as workmen, are kept in permanent 

 employment summer and winter in connection with the establishments, and are 

 induced in consequence to take up lands in the vicinity, which are improved by 

 the families of those having grown-up children, and by hired help in the case of 

 unmarried men, till ultimately considerable sections in the neighborhood of the 

 mills would become settled and cleared, with comfortable homes on the locations; 

 while, on the contrary, the men employed in getting out square timber are gener- 

 ally without fixed homes or continuous employment. Their engagements terminate 

 in the spring ; in the interim, until they re-engage for the following winter, they 

 too frequently remain idle, and spend their earnings in a reckless manner, and are 

 penniless and often in debt when they return to the woods." 



After noticing various available forest commodities for exportation from 

 Canada, such as pit-props, mining timbers, telegraph poles, railway ties, etc., the 

 forms and dimensions best suited to the English market, and suggestions as to 

 their preparation, the commissioner refers to the topic he had previously been 

 discussing with reference to the encouragement of sawn goods for exportation 

 instead of the wasteful practise of getting out hewn timber. His suggestions 

 have no local application, and are well suited to any region or conntry that has 

 commodities to export. 



" The characteristic of modern commerce is to seek out markets wherever they 

 can be found, in which commodities to be disposed of can be sold to the best 

 advantage whether natural products in a raw state where the means of profitable 

 manufacture do not exist where they are produced, or in a manufactured state 

 when such means are available, and in proportion to the energy and enterprise 



