1907 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS, FORESTS AND MINES. 195 



The regulations tlien in force in the Crown Lands Department con- 

 tributed not a little to unduly stimulate production by requiring the manu- 

 facture of a large- quantity of timber on every limit, regardless of the 

 requirements of the market or the convenience of the operator, upon pen- 

 alty of forfeiture of the limit. At the same time the timber prodXiction of 

 New Brunswick was very greatly increased, coming into competition with 

 the Canadian output, while the general commercial depression in Britain 

 caused a great falling off in consumption. 



Lumber Trade CoTninission. 



On January 30th, 1849, the Legislative Assembly appointed a Select 

 Committee, composed of Mr. Scott, of Bytown; Hon. Mr. La Terriere and 

 Messrs. Egan, Johnson, Bell, Hall, Flint and Holmes "to enquire into and 

 report upon the state of the Lumber Trade, the cause of its present depres- 

 sion, the protection of the forests from unnecessary destruction, and upon 

 all other matters connected with the lumbering interest of this Province." 



The evidence taken before this committee threw a good deal of light 

 on the condition of the trade and the particulars in which a reform of the 

 license system was urgently required. 



Over Production. 



W. W. Dawson, a leading lumberman of Bytown, gave the following 

 testimony: — "The first great blow then, which the trade received in 1846, 

 was caused by over-production, for had the supply been in the proportion 

 to the demand there is no reason to believe that prices would have ruled 

 one fraction lower than they did in the previous year, nay, it is probable that 

 they would have ruled higher, as, notwithstanding* the high prices the 

 British merchants paid for Canadian timber in 1845, they had found their 

 dealings therein sufficiently satisfactory to induce them to increase their 

 demand for it in 1846. 



"In the two succeeding seasons, 1847 and 1848, although other causes 

 entered into combination with it, the over-production of 1846, hanging like 

 a dead weight on the market, still operated as a principal depressing 

 influence. Thus in 1847, including the quantity brought to market and 

 the stock on hand, there was a total supply of 44,927,253 feet of square 

 timber to meet a demand for 19,060,880, and in 1848 there was in like man- 

 ner a total supply of 39,447,776 feet, to meet a demand for 17,402,360. The 

 other causes which have combined to depress the trade in the two latter 

 years, resolve themselves, so far as we are concerned, into one, viz., a 

 decreased demand. The causes which have led to the decreased demand 

 we have no control over, and I shall briefly advert only to what seem to be 

 the most apparent. In the first place our own large export of 1845 and 

 1846 may have tended in some measure to overstock the British market; in 

 the next place it would appear that an enormous supply has been thrown 

 upon the market in these latter years from the Province of New Brunswick, 

 quite unprecedented at any former period. What influence the Baltic trade 

 may have had I am not very clearly aware, as it does not appear thnt at 

 least of square timber, there has been any great increase of the quantity 

 thrown upon the market from that quarter. The greatest and most appar- 

 ent cause of all, however, is to be found in the diminished consumption 

 arising from the depressed state of commerce in general in Great Britain 

 and throughout the whole of Europe. 



