1907 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS, FORESTS AND MINES. 199 



small timber. Were an ad valorem duty imposed instead of the present 

 dues, a considerable amount of duty for masts and spars, over the amount 

 collected would be obtained. Instead of paying 3s. 2d, for a stick avail- 

 able for masts worth say £20, one-eighth per cent, should be obtained, 

 and for a red pine spar worth £10 a like per centage, which would make a 

 material difference in favor of revenue derivable from this source. Spruce, 

 black birch, hackmatack for sleepers for railroads, and other small tim- 

 bers would be taken also, which are now rotting in the woods. Spruce 

 would do for booms, birch for cabinet work, and very large quantities of 

 this species of timber is to be met with very far north on the Ottawa, 



Suggested Changes. 



hitherto untouched. * * * Under the present system, dealers in square 

 timber pay 2s. lid. for every tree — the dealer in sawed lumber Is. 3d., 

 making a difference in the revenue of Is. 8d. to the tree, and frequently 

 more, as all trees do not produce three standard logs — a loss arises to the 

 revenue by counting logs instead of measuring them; the square timber 

 manufacturer takes the whole of the tree, the deal manufacturer nothing 

 but the clearest stuff, leaving all trees and parts of trees having the slight- 

 est appearance of knot or flaw in the wood abandoned to rot or fire. An 

 advantage over the square timber maker should be had by the deal maker, 

 inasmuch as he spends in his business in the country, more capital than 

 the square timber maker, but not to the unfair extent now existent." 



The first Report presented by the Select Committee on the Lumber 

 Trade, considered the question of the establishment of a boom or depot at 

 Quebec for the reception or safe-keeping of rafts on their arrival at that 

 port, recommending such a step on the ground that the existing booms or 

 depots were in the hands of parties interested in the shipping trade, who 

 took advantage of their position in compelling the payment of such dues 

 as they thought proper, and having an understanding with each other injur- 

 ious to the manufacturer and restrictive of trade. 



The Second Report, in which the broader question in connection with 

 the regulations of the Lumber Trade and the cutting of timber on the pub- 

 lic domain are dealt with, is as follows: 



Committee Room, 18th April, 1849. 



Your Committee, in the prosecution of their inquiries, have taken con- 

 siderable pains to ascertain the state of the lumber tnide, and the causes 

 which have tended to its present ruinous condition. The general depres- 

 sion of all commercial matters, both in this Province and in Europe, has 

 of course operated injuriously upon the trade, but Tour Committee con- 

 ceive that much might have been done by a more judicious management 

 of the waste lands of the Crown (from which a large proportion of the tim- 

 ber taken to market is obtained) by wholesome regulations for the granting 

 of licenses, by a more equitable exaction of duty, and by less o]>pressive 

 duties upon articles imported for the exclusive use of the trade. 



Importont Re/port. — Uvcerfain Tenure. 



From the evidonoe adduced it apnears to Your Committee that the 

 present depression of trade has been caused by the over-production of 1846, 

 to the extent of 13,000,000 feet: in the fall of 1847 the surplus remaining 

 in Quebec was still greater; in 1848 it had Kut slightly diminished, and it 

 18 likely for the next year, and probably longer, to have an injurious effect 



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