200 REPORT OF THE No. 3 



upon the trade ; this great increase of manufacture, no doubt, was induced 

 by the enormous profit of 1845, and the supposition that large quantities 

 of our timber would be required in the construction of railroads then pro- 

 jected in Great Britain and other parts of Europe. Another cause of 

 increase in the manufacture, which however would apply chiefly to the 

 Ottawa country, was a regulation of the Crown Lands Department requir- 

 ing the manufacture of a certain quantity of timber on each "limit" whether 

 or not it suited the occupier, under penalty of forfeiture. The tenure of 

 the "limits" was also of so uncertain a nature that many of the holders were 

 induced to manufacture as much as possible with a view of deriving the 

 full advantage from their improvement so that they might, before for- 

 feiture or change of system, have manufactured all the timber fit to be 

 taken to market, and thus have defeated propositions then mooted for the 

 division and re-granting of all limits held under Crown licenses from year 

 to year; both of the above regulations have been suspended for the last two 

 years, but not until the consequences had been severly felt, and the effects 

 of which are still apparent in the large stock of timber on hand, and which 

 has been a dead weight on the trade since 1846. 



Your Committee can suggest no remedy to prevent over-production : the 

 ease with which the quantity of timber can be increased, resulting from 

 the unlimited extent of the lumbering country, and the fact that little or 

 no mechanical skill is required in its manufacture, renders its production 

 commensurate only with the means of the manufacturer and some few 

 natural causes, such as the fall of snow, spring floods, etc., etc. 



Ground Rent and Export Duty. 



Your Committee are, however, of the opinion that the plans suggested 

 \)x several witnesses examined before them, of abolishing the present sys- 

 tem of granting licenses, having due regard to the rights of the present 

 occupants, and the issue upon the terms of a ground rent, as proposed by 

 Messrs. Aumond, Porter, Dawson, Russell and others, and the adoption 

 of an export duty in lieu of the present charges, as now in use in the Pro- 

 vince of New Brunswick, would have the effect of relieving the manufac- 

 turer from the oppressive burden of deposits on the issue of licenses and 

 the payment of the duty on the timber reaching the market or soon after, 

 without having any or much effect upon the revenue or the rights of private 

 parties owning timbered lands. 



In the event of this plan being considered impracticable, Your Com- 

 mittee begs leave to suggest an alteration in the collection of duty, by the 

 substitution of actual measurement instead of the system now in use, of the 

 payment of so much per stick, without reference to its size ; this would have 

 the effect of equalizing the duty on all sizes of timber, whereas at present 

 the stick containing one hundred feet or more pays no more to the revenue 

 than the one containing twenty feet or less, although the laro^e stick Is 

 often one-third more valuable per foot than the small one; an increase in 

 the revenue would thus be gained, and an impetus be given to the manu- 

 facture of the smaller sizes of timber for railroad and other purposes, which 

 cannot at present be profitably manufactured, and which leads to the destruc- 

 tion of the larger sizes of timber for uses for which' the smaller kind would 

 suit as well, and which the present system prevents being manuf ?,ctureH ; 

 nor would the manufacture of small timber have the effect of destroying 

 forests from which supplies of large timber might be drawn, as it is a fact 

 that in many situations there are large tracts of country covered with small 



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