AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2953 



l 1mm us $255,2H;>,69ri. while we purchased from them $193,209,153; a balance 

 in our favm ol si-J,000,000. From July 1, 1863, to June 30, 1-0(5, our returns show that 

 we inipoi te.l i nun I In-ill a value of 132,000,000, while their returns tthow only $81,000,000 

 , \IH>I j.-d to ii*; a discrepancy of $50,000,000, which the Canadians allege must have 

 originated irom our war prices and inllated currency. 



t'.th. It tin- I'nited States returns are correct, the provinces in these three years had 

 ;i large halanee of trade in their favor; if the province returns are<-orrect, the balance 

 \\.i-. in our favor. 



?tli. C.mada asserts, as to a large portion of the articles received from her free of 

 dm v under the treat) 7 , that our importations have been annually'increasing since the 

 repeal at greatly enhanced prices. 



8tb. While tin- treaty was io operation we purchased over $29,000,000 of lumber, or 

 in .-IN erage of S3 000,000 per annum, but. in tlm seven years that have elapsed since the 

 repeal, we have purchased nearly 59,000,000 of lumber, or an annual average of over 

 .000. 



'.itli. The cash p ice of clear lumber in Toronto is $26 per 1.000 feet, or double what 

 it was ten years ago, and its price uow in Portland, Me., is double the present price in 

 Toronto. 



Our great international interests relate chiefly to the several subjects involved in 

 the above-named propositions. It is a good rule to judge of the future by the past, 

 and, judging from the 'past, here are the advantages derived from the treaty when it 

 existed. The Canadians quote against us our own official records to prove that in the 

 old treaty we hud all the advantage. 



The British North American Provinces purchased from us merchandise to the value 

 of $69,286,709, and the United States purchased from the provinces $(57 ,749,42(5, leaving 

 a balance in favor of the United States of $99,428,2^2. In the first ten years of the 

 treaty we had a balance in favor of the United States of $62,013,545. 



Since the abrogation of the old treaty, eight years since, articles that were free now 



I pay an average duty of 25 per cent., while the more important articles formerly free 



were animals, breadstuff*, grain and flour, lumber, timber, coal, butter and cheese, 



wool, fish, and fish products. All these are necessities, and contribute to the food and 



clothing and shelter of the people. 



But Canada and the United States are not the only parties in interest. Take the 

 Province of Newfoundland. Our average imports from there amounted under the treaty 

 to $300,000 annually, while the exports of pork and flour footed up $2.250,000 per 

 annum. So in 1862, under the treaty, New Brunswick sold goods to the United States 

 of the value of $890,000, and purchased $2,000,000, paying the difference in cash, while 

 Nova Scotia, in the same year, sold 2,000,000 of codfish, &c., to the United States, and 

 purchased goods to the amount of $3,800,000. 



EFFECT OF THE REPEAL OX NEW YOKK. 



The repeal of the treaty has injured the commerce of this port to a great extent. 

 One of the firms engaged in the tobacco trade says that his holism sold $2,00(1,000 

 annually to Canadian buyers during the treaty, but that he has done comparatively 

 nothing since 1866. 



The butter and oheese trade of the country, representing $500,000,000 of its produc- 

 tion, has had the same experience. This is also the experience of nearly all our busi- 

 ness men, and it is this class who urge the restoration of the treaty. Of course, such 

 a treaty must be reciprocal in fact as in name. It is said that under the treaty which 

 expired "Canadians were ready to interchange free commodities, but on goods sub- 

 ject to duty they placed such exorbitant tariff* as to prohibit puroh is in the United 

 States. The result was loud and constant complaints and de:uamU for tin ter ni nation 

 of the treaty. The benefits were mainly with the Canad aus, the burdens with UH." 



The facts here given do not bear out this record, but if they were true the American 



"'verument would, of course, modify the treaty. The fact in, that, while tin- old treaty 



\isted, over 52 per cent, of the entire trade of the provinces was with this country, 

 and wince its abrogation our portion of the trade amounts to less than 35 per cent. 



The conclusions from all these facts, whatever the contrary opinion, is that the re- 

 peal of the-Recii rucal Treaty has lost the country many millions of dollars, and that 

 its restoration in spirit, not necessarily in form, is most desirable to all general inter- 

 ests and detrimental to none of them. In the Dominion of Canada there are now over 

 4.000,000 of people with a debt considerably less than the debt of the city of New 

 York. The commerce of the Dominion last year was 60 steamships, 44(5 sailing ves- 

 >!>, and 152.226 tons of shipping; and 11,089 sea-going ships, with a tonnage of 

 ''<,* ':;-', 476 tons, arrived at Canadian ocean ports, and 18,960 lake and river vessels, with 

 a tonnage of 2,994,484 tons, at Canadian inland ports, and this makes the Dominion, 

 after England and the United States, next to France as the shipping country of the 

 world. 



Tlu- impoits into Canada last year were valued at $138,961,281, of which $60,000,000 



