CANADIAN FOBESTET ASSOCIATION. 51 



31,500 cords were shipped from the Miramichi last year, and as it is 

 claimed that the wealth of the country is being exported in a raw state, for 

 the purpose of giving a foreign country the benefit of its manufacture, quite 

 an agitation has been started with a view of remedying this condition ol 

 affairs. I believe that the country and its people should receive all the ben- 

 efits that can possible accrue from its natural resources, and if it can be 

 shown that this mode of handling our one great natural asset is more bene- 

 ficial to its people and advantageous to the Province than the other method 

 of manufacturing our lumber into marketable products and exporting it in 

 that way, there is nothing more to be said. If, on the other hand, the pre- 

 vailing view is correct, that the advantage lies with the old methods, that 

 the newly installed plant is stripping our forests of its young growth, inter- 

 fering with our water supply, and exporting our natural resources for the 

 benefit of foreigners, without being a corresponding benefit to our own 

 people, then I think the duty of those charged with the administration and 

 protection of our resources, is clear, and whatever steps are possible should 

 be taken to ccmserve them for the benefit, as far as possible, of our own 

 people. Perhaps it is natural for those who have been trained and engaged 

 in the old methods of manufacturing sawn lumber, to think that their busi- 

 ness is best for the country and its people, but I feel bound to say from my 

 observation, and from what information I have been able to obtain, that I 

 think the wholesale cutting of our forests and the exportation of the wood 

 in its raw state, means disaster to the future of the forests in this Province., 

 and is not securing to its people now the best results of its forest wealth. 



Something like an ideal industry for Miramichi has lately been estab- 

 lished on the Miramichi near Millerton, by Mr. James Beveridge, where, 

 with a minimum drain upon the forest's resources and utilizing the waste 

 from the saw mills, he is employing a large number of men night and day, 

 all the year around, and producing an excellent article of wrapping paper. 

 It is earnestly to be hoped that the energy and enterprise shown in the es- 

 tablishment of this industry, may meet all the success it deserves. 



The Chairman commended very highly the practical character of the 

 paper. 



MR. FIELDS (Miramichi, N.B.) said there were large salmon fishing 

 interests on the Miramichi River. Up to within twenty years there were 

 May, June and July runs. The July run was now almost a thing of the 

 past. In the opinion of those who had studied this question, this was 

 due to the burning and cutting off of the forests. The rivers were now so 

 low in summer that the fish could not get up. 



HON. C. W. ROBINSON asked Mr. Burchill what proportion of forest 

 destruction was due to the fires and what to the axe. 



MR. BURCHILL could scarcely answer that question, but a very large 

 proportion was due to the fires which swept the country for many years. 

 He had been told that from the top of Bald Mountain, near the head of 

 the Northwest Miramichi, there was not a green tree to be seen. This dis- 

 trict was burned over many years ago. His firm had been operating in 

 the same district for thirty years and were now glad to get logs running 

 fifteen to the thousand, whereas in the old days logs ran seven and eight to 

 the thousand. 



