CAN ADI AN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION . 59 



It may be urged by the sister Provinces having large water power that 

 it is the duty of the Province of New Brunswick to hold this pulp wood 

 timber in reserve for such time as they may need it, rather than export to 

 the States. How will this benefit New Brunswick, and how long will 

 the people of this Province be obliged to wait? Before answering this 

 question, or rather answering it by asking another question, suppose we 

 reverse the proposition and ask Ontario and Quebec to suspend all busi- 

 ness pertaining to pulp or pulp manufacturing for a short period of time, 

 so that New Brunswick can dispose of her mature crop at high prices, in 

 order to bridge over a long interval, during which she will have no mar- 

 ket, providing Dominion exportation is prohibited. Could we reasonably 

 hope or expect for a moment that they would entertain such a proposition? 

 And yet the supply of pulpwood in Ontario and Quebec, to say nothing of 

 Manitoba, is almost unlimited, and, therefore, pulp wood from New 

 Brunswick would be required only after a long period of years, and when 

 so required at a much less price than that obtained from territory near their 

 mills, because of the increased cost of transportation. 



Assume for a moment, however, that each Province, acting independ- 

 ently, should prohibit pulp wood exportation, and let us anticipate results. 

 Possibly Ontario and Quebec might be benefited thereby for a long or short 

 period, depending upon what changes might take place in tariff regula- 

 tions or in the development of the paper industry in the States by using 

 substances other than wood, or other woods than spruce, for raw material, 

 but this is a branch of ,the subject that does not enter into this discussion. 

 What we most desire is to know how New Brunswick will be affected. I 

 have tried to demonstrate that it is practically an impossibility to make a 

 financial success of paper making with steam power to .grind wood. There- 

 fore, in the absence of water power, it is fair to assume that the manufac- 

 turing of deal, as heretofore, will be continued, the lands growing poorer 

 and poorer as a producing proposition for deal stock. There will be no 

 market for pulpwood in Ontario and Quebec or for shipment to Grand 

 Falls from the eastern and northern drainage of this Province, they ob- 

 taining cheaper wood nearer home. For the same reason that it is unprof- 

 itable to grind wood with steam power to make paper, it will be impossible 

 by the sulphite process, which can be conducted with steam plants, to pro- 

 duce newspaper throughout the eastern and northern sections of New 

 Brunswick. Should we undertake to wait until Ontario and Quebec re- 

 quire the wood from New Brunswick, the hair of our children and our 

 children's children would be well streakeci with gray before the demand was 

 appreciable. 



As before stated, the tendency of saw mill operating has been to render 

 the land poorer and poorer for deal manufacturing. The specification* of 

 65 per cent, and 35 per cent., once easy to obtain, is now almost unknown. 

 Even 50 per cent., and 50 per cent is the exception rather than the rule. 

 Each year the log cut seems a little smaller than the last, and instead of 

 being able to cut three per cent, of the whole stand without injury or defor- 



* See remarks on "Miramichi Specifications," in papei* of Hon. J. P. Burchill. 



