Mr. y. G, Bourinot on Canada! s Marine and Fisheries. 13 



paper by Mr. Haliburton. Shipbuilding has almost ceased in the Nfw 

 England States ; the bulk of foreign commerce is carried in foreign ships, 

 not a single line of Atlantic steamers is owned by the merchants of the 

 United States. The depredations of the Confederate cruisers no doubt did 

 much to injure American shipping ; the preference given to iron vessels 

 over wooden ships has also tended in the same direction ; but the real 

 causes of the silence that still exists in the once noisy ship-yards of Maine 

 and Massachusetts, and of the decadence of the American marine generally 

 mufit be sought in the fiscal legislation of the United State. From 1861 to 

 1870 the amount of the foreign trade carried in American vessels decreased 

 some 40 per cent, compared with 1860, when the great proportion of the 

 trade was carried under the American flag. In 1860 the total tonnage of 

 the United States was 5,353,868, but by 1868 it had decreased to 3,674,48'? 

 and there has been little or no improvement up to the present 

 lime. The tonnage of vessels engaged in the fisheries has decreased 

 from 323,606 in 1860 to about one half in 1870-1. With an irredeemable 

 and fluctuating paper currency in circulation, with a high rate of wages, 

 with a large increase in the prices of necessaries and the cost of living 

 generally, with an exorbitant tariff amounting in many cases to the pro- 

 hibition of certain articles, the energy and enterprise of the people of the 

 United States have naturally been paralysed, and the American marine has 

 been unable to compete with the marine of other nations on the broad field 

 of commercial rivalry'. On the other hand, the commercial policy of Canada 

 has been based on those liberal principles which are best calculated to 

 develope trade and enterprise. When the Americans, so foolishly for them- 

 selves, repealed the Reciprocity Treaty, under which a limited trade had grown 

 up to afford employment to American shipping, Canada never exhibited 

 the same selfish and domineering disposition, but threw open her fisheries 

 on the payment of a nominal licence fee, and always showed a willingness 

 to come to some arrangement with her neighbours on matters of trade. 

 Her tariff has been adjusted to encourage the shipping interest by the free 

 admission of all materials that enter into the construction of vessels. Large 

 sums of public money have been annually expended for the improvement 

 of lake and sea-coast navigation ; a careful system of steam-boat inspec- 

 tion has been devised, and so efficiently carried out, that less accidents 

 occur on our inland waters than on those of the United States ; legislation 

 has been passed for the relief of sick or distressed seamen, and for the 

 examination of masters and mates, who henceforth can rate with the 

 same class in England ;--all this Canada has done with the view of 

 promoting her great maritime industry, and her wise policy stands 

 in remarkable contrast with the illiberal indiscreet system of her 

 American neighbours, under which their marine has so rapidly declined. 

 At the last Session of Congress, the necessity of reviving shipbuilding was 

 discussed, and an Act passed to allow a rebate on certain articles used in the 

 construction of vessels, but so far this legislation has resulted in no prac- 

 tical result whatever. It is now said that an attempt will be made during 

 the present session to repeal that feature of the old navigation laws which 

 prevents American citizens from buying foreign-built vessels for an Ameri- 



