14 ^!^'' /. C Bourinot on Canada's Marine and Fisheries, 



can registry, and exacts that the coastwise trade shall be done in American 

 bottoms. Such legislation has long been anxiously desired by the people 

 of Canada, for it will still more stimulate shipbuilding and increase the 

 profits of the shipowners of the provinces. The Americans are now 

 awakening to the consequences of their shortsighted commercial policy, and 

 can fully appreciate the significance of the warning which Mr. Secretary 

 M'CuUoeh gave them a few years ago : — " It is a welUestablished fact that 

 the people who build ships navigate them ; and that a nation which ceases 

 to build ships ceases of consequence to be a commercial and maritime 

 nation. Unless, therefore, this state of things is altered, the people of the 

 United States must be subject to humiliation and loss. If other branches 

 of industry are to prosper, if agriculture is to be profitable, and manu- 

 factures are to be extended, the commerce of the country must be sustained 

 and increased. 



Of the future of our maritime industry we need have no fears while 

 Canada enjoys peace within her borders, and a broad, enlightened policy 

 prevails in her councils. Since the provinces are no longer isolated from 

 each other, but firmly united for their mutual development and expansion, 

 their progress must be more rapid in the future than in the past. The 

 construction of canals and railv/ays must necessarily give additional employ- 

 ment to her marine, and place it eventually in the very foremost position. 

 Sooner or later, the bulk of the carriage of the trade of the Great West of 

 the United States and Canada must follow the natural route of the St- 

 Lawrence in Canadian ships. The fish, coal, lumber, and grain alone ot 

 Canada should give abundant employment to her shipping, for these pro- 

 ducts of her soil and waters are in ever-increasing demand, and are every 

 day finding new avenues of trade. The coal-fields of Nova Scotia are inex- 

 haustible, and must be developed henceforth to an extent of which the 

 experience of the past few years can give no adequate conception ; and even 

 now the proprietors of mines find it difficult to charter vessels to supply the 

 orders they are receiving. The iron exists alongside of the coal in the same 

 province, and there is little doubt that in the course of time iron vessels will 

 be built within the Dominion itself. Between 1860 and 1871, under an ordi- 

 nary condition of things, British North America doubled her tonnage ; and 

 it is safe to predict that, in view of the more rapid development of her com- 

 mercial and industrial resources under the stimulating influences of public 

 works and territorial expansion, the increase of her mercantile marine will 

 be still greater within the next decade. 



The prospects of the maritime industry of the Dominion were never more 

 brilliant than they are now, and mu-^t be viewed with the deepest satisfac- 

 tion by all who take an interest in the welfare and prosperity of that portion 

 of the British empire. The same adventurous, courageous spirit that in daj'S 

 of old carried the maritime worthies of England to unknown seas and conti- 

 nents, and has founded new States throughout the habitable globe, still 

 exists in all its pristine vigour among the Canadian people ; and, as it now 

 impels them to energetic action in building up their commercial and mate- 

 rial prosperity, so in the hour o'c national danger it will animate them to the 

 performance of deeda of " bold emprise." 



