REIO ON THE ECONOMY OF TIMBER. 329 



There are a great many email streams and rivers in Nova Scotia 

 (I may say all of them) that it is extremely difficult to lumber on, 

 on account of the exceedingly rough rocky bottom and the small 

 amount of water they carry ; and the Government could in no better 

 vray further the interest of the Province than to expend a sum of 

 money yearly in blasting out rocky obstructions, and building dams 

 and timber slides, on the most frequented streams. These improve- 

 ments would save ten times their tax to the mill owners, in the 

 large sums they now pay for log driving, besides the very large loss 

 they sustain in logs that are scattered along the banks of the rivers, 

 which cannot be made use of, and become much deteriorated from 

 exposure, besides being a dead loss of about 10 to 30 per cent, of 

 their raw material and capital for from two to three years. Practi- 

 cally a large per centage of logs are always so situated as not to be 

 at command. Laws of this kind would tend to foster our lumber 

 trade, while at the same time preventing very much waste that now 

 exists. The crown timber lands yet to be sold should be auctioned 

 by the square mile for 7 or 10 years for lumbering purposes. 



Government should appoint an officer to superintend this depart- 

 ment of our trade, a man thoroughly posted in lumbering and ship- 

 building operations, to give reliable information and suggestions to 

 the Government on the best method of carrying it on ; such as 

 making outlay, variation of tax on shipbuilding operations, (owing 

 to locality,) and to attend to other duties in relation to the forest, 

 to be again referred to. 



Shiphiiilding requires a great deal of timber, but a kind of little 

 value for saw-mill purposes, and with care could be continued in- 

 definitely. To this every attention should be paid, as the demand 

 for wooden ships will continue to be much better than of late years, 

 owing to the failure of iron sailing ships. 



As another means of economising our timber, greater encourage- 

 ment should be sriven to the manufacture of wooden wares, thus 

 giving a larger home expenditure with a diminished demand on our 

 supplies ; for in addition to supplying the home demand they could 

 be made large items of export, as now obtains in many parts of the 

 Dominion. This variety of industry is being rapidly developed ; 



