The Sun.
London, England, 1821-03-26 00:00:00

Standard Deals

1,861,89?,

Average quantity of Standard Deals for 8 years -

Average annual Export from
Onega - - - 20 cargoes, each of
I 2,000 Standard Deals -
Wyberg. and other ports in Finland, 40 Do. Do
Narva . - 20 Do. Do.

Standard Deals

3,030,799

FURTHER PAPERS AND ACCOUNTS
Relating to this Subject, not inserted in the preceding
Report or Appendix.

Petition of the Merchants of Miramichi, in favour of the Timber Euties.

A petition of the there-undersigned merchants, ship-owners, and magistrates
of Miramichi, in the province of New Brunswick, was presented, and read; setting
forth, That it is not without great anxiety and alarm the petitioners have heard
that an alteration of the existing arrangement of timber duties is contemplated to
be proposed in the next session of parliament, and such an alteration as, if adopted,
must ruin a trade which, with due encouragement, will continue to be of incal-
culable advantage to his maj-sty's colonies in North America ;_ that not only are
the merchants, ship-owners, and timber-cutters, but all other classes of people in
that pros ince, benefited by the trade, and as one proof among the many the pe-
titioners could adduce in support of this tact they beg leave to state, that farmers
(who a few years ago raised only enough from their lands for the support of them-
selves and their families, and had no incitement to raise more. because there were
then no purchasers for what they could spare) have, since the commencement of
the timber trade,- increased their exertions in clearing anti improving their lands,
entirely on account of the brisk demand. for all sorts of farming produce required
for the use of the timber-cutters and others connected with the trade, and many
industrious and deserving emigrants have been enabled to settle on the wilderness
lands of that country solely by means of the merchants advancing to them the-
supplies necessary for their support until their lands were brought to a state of
cultivation to yield them a subsistence; the supplies so advanced were payable in
timber, which is generally prepared for market during the long winters, when
neither farming nor fishing can be carried on; and that, from a thorough con-
viction that the imposition of a duty upon colonial thither, or any reduction in the
duty upon that from foreign countries, would, by destroying the trade of that
country, prove utterly ruinous to a large proportion of its inhabitants, without the
least possibility of any of them being benefited thereby, the petitioners are now
induced to address the house; that in the fullest reliance upon a continuance of-
the support of government, and naturally conceiving that the, interests of the
- colonies would never be sacrificed to advance those of foreign stations, the mer-
chants of that I..lace have expended vast sunis in forming establishments suitable
for carrying on the timber trade, and have been in the habit of importing, and do
still continue to import, British manufactured goods to, a large amount, which
goods they advance to the timber-cutters, who, have no other Way of making pay-
ment but in the article of timber; that, in the event of such a stop to the trade
as the imposition of the proposed duty would occasion, those costly establishments
must go to deCay, the timber-cutters could never pay for their supplies, and all
importation of British goods must cease ; for the merchant there depends.exclu-
sively upon the exportation of timber to Great Britain to make his remittances;
that white or yellow pine (of which description the great bulk of the wood of that
country consists) was shipped, and is now shipping, at from fourteen shillings to
eighteen shillings per ton, which latter is the very lowest rate at which it can be
prepared for market: even at these low rates the importation into the mother
country this season yielded perhaps in no instance any profit beyond the employ-
ment of shipping, and, in several cases within the knowledge of the petitioners,
was attended with loss to the importer; it is therefore obvious that no duty, how-
ever small, can be borne, and that the high duty proposed would amount to a
complete , prohibition of colonial timber; that the ruin of those innnediately con-
nected with the trade would not be. the only evil effect of such alteration of the
duties, the fisheries of the colonies Would be materially injured, for the salt used
in those fisheries is, almost without a single exception, brought .out in vessels
chartered to carry timber home; this return freight enables them to bring the salt
at a rate which the petitioners think would be trebled at least in the event of a
cessation of that trade, and that all the timber brought to this market, or of the
growth and manufacture of the province; the petitioners feel a pride in having it
in their power to say, that a more loyal people than his majesty's subjects in that
province, are not to be found in any part of his dominions; and they are fully per-
suaded that nothing but the withdrawing the protection hitherto atiiirded them, and
thereby destroying all prospect of their earning a comfortable subsistence in that
country, could possibly induce them to remove to a foreign state; distressing as
the abandonment of the country ww hi be to individual feeling;
.alarming as it un-
doubtedly is, in a rational point of view, and reluctant as the" petitioners are to
anticipate a state -of things so tb.eadful. ,yet, from a sense of duty, they feel cm-
' pelled to state, as their decided and deliberate opinion, that a speedy depopulation
of some districts of that country will follow that almost total annihilation of its
trade, which would be the inevitable consequence of the contemplated alteratiOn in
the timbei duties ; vast numbers of emigrants, as well as of the youth of the
country, and others whO have not yet acquired a fixed residence in it, and there-
fore do norcorite under the denomination of permanent settlers, and a number,
who are now considered of this latter description, would go to some country where
farming can (or where they, imagine it can) be carried on to more advantage than
in that ; and it is bin too' probable. that that country would be the one, whose
ambitious designs all the energies of those provinces may one day be required- to
counteract; the petitioners beg leave to add to this, their respectful representation,
a statement of the number of vessels that have been loaded in the river Miramichi
alone, with the quantity of square timber they carried, during the under-men-
tioned periodS FroM May to 20th November 1817, 2tO vessels, carrying
2,033. tens square timber ; from May to December 181fh 278 vessels, carrying
9:',;33 tens ice-,are timber; from May to December 1 0 19, 797. vessels, carrying
I 07,0fil- tens 'Square timber; in addition to which, masts, spars,'-oars. lathwood,
planks, and staves, to a large amount, were also exported to Great Britain during