The Sun.
London, England, 1821-03-24 00:00:00

. . .
A petition of the there-undersigned merchants, ship-owners, and magistrates
of Miramiehi, in the province of New Brunswick, was presented, and read; setting
forth, That it is not without ii, -eat 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 majesty's colonies in North America; that not only are
the merchants, ship-owners, and timber-cutters, but all other classes of people in
that province, benefited by the trade, and. as one proof among the many the pe-
titioners could. adduce in support of this fact 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.,purchasera for what they could spare) have, since the commencement of
the timber.trade, increased their exertions in clearing and 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 heen 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_ landa,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 timber, 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 non-
induced to address the house; that in theftillest.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 sums in for.i.ing 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 Lave 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 lots to the importer ; it is therefore obvious that no duty, how-
ever small, can he borne, and that the high duty proposed would amount to a
complete prohibition of colonial timber; that the ruin of those immediately con-
nected with th, 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, add that all the timber brought to this market, or of the
growth ,and manUfacture of the province; ' the petitioners feel a ride in having it
in theirpower to say,, that it 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 afforded 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 wo hi be'to individual feeling a alarming as it un-
doubtedly is; 'in a national point of view, and reluctant as the petitioners are to
anticipate a state' of things .so dreadful', yet, from a sense of duty, they feel com-
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 timber 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, atid there-
fore do not come 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 but 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 staternisnit of the number 'of yeSaelgthat have been loaded in the river Mirainichi
alotfe, with the'-quantity` of square timber they carried, during the under-men-
iieined periods : ---,From May • to 20th November
.1817, 210 'vessels, carrying
7 '2
',O 3 3 tons square tiniber;:'frorn May to December •1218, 27P, vessels,' carrying
p;osl3,t'orils:SqWire tithbera--from May to December I 819,.-297 vessels, carving
it (*MI tons-square timber; in addition to which, masts, spars,. oars.' lathwood,
planks, and stares, to a large amount, were also exported to Great Britain during