Star.
London, England, 1831-07-09 00:00:00

(
I
TRADE. I The quantity of timber imported from the Colo-
. ----..... I nies amounts to about 393,531 loads, of which
`On the nuke Trade. By HENRI Blass, Esq. 35.6 d. 100,000 may be red pine, 262,354 yellow, and
Few commercial questions are more important 31,177 of oakor other timber.
than that of the Timber Trade, and few more diffi- I The whole British dominions in North America,
cult. It stands embarrassed with an intricate . which in 1784 are supposed to have contained
scale of duties, disputed facts, the great relations ' 180,900 souls, can be fairly stated at the present
of foreign and colonial policy, the interests of home i moment to have increased to 1,200,000. Suppo-
production and consumption, and, as if these were ! sitions, however, may appear loose and uncertain,
not sufficient to perplex the consideration, it is al- I and it is much to be regretted that the census of
most always associated kith abstract controversies their population has not been taken at such inter-
of political economy. Yet as one third nart, or vela, as to bear more directly upon th•t present
700,000 tone, of the whole shipping arriving an- question. In Nova Scotia, however, mo.e exact
nually in the United Kingdom, from beyond seas, I accounts of the increase, from 1817 to 1827, have
comes laden with wood, the maritime ascendancy been kept and published, and which gave the
of the British Empire may be said to depend upon following results:
this trade ; and consequently its circumstances,
however complex, demand the most thorough in
quiry and accurate knowledge on the part of those,
who attempt to regulate it by legislation.
At whatever period this country first became
dependent upon forests beyond seas for supplies of
wood, perhaps the earliest traces of that depend-
enae, in our laws of trade, are to be found in the
navigation acts of Cromwell and Charles the Se-
cond. in 16.51, therefore, the resolutions of the
Commonwealth, and in 1660 the stat. 12 Car. 2,
c. 1. restricted the importation of certain articles
from foreign countries to British ships and ships of
the country whence imported. Of which articles,
among the first enumerated, as the most important,
are masts, timber, boards, and naval stores, and
on importation in foreign ships, they were charged
with the alien's duty.
In 1821, all former duties were repealed, and
new imposed in Great Britain, by the statues 1
and 2 George IV. c. 37 and 14. with a continu-
ance of the same drawback. The charges then
laid upon deals and timber were these :
Deals, per 120.
8 to 10 ft. above 7 inobes wide, by •
14 thick
In British ships - - £8 2 6
Foreign - - . 8 7 0
6 to 16 feet 7 inches, 31
In British ships - - • 19 0 0
Foreign - - - -19 19 0
Colonial - - . • 2 0 0
16 to 21 feet, 7 inches, 31.
In British ships - - - 22 0 0
Foreign - . - .23 2 0
Colonial - - - . 2 10 0
6 to 21 feet, 7 inches, above 3i-
In British ships . - -38 0 0
Foreign - - - -3918 0
Colonial - - - . 4 0 0
Above 21 feet, 7 inches, 4.
In British slaps - . . 44 0 0
Foreign - - - .46 4 0
Colonial . - - . 45 0 It
The same, above 4.
In ritish ships - . -88 0 0
Foreign - - - - 92 8 0
Colonial - - - - 10 0 0
Deal Ends.

1817. 1827.
Population of Nova . 82,05,3 121.848

The increase in Upper Canada is still more sur-
prising. That colony was planted iu 1782, by
about 10,000 persons. The official returns gave
it, in 1824, a population of 151,097, and, in 1830,
of 211,117. Nearly half of the timber is brought
from Upper Canada.
In 1792, the last year of peace, the official va-
lue of their imports from Great Britain was
1,119,991. The average of the three years pre-
ceding 1806 was 1,045,615. The average of the
three following, 1,834,1201. During the pe-
riod of three years after the Timber Trade, those
imports, which contribute there so greatly to health
and the enjoyment of life, were increased nearly
eighty per cent.
The shipping freighted with their exports enter-
! ing inwards into Great Britain, was, in the year
1792, 33,176 tons. In the year 1802, it amounted
Ito 41,201 tons. In 1817 it amounted to 211,031,
lan increase of above threefold. In 1825 it reached
its highest point, being that year 489,844; but in
1829, the navigation so employed exceeded
1431,000 tons, and upon the average of the last six
iyears it amounts to 430,000.

STATEMENT 07 LIVE STOCK IN NOVA SCOTIA.
11108. 1827.
Home 6,763 12,951
Honied Cattle .. 56,972 110,818
Swine ..27.695 71,482
Sheep.. 75,364 173,731

But, above all, what is to become of the capital
invested by the colonies in the conduct and advance-
ment of this trade? Invested too, not merely on
the tacit faith and encouragement of repeated acts

of Parliament, but after the express invitation, the
anxious solicitation, of the ministers, when by the
hostilities of Europe this country was in danger of
utter destitution. These investments should not
be estimated according to the immense wealth and
enterprise of this country, but with reference to the
, means of that their amount is of most serious im

portance. The colonists themselves compute it, in
steam mills, water mills, dams, wharfs, private
canals, warehouses, and other establishments, at no
less than £2,100,000. Besides which, the value
lof almost all the fixed property in the country, or
at least in the lower districts, depends upon this
trade, and, having risen with its rise, must sink
with its decline.

Under 6 fee, 7 inches, 31.
In British ships . - . 8 0 0
Foreign . . . - 6 6 0
Colonial - . - . 0 16 0
Same. above 3i.
In British ships - . - 12 0 0
Foreign - . - -1212 0
Colonial . - 1 10 U

Fir Timber.

As to the inferiority of the article, it should be

remembered, that there ure imported from Canada
two species of fir timber, of which one only, the
red pine, can be fairly compared with the Baltic.
The yellow or white pine, not found in the north
of Europe, is for certain purposes, (as musical in-
struments, the inside work and pannelling of houses,
and some others,) preferable to any wood whatever,
because larger, less knotty, and more easily
wrought. For many other uses, however, it is
undoubtedly unfit, and particularly is found to de-
cay in this country, if excluded from the air. But
for whatever purposes the yellow pine may be leas
suitable, for these, and for every other, the red
pine of Canada is fully equal to the best firs of
Norway or the Baltic. In point of strength and
tenacity, the experiments and testimony of
Sir Robert Seppings placed the respective merits of
each before the Committee of 1821, in tho follow-
ing comparison :

8 inches square and upwards.
In British ships - 2 15 o
Foreign . . . . 2 17 0
Colonial - . . . 0 10 0
On the 11th February, 1831, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, in opening his budget for the year,
announced his intention of remitting duties of cus-
toms and excise on certain other articles, and sup-
plying the deficiency thus caused by raising an ad-
ditional revenue on wood. And this addition he
promised should be obtained, not only without any
increase of burthen to the public, but even with
considerable relict'. The details of that measure
he reserved to be explained at another time; but
the principle and rule of it he then declared to be,
a :eduction on Baltic timber of ss. from 21. 15s. a
load to 21. 108 ; and an increase on colonial from
lUs. a load to 20s. Deals lie proposed to charge
in similar proportion, according to their cubical
contents.
On Friday the 18th of March, the day appointed
for the discussion of this measure, in which the
ministers had in the mean time frequently intimated
their resolution to persist, they suddenly declared it
to have been abandoned, and in lieu thereof brought
forward the following proposition :—to make no
addition to the duties on colonial timber and deals,
but to reduce the duties on Baltic by the whole
amount of 15s. a load, by gradations in three years;
that is, from January, 1832, till 1833, the duty on
foreign fir timber to be 21. 9a.—durint• 1833, 2i.
30.—and after, 21. a load ; and upon deals in the
same proportion. And this change they now de-
clared was to extend to Ireland.
Never was there a repulse more signal and ex-
emplary. There is no form of rejection which
could more strongly mark the opinion entertained,
nut only of the nature of the measure, but of the
conduct of those by whom it had been thus pro-
posed. Of 426 members present in the commit-
tee, 236 voted that the chairman should leave the
chair, 190 opposed the motion, and it was curried
by a majority of 46.
It may be rendered evident by a few figures,
that the colonial trade in timber and deals would
have been most grievously injured by the duties
piopoeed, and, it is feared, have wanted little of
being totally destroyed.
The first cost, the freight, the charges, and
some profit, however small, it is well known, must
be first paid before anything can be collected in
the name of duty, or trade and industry will soon
come to an end. By comparing, therefore, the
amount of these ingredients, which compose the
whole cost of colonial wood, with the market price,
which is regulated by the cost and duties of the
foreign article, it will be seen at once what the
former can bear, and at what point it must be
abandoned for that of Northern Europe. Digo -
mice, of course, there can be none, whether the
wood of Canada is put out of market by enhan-
cing its price through incrcnbe of its duties, or by
reducing the prices of the liral commodity through'
a decrease of duties on Baltic eood.
A deduction of 31. the pleat hundred, equal to
11 a. lid. per load, was to be made from the 12 feet
deals of Norway, and an addition of 41. the great
hundred, or 14s. 9d. the load, made to the spruce
deals of Canada. No competition could have stood
this yet on the 10 feet deals the difference would
Lave been far greater.
There are brought from the Colonies about
18,258 great hundreds of deals, equal to 105,895
loads, and requiring about 70,000 tons of shipping.
This, therefore, was in deals the amount of trade
and navigation to have been terminated by the new
duties.

- -
Specific Gravity. Breaking Weight.
Canada Red Pine .. 657 ... 611 lb.
Riga Fir ... ... 753 ... 42
Norway Spar ... 677 ... 656
With regard to other descriptions of Wood,—

the inferiority of the oak timber, and spruce deals,
from the Colonies, is acknowledged, and the only
question made, is of the degree ; but the rock-elm
of Quebec is, for strength and durability, unri-
valled by any naval ti ber, and the masts of Ca-
oads are the largest and finest in the world.
The tonnage of this kingdom has, since 1816,
declined nearly 400,000 tons, of which one-half
has disappeared, or its disappearance been disco-
vered, since 1822. The value of ships in the
timber trade has, since the year last mentioned, de-
clined from 111. a ton to 51. 10s. and the rate of
freights to Canada from 31. to 21. per load. The
competition of foreigners has so driven British na-
vigation out ofjhe foreign trade, that the propor-
tion of foreign to British shipping has increased
about seventy-five per cent. since iu the year
1792 ; nearly two-fifths of which increase have
been made within the last seven wears.

Ihe trade of the British North American Co-
lonies to the United Kingdom gives freights to
above 430,000 tons yearly, (on the average of the
last six years.) and constant employment to about
301,000, exclusively of repeated voyages, which
may be mule by three-tifths of the whole 430,000
tons, and this quantity of 331,000 tons is nearly
one•seventh of the whole registered tonnage of
Great Britain and Ireland.

The proportion of British shipping to foreign
was, in 1792. about 100 to 351, in 1822 about 100
to 516, and in 1829 about 100 to 616, on the ave-
rage of three years preceding each period.

A circumstance, thoroughly French, occurred at
Patio last week. "there is in Paris a small theatre in which
all the actors are children under seventeen. One of the
principal iiCitrraell In tiiis establishment, a pretty interesting
sill. named Bruce, aged nut quite fourteen, had, it appears,
tiltued an attachment to young man of seventeen, named
Loui.• Crete, an orphan entitled to Wine property. Parents
lied guardians were. as usual. UlilaYiniranlC to the levers,
and a few stolen interviews art re their only solace ; it has,
husever, been clearly areertained, that nothing criminal
had paired. On Titeaddy lot, Nina Bruce having had a
quarrel with her parents in die morning, sent to rehearsal at
the theatre as usual, but instead of returning home. met
Master Crete by appointment, and walked with him to the
Bois de Boulogne, carrying a small basket containing •
pair of pistols. On reaching a secluded spot, the young gen-
tleman made a bed of leaves and flowers, on which the young
lady sat down, and undoing her upper garments, opener h,r
left breast, when her hirer, by her desne, idiot her through
the heart with one pistol, and himself through the head with
the other. The bodies were found in this state by a gam•.
keeper two days afterwards. By their side was a letter,
stating that they were about to voluntarily snatch thennialrea
I from die tyranny to which they woe subjected, &c. ilks.