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12 - History of New Brunswick by Peter Fisher · History of New Brunswick

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  Speaker 1: Section twelve of History of New Brunswick. This LibriVox recording
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  Speaker 1: is in the public domain recording by Roger Moline. History
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  Speaker 1: of New Brunswick by Peter Fisher, Section twelve. From the
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  Speaker 1: foregoing statement, it plainly appears that chief of the export
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  Speaker 1: trade of this province consists of timber, which is its
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  Speaker 1: natural stock or capital. And as there are many articles
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  Speaker 1: taken in exchange from the mother country which are indispensably
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  Speaker 1: necessary to the inhabitants of this province, it points out
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  Speaker 1: the necessity of paying strict attention to its preservation. In
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  Speaker 1: this country. There is no article or articles that can
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  Speaker 1: in any degree furnish exports equal to the pine, which
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  Speaker 1: is manufactured in the simplest manner and got to market
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  Speaker 1: with but little trouble. So simple is the process that
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  Speaker 1: most settlers who have the use of the acts can
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  Speaker 1: manufacturate the woods, furnishing a sort of simple manufactory for
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  Speaker 1: the inhabitants, from which, after attending to their farms in
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  Speaker 1: the summer, they can draw returns during the winter for
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  Speaker 1: those supplies which are necessary for the comfort of their families.
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  Speaker 1: This being the case, the preservation of our forests becomes
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  Speaker 1: of prime importance to the prosperity of the province. The
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  Speaker 1: evils that must arise to the province by allowing the
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  Speaker 1: timber to be monopolized and hastily cut off are many.
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  Speaker 1: The timber standing in the country, particularly on the crown lands,
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  Speaker 1: may be considered as so much capital or stock to
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  Speaker 1: secure a permanent trade and promote the solid improvement of
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  Speaker 1: the country. Most of the lands in this province where
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  Speaker 1: pine is found are intermixed with other timber, and although
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  Speaker 1: the precise spots on which the pine grows are unfit
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  Speaker 1: for agriculture without much labor, yet there are most always
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  Speaker 1: spots adjoining where a settler may cultivate with success, so
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  Speaker 1: that in a lot of two or three hundred acres
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  Speaker 1: there is generally enough for tillage, and a man settling
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  Speaker 1: on such land could always choose his spot for farming
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  Speaker 1: and keep his timber to cut at his leisure. His
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  Speaker 1: pine so reserved, would, as long as it lasted, serve
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  Speaker 1: him as a resource. From whence, after attending to his
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  Speaker 1: farming in the summer, he could draw returns during the
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  Speaker 1: winter for which supplies as would be necessary for his
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  Speaker 1: family and for improving his farm. To make this more evident.
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  Speaker 1: We will suppose a man settling on a wilderness lot.
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  Speaker 1: Like most settlers, he has but little save his own labor.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps he has a small family. He commences with cutting
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  Speaker 1: down a small spot and erecting a hut, say in
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  Speaker 1: the summer or fall. He then moves on his family
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  Speaker 1: and looks round for sustenance till he can raise his
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  Speaker 1: first crop. In doing this, his funds are exhausted, and
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  Speaker 1: he wants by his own labor, to replenish them during
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  Speaker 1: the winter and provide a few implements of husbandry and nails,
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  Speaker 1: et cetera for building a barn. Now, supposing his lot
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  Speaker 1: to be back from the river and at a distance
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  Speaker 1: from old settlements where labor is wanted, what does he do? Why?
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  Speaker 1: He resorts to his pine, to the simple manufactory before noticed,
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  Speaker 1: and makes a few tons, say twenty thirty, forty or fifty,
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  Speaker 1: according to his ability, carefully cutting the underbrush and timber,
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  Speaker 1: so as to put his land where he is working
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  Speaker 1: in a fair train. For clearing this timber, he probably
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  Speaker 1: gets hauled to the water on shares. If he is
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  Speaker 1: very poor and has no team, The returns for which
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  Speaker 1: the next spring furnish with supplies and enables him to
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  Speaker 1: continue on his land and prosecute his farming. If he
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  Speaker 1: cannot do without the return of his timber till spring,
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  Speaker 1: he applies to a merchant, who, if the manner is
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  Speaker 1: of good fame, advances him such articles as may be
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  Speaker 1: particularly necessary for his family. This enables him to find
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  Speaker 1: labor on his own lot and stay with his family,
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  Speaker 1: whereas if he has no such resource, he must leave
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  Speaker 1: his home and go to a distance from his family
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  Speaker 1: seeking labor, and probably they may be so circumstanced as
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  Speaker 1: not to be left safely alone, and he has to
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  Speaker 1: take them with him, which breaks up his family and
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  Speaker 1: prevents him from settling. If a number of families commence
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  Speaker 1: a settlement together where the timber has not been destroyed,
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  Speaker 1: but where a fair proportion is still growing on the land,
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  Speaker 1: they exchange labor with each other, and by their joint exertions,
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  Speaker 1: manufacture and transport their own lumber to market. In this
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  Speaker 1: way they are enabling from year to year to prosecute
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  Speaker 1: their settlement and pay for their grants. The timber answering
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  Speaker 1: is a first crop fully grown and a resource to
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  Speaker 1: make returns for necessaries by this method, as the pine disappears,
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  Speaker 1: houses and barns will rise in its place, and the country,
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  Speaker 1: instead of a barren waste, will exhibit flourishing settlements peopled
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  Speaker 1: with a race who will know the value of their
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  Speaker 1: improvements and feel their interest identified with the country, and
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  Speaker 1: whose attachment to the government will increase with their growing possessions.
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  Speaker 1: Their children, raised on the soil from the strong principles
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  Speaker 1: of early association, will feel that interest in the welfare
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  Speaker 1: of the country that no transient advantage can produce, grow
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  Speaker 1: up an ornament and strength to the province. On the contrary,
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  Speaker 1: if the lumber is cut off by mere speculators, the
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  Speaker 1: land will be left in an impoverished state, much valuable
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  Speaker 1: timber will be wantonly destroyed, and the places from whence
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  Speaker 1: the timber is taken will be left an uncultivated waste.
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  Speaker 1: Settlers will neither have the inclination or ability to occupy them,
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  Speaker 1: while the major part of the men employed in getting
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  Speaker 1: the lumber for the merchants, instead of making a comfortable
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  Speaker 1: provision for their families, will wear out the prime of
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  Speaker 1: their days without making any permanent establishment, and keeping their
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  Speaker 1: families shifting about the country like vagrants. Their children for
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  Speaker 1: the want of employment and the direction of their fathers.
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  Speaker 1: Brought up in idleness, their education and morals neglected and
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  Speaker 1: bad habits acquired will be the reverse of those before noticed,
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  Speaker 1: and many of them will become a vagrant race, unconcerned
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  Speaker 1: or uninterested in the welfare of the country, and in
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  Speaker 1: many instances a nuisance to it, while their parents, after
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  Speaker 1: they get unfit for the business, will be turned off
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  Speaker 1: in debt. In short, it will be the most direct
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  Speaker 1: way to prevent the settlement of the back lands and
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  Speaker 1: to produce what is the bane of all countries, a
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  Speaker 1: race of inhabitants who have no interest in the soil
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  Speaker 1: or welfare of the province. Statement of the expenses on
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  Speaker 1: one thousand tons of pine timber manufactured on the Wabskahagen,
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  Speaker 1: a branch of the river Tobeque, The Secretaries, Governors and
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  Speaker 1: Surveyor General's fees of office, including the charge for writing
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  Speaker 1: petition one pound ten shillings duty on one thousand tons
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  Speaker 1: at one shilling fifty pounds less by amount included in fees,
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  Speaker 1: et cetera one pounds five shillings total forty eight pounds
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  Speaker 1: fifteen shillings. Incidental expenses to the applicant fifteen shillings. Surveyor's
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  Speaker 1: fees for measuring the timber berth seven pounds. Expenses for
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  Speaker 1: axe men and chainmen five pounds ten shillings. Traveling expenses
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  Speaker 1: thence and back five hundred miles eight pounds total seventy
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  Speaker 1: one pounds ten shillings. Ten men at five pounds per month,
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  Speaker 1: and an overseer at ten pounds save for six months
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  Speaker 1: sixty pounds six yoke of oxen at thirty pounds per yoke,
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  Speaker 1: one hundred eighty pounds, one pair draft horses fifty pounds,
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  Speaker 1: one boat, sail and gear thirty six pounds, two canoes
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  Speaker 1: with paddles six pounds, sleds, chains, harness, et cetera, twenty
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  Speaker 1: seven pounds ten shillings. Eleven men's provisions for six months
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  Speaker 1: at eighty five shillings per head per month, two hundred
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  Speaker 1: seventy four pounds ten shillings. Hay for oxen, et cetera.
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  Speaker 1: Thirty tons at ten pounds, three hundred pounds grain for ditto,
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  Speaker 1: twenty five pounds grain for ditto. One thousand, two hundred
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  Speaker 1: fifty nine pounds total expense on one thousand tons of
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  Speaker 1: timber at the brow ready for rafting one thousand, three
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  Speaker 1: hundred thirty pounds ten shillings expense of rafting, anchors, cables, ropes,
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  Speaker 1: et cetera. Fifty pounds total one thousand, three hundred eighty
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  Speaker 1: pounds ten shillings deduct for articles that may be useful
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  Speaker 1: another season viz. Oxen horses, boat tackle, et cetera. Two
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  Speaker 1: hundred fourteen pounds, canoes, sleds, harness, anchors, et cetera, et cetera,
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  Speaker 1: fifty pounds deduct total two hundred and sixty four pounds
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  Speaker 1: grand total one thousand, one hundred and sixteen pounds ten shillings.
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  Speaker 1: From the foregoing statement, admitting it to be near the truth,
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  Speaker 1: it appears that the expenses on one thousand tons of
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  Speaker 1: timber got on the River Tobeque amounts to one thousand,
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  Speaker 1: one hundred sixteen pounds ten shillings, to which is to
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  Speaker 1: be added the expense and risk of taking it down
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  Speaker 1: to Saint John, a distance of about two hundred and
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  Speaker 1: fifty miles. The loss by casualties on a rapid river
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  Speaker 1: where men and teams frequently break through the ice and
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  Speaker 1: are swept away by the velocity of the current. When
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  Speaker 1: all the above expenses are deducted from the returns of
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  Speaker 1: the timber, it will leave but a little for those
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  Speaker 1: who carry on the business, and very often involves them
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  Speaker 1: in inextricable difficulties. The preceding statement points out the necessity
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  Speaker 1: of adopting a more prudent system in conducting the timber business,
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  Speaker 1: not to push the trade to such an extent, to
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  Speaker 1: retrench the expenses by raising the heavy parts of the
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  Speaker 1: supplies near the timber districts, and to follow up the
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  Speaker 1: timber trade with the improvement of the country and cultivation
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  Speaker 1: of the soil. Another great drawback to the prosperity of
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  Speaker 1: the province is the great consumption of ardent liquors, partly
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  Speaker 1: occasioned by the present modes of conducting the timber business.
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  Speaker 1: The amount of spirituous liquors imported and consumed in the
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  Speaker 1: province in eighteen twenty four, at the least calculation was
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty thousand pounds exclusive of the County
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  Speaker 1: of Charlotte. And add to this amount the cost of
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  Speaker 1: the transport of the liquor to the interior and the
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  Speaker 1: enormous charges on the article in the distant parts of
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  Speaker 1: the province. The cost of the consumer may be fairly
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  Speaker 1: reckoned at trouble the amount making in the whole the
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  Speaker 1: gross sum of three hundred sixty thousand pounds for ardent
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  Speaker 1: liquors alone consumed by the inhabitants of the province, being
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  Speaker 1: nearly twenty gallons on an average for every male over
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  Speaker 1: sixteen years of age. The number of inhabitants in this province,
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  Speaker 1: according to the census of last year, is seventy four thousand,
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy six besides the large settlement of
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  Speaker 1: Madawasca and the parish of West Isles, and as it
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  Speaker 1: is probable the numbers in the different parishes are taken
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  Speaker 1: in some instances under the real amount, the whole population
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  Speaker 1: may be fairly rated in round numbers at eighty thousand.
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  Speaker 1: The subjoined statement will show the population of the different
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  Speaker 1: counties and parishes in eighteen twenty four. End of section twelve.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Roger Moline