TITLE AND INDEX TO VOL 3. WILL BE ISSUED WITH THE JULY NUMBER. PAGE 457 469 471 487 488 498 499 51I 512 520 537 543 545 547 549 552 CANADA GAZETTE. Parties sending advertisements to be inserted in "The Canada Gazette," will hereafter please observe the following rules: 1st. Address "The Canada Gazette, Ottawa, Canada. 2nd. Indicate the number of insertions required. 3rd. Invariably remit the fees for such advertisements, together with the price of one Gazette, as below. Otherwise they will not be inserted. The rates are eight cents for the first insertion, and two cents for each subsequent insertion per line of nine words, each figure counting as one word. Subscribers will also notice that the subscription, $4 per annum, is invariably payable in advance, and that the "Gazette" will be stopped from them at the end of the period paid for. Single numbers will be charged 10 cents each, and when more than one are required by advertisers, must be remitted for likewise, BROWN CHAMBERLIN, 46 Ο UTSIDE of the consideration wheth- | is she, speaking without reference to that er the United States may or may prime consideration, by any means so absonot become rival customers with Great lutely and incomparably preferable as the Britair for our tonnage, there is soon to tank and boiler makers of Blackwall and the be a largely increased demand. The 'rage' Clyde would have us believe. 'Per contra,' for iron ships is being followed by a more the wooden ship has her points of superideliberate thinking, which will soon show ority, which, though fewer, perhaps, or of that, after all, they are not so vastly superior less relative importance, are yet, in the very to their wooden rivals as has been the fashion nature of things, absolutely impossible of to assert. The consideration of the great attainment by the other, in the present concomparative cheapness of the latter, which dition of science at least. Indeed the comhas whilom been lost sight of, will be recog- bination of the two-the 'composite ship' nised again at its true value, that of being is a much better vessel than either, unitone of the weightiest elements in the discus-ing, as she does, the most desirable characsion; and it is the fact, as slight observation will prove, that even much less difference of cost in favour of the wooden ship than has ever yet obtained, still leaves her quite as desirable an investment as the iron. I have commanded both kinds, and although I find the last named, all things considered, undeniably the better, yet I also have found that that superiority has a near limitation, and is not so large but that it is more than counterbalanced by her greater cost. Nor teristics of both, while mainly freed from the exceptionable peculiarities of either. She is, and will be, the nearest possible approximation to naval perfection, until the world can afford to build copper ships. "A recent event, it will be seen, has let much of the gas out of the inflated ideas now current upon the great question of iron vs. wooden tonnage. I allude to the finding of the commission of enquiry into the case of the Megara, viz., that no iron ship can be depended upon, even running under the most favourable circumstances, for a longer period than twelve years. And Lloyds' have revised their 'infallible decretals' to a code which practically relegates the very best iron ships to a 'four year class !'—the least now accorded to any wooden one-and but three years to those of inferior construction. Twenty-one years A. 1., eh? But, besides all this, and of vastly greater importance from the present point of view, comes the late extraordinary advance in the price of iron. There are potent reasons why no expectations can be entertained that this advance will be followed by any corresponding diminution; on the contrary, continuous enhancement is probable, if not certain. Add to these another phase of the recent re-codification of Lloyds' rules-the extension of class of the hitherto much depreciated 'North American built ships,' by which eight years A.1. is conceded to our 'mixed wood' vessels, (French Lloyds' give them nine) and by which it is rendered possible to construct in these colonies a class of 'composite' tonnage which shall be entitled to fourteen years of the same grade,—and we surely have sufficient warranty to act on the assumption that a broad and early increase of demand for Canadian tonnage will be developed." The preceding are extracts from a copy of an unappreciated letter addressed some time since to one of the Dominion leaders. The present time affords an opportunity, or gives warrant for amplifying somewhat upon the texts therein contained, and kindred topics; especially as the prediction with which the second paragraph closes, has already entered upon its fulfilment,-two unequivocal signs of which are afforded in the rapidly risen and unusually high rates of freight now ruling along the whole seaboard, from New Orleans to Newfoundland; and in the more obvious, though not necessarily more significant indication found in the sudden increase of prices offered in the English markets for the purchase of colonial built vessels-a branch of trade which, since the close of the year 1867, had dwindled to a point beneath observation, but which, within the last few months, has again appeared above the commercial horizon, and in dimensions of which the measure is afforded in the fact that, according to the latest returns, old and lapsed* vessels command in cash a sum which approximates to the original cost of their construction-indeed, in some instances, where the ship was built at our cheaper building ports, becomes its full equivalent. Correspondingly, we find an abatement in the enormous activity which has prevailed in the iron ship-building trade since the competitive energies of the American carriers dwindled to zero under the baneful influence of "war risks," and the burdens imposed by the most short-sighted and illogical legislation-as viewed from the present point-to which a great maritime people ever committed its interests. Trade is also falling off from the marine engine works from the same causes; and from some of the iron shipyards of the North comes the expression of a fear of complete stagnation. And they complain of a paucity of orders for new constructions, while at the same time reluctant to enter upon fresh engagements, owing to the utter uncertainty of the future cost of material. Further proofs might be cited, but enough has been said to show that the expected revival of demand for "British North American built" tonnage has begun, and is characterised by indications that it will be both heavy and sustained. Here, then, we encounter the first question: What is the ability of the country to meet the demand? In a former paper we discussed the condition of our forests, and noted some of the * That is, vessels whose period of classification at Lloyds' has expired. + Not reckoning cost of outfit. principal causes which are acting to produce suring. In the tables which it promulgates for the guidance of ship-builders, sixty-four varieties of timber, domestic and foreign, are variously rated, according to strength, elasticity, durability, and the particular structural function and position assigned, at periods varying from four to fourteen years; to which from one to three years more will be added by a compliance, on the part of the owner, with certain prescriptions relative to the kind of metal used in fastening, the application of preservative agents to the materials, and protecting the vessel from the action of the weather while in course of construction, etc., etc.; or seventeen years in all for the highest, and seven for the lowest original grades. their rapid and wasteful dissipation. There has been no change. The term of unusual dulness in maritime matters there spoken of has come to a close, the tree-destroyer has improved the interval in sharpening his weapon and "making broad his ways," and the remoter districts, which constitute the hitherto untouched reserve, begin to feel his influence. The quantities of ship timber brought out during the past winter (in the two maritime provinces) is at least double the aggregate of the preceding season; while the great activity which now characterizes the deal and timber trade will undoubtedly swell their drafts upon the fast diminishing forests in at least an equal proportion. We have seen how, in the very nature of things, the time is rapidly approaching when, to continue the banking figure, those drafts will be dishonoured, unless the remaining capital be protected by a sagaciously devised and wisely administered conservation; a pressing duty, be it observed, and one which rests exclusively with the Government; for the people, as the student of history too well knows, will never lift its ear-much less desist from chewing the particular thistle of the occasion-powerful society must be read between the at the voice of the warner, unless the warning be enforced by the cudgel of the law. Unfortunately the gentlemen who "go to Ottawa" are, with but few exceptions, no more observant of the evils upon which we are rushing than are the pre-occupied constituencies which they so fitly represent; yet, as sometimes "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump," the few may make themselves felt before the case becomes altogether hopeless. If we are to measure the ship-building resources of the country under the restrictive influences of the powerful society known as British Lloyds', the answer to the query propounded above will not be found reas Canadian Monthly, Vol. i, pp. 529-30. Now out of these sixty-four, there are but eleven varieties which are to be found on Dominion soil. Of these again, but two may exclusively compose a ship rating as high as eight years in original class, although they may enter into the construction of British built vessels, along with timber of the higher rates, to produce tonnage of any grade, more or less largely—not being absolutely excluded from even the fourteen year class in such connection. (For the elaborate code of this lines to discover its full significance; and then it will be found that it has another object besides that of establishing the highest possible standard of perfection for mercantile naval architecture; to wit, the encouragement of the exportation of the colonial ship matériel to the mother country, and the discouragement of its utilization at home.) And besides restrictions of class, there are disallowances with respect to size which materially narrow the scope of appli cation of Canadian ship timber. Only three kinds, including the two just mentioned, may be used throughout in the construction of ships of all dimensions; four others may form the entire material of small craft of three hundred tons and under, only; and the remaining four can find but partial use goes on through the seaports of the latter country. The neighbourly folk who "boss" the timber yards of New York have long been in the habit of accommodating the wants of their "bluenose" confrères out of their surplus masting pieces, imported via Buffalo and other lake ports—a fact not generally known in Gath, nor published from the housetops of Askelon, but which is nevertheless true; as is also the correlative subsidiary fact that much of the largest and finest of this product of the Dominion forests is believed by the too confiding consumer to be "Puget Sound," or "Californy sticks," and paid for accordingly. Mas vale saber que haber, says the terse old Castilian proverb; but, unfortunately, a real appreciation of the breadth and vigour of its meaning comes only to those whose riches have taken unto themselves wings. Hence, (one cannot refrain from saying, not for the sake of indulging in a cheap sneer at its framers in tonnage of any description whatever. equalization of distribution save that which Moreover, the higher rated and more widely applicable of this exceedingly meagre list are the very sorts that our forests produce most sparsely, or upon which the heaviest inroads have been made already. Thus white oak, which heads the list, is of very limited production in Ontario and Quebec; occurs as a mere sprinkling over the hillranges of New Brunswick; and in Nova Scotia is never found at all. Pencil cedar, although its northern range, in sizes fit for any considerable availability, will be found to approximate loosely the isotherm of 40°, is also not an indigene of the latter named province, though it occurs scantily, on swampy soil, in the others. And that really magnificent timber, the larch, and its varieties-once the pride of our forests, impartially and plentifully distributed over all sections of the country has gone down to a corresponding rarity, partly by exportation, partly by home use, and largely by the heedless wastefulness and destructiveness of the purveyors. In--but since it enforces the lesson) hence deed, so limited has the supply of this once superabundant material become, that the ship-builders of the Maritime Provinces already import Georgian and Floridan pitchpine—(which rates exactly the same in the Tables of Construction)-wherewith to replace it in vessels intended for the eight year grade. And for the lower masts of ships of any considerable tonnage, foreign wood has been in use any time these fifteen years, at often excessive prices too, the indigenous "red pine" (so called at Lloyds' -Pinus resinosa, is apparently the species meant) being no longer found of sufficient dimensions for anything heavier than upper spars, nor in any respectable quantities at that. It is still both abundant and massive in the inland provinces, but the rate at which it is exported, in timber to England, and lumber, chiefly to the United States, being taken in connection with the rate at which the means of intercolonial communication ⚫are progressing, destroys all hope of any the marvellous condensation of Iberian thought upon the evanescence of wealth, of which it is at once the product, proof, and index; and we are in a fair way to produce an equally sublime saying. The remaining varieties of native timber which "have a character at Lloyds," as the pet phrase of the insurance broker so well expresses it, are, for the present, still abundant; and also pretty evenly distributed, excepting white cedar and hickory, which do not grow in Nova Scotia, and "yellow pine "-P. strobus)*-which, having once been the most plentiful as well as most readily accessible and easily felled, of all the trees of that province, is now absolutely extirpated from nearly all her most important sections;† *There exists a confusion in the trivial names which must be kept in mind. + Mainly exported as lumber. |