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BILLITER STREET. .J ^ it ^#4^- "• "TT^pi^riWTr "T" 1 INTRODUCTION AS the proposed reduction of duty on Foreign Timber and Deals may again be brought under the consideration of Parliament, and, as it is believed, the subject is not suffici- ently understood, especially by those not directly engaged in the trade, this Pamphlet, which is a re-print from the Morning Herald, of Letters addressed to the Right Hon. Lord John Russell, and to the Rt. Hon. Mr. Labouchere, with the Editor's remarks thereon, is now respectfully sub- mitted, in the earnest hope, that it may receive an attentive perusal. And, in particular, it is requested that the Petition, unanimously adopted by the Legislature of New Brunswick, and also that of the Board of Trade of Quebec, may obtain that attention which such important documents are justly entitled to. The declared objects of the Government in proposing the reduction of duty on Foreign Wood were — First, To meet the just claims of Ship-builders and Ship-owners, on account of the repeal of the Navi- gation Laws ; and Second. For the benefit of the poor, that cheaper rented and more comfortable dwellings might be erected for them. These are very plausible objects, and certainly most desi- rable, if they could be attained without sacrificing more important national interests. A perusal of the letters and 1/ IV. ■II ^ statements, now referred to, will show, in what way the first object, that is, the claim of the Ship-builders, can be more effectually met than by the proposal of Government ; and, also, that it is utterly impossible the second object can be attained by the proposed measure. The certain consequences that must follow the further reduction of the Wood duties will be — K.l'i' First. Decreased employment of British and Colonial shipping, by a diminished trade with our own Colonies, and extended employment of Foreign shipping by an enlarged trade with Foreign countries. Second. The sacrifice of a very considerable amount of revenue, without any noticeable benefit to any one interest in this country. Third. Ruin and discontent in our Wood-producing Colonies, especially in Canada and New Brunswick, to the advantage and encouragement of Foreigners. Fourth. An advance in the price of Wood in Foreign countries, and to enable Foreigners to send to this country more inferior goods, to the great loss and dis- advantage of this nation. It is notorious that already some houses engaged in the Foreign Timber trade have increased their prices abroad, and a still further immediate advance will be demanded in the event of the Government proposal becoming law. For these and other reasons that might be given, it is hoped that Government may yet be induced to withdraw the proposal to reduce the duty on Foreign Timber and Deals. T EEMARKS, &c. ■t (From the Morning Herald, April 15, 1851.) In the first edition of his budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced his determination to reduce the duties on foreign timber by one-half, chiefly with the view of answering the complaints made last year by British shipbuilders against the unfair competition to which they were exposed with foreign ships built of untaxed timber ; and, secondarily, to carry out his very benevolent schemes in favour of the dwellings of the poor. In the last edition of the financial statement. Sir Charles Wood still perseveres in his intention of effecting a reduction of the duties in question ; but has either entirely forgotten the great object for which he originally proposed it, or, as in the case of the duty ou seeds, and a transfer of a portion of the charge for lunatic asylums, has thought proper to rebuke the indiflerence of his victims by taking no account whatever of their claims. No longer referring to the wrongs of the ship- builder, the right honourable baronet pathetically adverts to the wretched state of the dwellings of the poor, and declares that as " for their sakes, last year, he carried his repeal of the duty on " bricks, so. for their sakes, this year, he proposes to reduce the " duty upon foreign timber." Indeed, the versatile Chancellor enlarges so eloquently and so exclusively upon the physical miseries endured by the poor, by reason of the insufficiency of their abodes, that shipbuilders and their claims would seem at no time to have occupied an inordinate share of his attention. The probable effects of tlie proposed reduction of the timber duties are most pointedly displayed in a correspondence which will be found elsewhere in our columns, emanating from Messrs. PoUok, Gilmour, and Co., of Glasgow. That firm, having conducted an extensive business as timber-merchants and shipbuilders in our North American colonies for nearly forty years, are eminently qua- lified to speak as to the practical results of a measure which, for reasons, as it appears, not very clear to himself, the Chancellor of the Exchequer is bent upon carrying out. The conclusions to which we are irresistibly led by the letters of Messrs. PoUok, Gilmour, and Co., are, first, that the proposal of the Government must inevitably destroy our colonial timber trade, and thereby render the defection of our North American colonies almost certain ; next, that the meditated reduction must be a boon of almost inappreciable value to the poor ; and last, that relief may be given to the shipbuilders of this country, whom Sir Charles, in fact, no longer wishes to relieve, without at all interfering injuriously with our trade in colonial timber. With regard to the first point, it is to be observed that the price of timber abroad consists principally of the price of labour em- ployed in cutting down the wood in the forests, in converting it into timber, and in bringing it to a shipping port. Now, as the price of labour in our colonies is considerably higher than in such wood- exporting countries of Europe as Norway, Sweden, Russia, and Prussia, there is a large difference in the first cost of colonial and foreign timber wholly in favour of the foreigner. But then comes the amount of freight, which Messrs. Pollok, Gilmour, and Co., calculate at the following averages. From our North American colonies the freight is on an average from 305. to 33s. a load, and from the ports of Norway and the Baltic not more than 15s. a load, showing a difference in favour of the foreigner, in the item of freight only, of no less than 15*. to 18s. a load, a sum sufficient of itself to countervail the duty. The results which followed from the reduction of foreign timber duties in 1842, have been the bank- ruptcy of many of the colonial timber-merchants, the increase of supply by foreign countries, and the advance of the price of foreign limber, as well us the deterioration of its quality. The conse- quoHces which must now accrue to the British shipping interest if the timber trade with our own colonies should be transferred en masse to foreign countries are too obvious to require even a passing allusion. We look in vain in the proposition of the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the slightest justification for imperiUing, if not utterly destroying, the trade of our North American colonies, and, with it, their allegiance to the British Throne. Before the ministerial crisis the proposal was made, as we have already said, in order to remove the complaints of shipbuilders as well as to improve the habitations of the poor ; but in the interval between the 17th of February an'l the 4th of April the philanthropic designs of the Chancellor in favour of domestic architecture entirely superseded all consideration of the case of the unfortunate shipbuilders. Now, when people boast largely of their charity and munificence, we are invited to investigate and take account of the value of their gifts. Our correspondents have made a matter-of-fact calculation with respect to the saving possible to be made in the construction of dwellings for the poor from the reduction of the duties proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Upon the house of a common labourer or mechanic, rented at from 5/. to 7/. a-year, the whole saving in cost would be 17*. Upon a higher class of house, with rent at from 9/. to 11/., the original cost of construction would be 1/. 6s. 3d. less than at present ; and on the best class of houses which could come under the denomination of " dweUings for the poor" the amount saved in the original cost would be just 21. 3s. 9d. It seems tolerably clear, then, that the rents of such houses will not be reduced a single shilling by the reduction of the timber duties, and that Sir Charles Wood must try again before he legitimately earns the poor man's blessing. At all events, we would fain hope that, with such facts as these before them, members of the legis- lature will pause before they sanction, for infinitesimal advantages, a scheme which inflicts positive ruin upon many of her Majesty's most faithful subjects, and endangers the integrity of the dominions of the Crown. 8 Tlie case c. tne British shipbuilders remains to be disposed of, and although the Chancellor of the Exchequer has managed alto- gether to lose sight of this very important class of our commercial community in the midst of his benevolent dreams of poor men's palaces, they deserve and must command some consideration from the state. There can be no doubt, unfortunately, that one of the many evil consequences of the abolition of the navigation laws has been to place the British shipbuilder wholly at the mercy of the foreigner, and that with regard to him some modification of the timber duty has become indispensable. The suggestions of our cor- respondents upon this subject are most worthy of attention. They state that little or no foreign pine timber or soft wood is used in shipbuilding, and that if the duties are to be altered really for the sake of the British shipbuilder, it will be sufficient, so far as his interest is concerned, to remove the duty on oak timber and hard wood only. By such reduction a certain measure of justice will be secured to our shipbuilders at home, and the impending mischief to our colonies partially averted. We sincerely hope that the con- siderations put forward in the correspondence to which we have opened our columns will be duly weighed by the legislature, and whilst there is yet time, that it will refuse to become party to a scheme which, in its present shape, can be of so little benefit to any one, and which must immediately and directly produce serious evils to large and important classes, and which, in fact, threatens the Sovereign with the disaffection or loss of a most valuable portion of her dominions. ■M 4 I 9 PROPOSED REDUCTION OF THE TIMBER DUTIES. TO THR EniTOR OF THE MORNING HERALD. Sir, — When government announced, by the iirst financial scheme hiid before ])arliament this session, the intention of reducing the duty on foreign timber and deals, and, believing, as we did, that the pro- posal v^as made under a misconception of the present position and practical working of tlie trade as now carried on with foreign countries and oui own colonies, we addressed Lord John Russell and the Right Hon. Mr. Labouchere on the subject, which communications, we understand, were submitted to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It would appear by the second or amended budget that it is still the determination to carry out this proposal, and, therefore, we are very desirous to make known, through the medium of your journal, the true state of the trade, in the hope that the legislators of this kingdom may inquire into the merits of the question, and may satisfy themselves on the subject before they give their consent to sacrifice or throw away such a large amount of revenue, and approve of a measure which, we are convinced, will not benefit the consumers of this country, or any British subject in it unconnected with foreign interest, but which, if carried into effect, will prove very injurious to the shipping Interests of the nation, and most ruinous to our North American colonies, especially to Canada and New Brunswick. We consider the communications referred to, and herewith annexed, contain sufficient to satis-iy candid inquirers ; \ve neither desire nor expect protection for the colonial timber trade; we only urge for what we conceive the colonies are justly entitled to have — that is, the duty to be so adjusted that they may be able to compete on equal terms with foreigners, every advantage and disadvantage being fairly taken into account. But it is quite evident that even Sir C. Wood himself has great doubts and misgivings of the propriety of his proposed measure ; for, as reported in the Times, lie is made to say in reference to a further '4 J i [I -II. Mi il: 10 reduction — ^viz., " There is not sufficient competition on the part of " colonial producers to bring down materially the price of foreign " timber. I should therefore be merely putting so much money into *' the pocket of the foreign producer." Now, we have shown that already large sums of money have been put into the pockets of foreign producers by the last reduction of duty ; and it must be abundantly obvious, that, when the foreigner is now competing at great advan- tage over the colonist, another reduction of duty will still further increase that advantage. In order to meet the just claim of ship- builders, we have suggested that oak and all other hard woods should be admitted duty free — thai is, at the nominal duty of 1*. per load, as now levied on colonial timber. This, we contend, would in some degree, though very slight indeed, meet the difficulty of recent legis- lation in a more effectual manner than that now proposed. And now we shall consider the advantages and additional comforts which Sir C. Wood says the poor man will procure by the reduction, and we will suppose that the whole amount of duty so proposed to be reduced is saved to the consumer of this country — that is, that the price of timber is reduced by the full amount of that duty, which, however, we are sure will not be the case. In the construction of the following classes of dwellings the quan- tity of wood as stated will be required, and suppose we put it one- half each of timber and deals, the reduction of duty thereon will be 8*. 9d, per load — say 8*. 9d. : — A house for common labourer, workman, or mechanic rents at from 5/. to 71. per annum, and requires in the construction of it from 95 to 105 feet cubic of v.ood— say 100 feet or 2 loads at 8». 9d. . £0 \7 6 The next class of houses rents at from 9/. to 11/. a year, and requires from 145 to 165 feet cubic in the construction, or say about 3 loads, at 8s. 9rf. . , , 1 6 3 The third class of houses, at an annual rent of from 18^. to 20?. requires in the construction 250 feet cubic, or 5 loads, at 8s. 9d. • • • • • • 2 3 9 Now wc might go on to show the amount of annual saving which the foregoing 17s. 6d. expected by Sir C. Wood to be gained by the poor man, would give ; but that is surely quite unn^c ? :sary. We are, however, convinced the poor man would never receive the least 11 benefit from it, for if even, as already supposed, the whole reduction of the duty proposed were to be secured to the consumer of wood in this country, such a small saving in the construction of the house would not reduce the annual rent of it. Surely, then, for an object so trifling, and withal so uncertain, it can neither be safe, wise, nor patriotic policy to hazard the direct interests of this nation, and the peace and loyalty of our North American colonies, whose interests commercially, even under the existing trade regulations with this country, would most assuredly be more advanced by connexion with the United States than to remain as at present ; and if this be so, it may easily be conceived what the result will be if their timber trade should be sacrificed, for they have now no other of any importance with this country. We are, Sir, Your very obedient Servants, POLLOK, GiLMOUR, AND Co. Glasgow, April 9, 1851. Letter from Messrs. Pollok, Gilmonr, and Co., to Lord John Russell. TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD JOHN RUSSELL, FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY. My Lord, — We take the liberty of addressing your lordship on a subject of great interest to this nation, and of vital importance to our North American colonies — we mean the reduction of duty on foreign timber and deals, as lately proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. We shall endeavour to lay our views of this trade before your lordship as clearly and as briefly as we can ; but before doing so it may not be improper shortly to state to your lordship our position «nd connection with these colonies, that on the one hand due allow- ance may be made on account of our individual interest, and that •'■"■-■■■*"*■"■* n 12 II ^1 U ■ , ^ t w on the other hand, your lordshij) may award us such credit as we may reasonably expect on account of our intimate knowledge of and practical experience in the trade. It is now nearly 40 years since we made our first establishment in New Brunswick, since which time we have carried on the timber trade and ship-building in that province and in Canada, and indirectly also in Nova Scotia and Prince Ed: ard's Island. There is no doubt that capital invested yielded, with some exceptions, a fair "nnual return up to the year 1842, when, and subsequently, the duty on both foreign and colonial wood was very much reduced. Since that time, except during the period of a sudden and uncertain demand for wood for the construction of railways and erections therewith connected, the trade generally has been carried on at considerable loss and sacrifice of capital to the makers of timber and owners of saw- mills in the colonies, and also to the shipowners of this kingdom, who have been carrying timber and deals — especially the two last years — at rates very much under what the work can be done for. When the duty on wood was so much reduced it was expected that a larger quantity would thereafter be supplied by foreign countries, and this accordingly has been the case ; but in consequence of foreigners having advanced their prices abroad, and also in consequence of their sending wood of a more inferior quality and description than formerly, which the equalisation of the duties enables them to supply v/ith great advantage to themselves, and consequent loss and disadvantage to this country, the trade with the colonies has not as yet fallen off in quantity to the extent anticipated, though it has in viilue. The great demand for wood required for the construction of rail- ways during the very time the reduction of duty was going on caused temporary and irregular advances in prices abroad, and led many parties unacquainted with the trade practically to suppose that our North American colonies would not sufi^er materially by the change. This however, most unfortunately, has not been the case, for already a large proportion of those engaged in the trade in the colonies, especially in New Brunswick, have become bankrupts, and had it not been that during the past year freights from the colonies were so low, it is certain the importation of wood could not have been 13 in made except at an immense loss, and, even as it was, the spring or early importations did not cover freight and charges. We presume it was intended by the proposed reduction of duty to sui)ply the consumer of wood in this country at rhe 'owest possible price. We at once admit that under existing circumstances, and in our present position, this is not only desirable, but it is necessary ; and we are convinced the object thus aimed at can only be attained effectually by keeping up a strong and healthy compe- tition b'etween our North American colonies and foreign countries. The first cost of wood abroad consists chiefly of the labour of cutting it in the forests, converting, and bringing it to a shipping port (though in our colonies there is a government tax of from 10 to about 15 per cent., according to the description of wood) ; and as labour is so much cheaper in the wood-producing countries in Europe than in our own colonies, your lordship will at once perceive the great advantage that Norway, Sweden, Russia, and Prussia, have in this respect over our North American colonies. But in the further consideration of the subject, and with the view, if possible, of arriving at a sound and equitable conclusion, we will suppose that timber and deals are produced by foreigners and in our own colonies at the same cost, and that in the markets of this country they are exactly of equal value — both which pro- positions, we regret to say, are against our colonies, and therefore on these two most essential points we compete at a disadvantage ; but this brings us to the most difficult, and also as regards the interests of the shipowners of this kingdom the most important point of this trade — that is, the carrying of this bulky commodity. And liere we beg to remind your lordship, that the chief part of the products of Europe required in this country is carried by foreign ships, and to this we respectfully request your lordship's con- sideration ; for if the present extent of our colonial timber trade can be maintained, we still hope, notwithstanding the repeal of the navigation laws, a great part of it would be carried on by British shipping; but if the wood trade with the Baltic and Norway is increased, it will be carried on as at present by foreign shipjung chiefly. The freight of wood from our North American colonics may 14 on the average be put nt from 30.'