Newfoundland and the Jingoes Part 5

The best answer to the distinguished officer's objections may be found in the official reports of the geological survey of Newfoundland, published by Edward Stanford, Charing Cross, London. The present director of that survey, Mr. James P. Howley, F.R.G.S., has replied in part to Major-general Dashwood's remarks in a letter written a fortnight ago, from which I extract a few pa.s.sages. The Major-general said at the Royal Geographical Society that the timber of Newfoundland is all scrub, and fit only for firing. Mr. Howley writes: "Our lumbering industry is in a most flourishing condition. Ten large saw-mills are in full swing, besides several smaller ones, around our northern and western bays. Large shipments of lumber were made last summer to the English markets. Messrs. Watson & Todd, of Liverpool, England, purchased 3,000,000 feet of lumber in the island last summer; and the market quotations in the Liverpool trade journals will be the best index to the value of the lumber. The Exploits Milling Company at Botwoodsville purchased $25,000 worth of stores in Montreal to be used in the winter's lumber-felling operations. They calculate on cutting 100,000 pine logs. Though the mill has been ten years in operation, the lumber shows no signs of exhaustion; while the other and far more abundant products of the Newfoundland forests, such as fir, spruce, birch, tamarack, etc., have scarcely been touched.

"The Benton Mill, owned by Messrs. Reid, contractors for the Northern & Western Railroad, though scarcely a year in existence, has put out 3,000,000 feet of first-cla.s.s lumber."

As to the coal fields, Mr. Howley, referring to his own official reports for 1889, 1891, and 1892, as published by Stanford, writes:--

In the Bay St. George coal fields 16 distinct seams were discovered, ranging from a few inches up to several feet in thickness: the Cleary seam has 26 inches good coal; Juke's seam, 4.6 feet; Murray seam, 5.4 feet; Howley seam, 4.2 feet.

In the Grand Lake carboniferous area 15 distinct seams were discovered, also ranging from a few inches to several feet. Two seams on Coal Brook show 2.4 and 3.5 feet. On Aldery Brook, three seams show 2.6 feet, 3.8 feet, and 14 feet of coal. At Kelvin Brook 3 seams contain 2.6 feet, 3.8 feet, and 7 feet.

Specimens have been submitted to experts in connection with the Colonial Office, and have been found, in some cases, superior to the Cape Breton coal. So much for the report of a man who understands his business, and has had better opportunities than any other living man of studying the question.

For myself, I may say that during twenty years of travel, in which I have been from the Gulf of Mexico to Ottawa, and from the Straight Sh.o.r.e of Avalon to the Muir Glacier of Alaska, I have studied every State which I have visited with a view to its attractions for British emigrants, and, before the pa.s.sing of our present absurd immigration laws, have been instrumental in transferring many skilled operatives from the foul slums of Manchester and Salford to the healthy and pleasant factory villages of New England.

I need hardly say that Newfoundland is not the right place for such men; but, under a just and wise imperial government, it can be made a happy home for thousands of hardy Scotch and Irish peasants, who need not, in crossing the ocean, change their political allegiance. But England must first do her duty.

She must build her railroad from Port aux Basques along the French sh.o.r.e to Bonne Bay, or further north, so as to give the people a means of communication which shall not be impeded by the French treaty rights; and she must arrange her tariffs so as to defend her fishermen against the unjust discrimination of foreign bounties. As an American, I can have no interest in saying these things to Englishmen. If Major-general Dashwood is right, so much the better for us.

Our Whitneys are awakening new life amid the ruins of Louisbourg, although the Duke of York and those who followed him as proprietors of the Sydney coal fields could do so little with them; and so, if England cannot help Newfoundland, _America can_, and can serve herself well at the same time. Take the fishing for an instance. The French bounties do not hurt the Ma.s.sachusetts fishermen, because we have a _home_ market which the Frenchmen cannot touch, and seek only a foreign market for the very small quant.i.ty that our own people do not consume. And to share in this American _home market_ alone would be more profitable to Newfoundland than all its connection with England can ever be.

J.F.