Wastefu/ harvest practices.

The duty will be ”unjust and cruel” to farmers.

latter may be the first direct recipients of the benefits arising from it. The shipbuilding interests require the protection which an export-duty on Juniper—knees would afford them. The wasteful and improvident manner in which juniper trees have been cut down—immense quantities of this valuable timber having been sold at an almost merely nominal price and exported—affords a convincing proof that, if it be not put a stop to by the imposition of such a duty, the effects will prove most injurious to the shipbuilding interests, and, through them, to the general interest of the Colony. Although the building of large vessels may not last very long, there is reason to believe, that the building of small vessels will continue, for many years to be a source of profit and prosperity to the Colony, if not put a stop to by an improvident and wasteful use of the timber requisite for carrying it on. Convinced of the propriety of these views I will support an export—duty on Juniper-knees with a view to the preservation of juniper trees for the service of our own shipbuilders, on whose prosperity the general prosperity of the country so much depends. Such a duty will, no doubt, be felt as a grievance by a few individuals, because it will deprive them of all prospect of immediate gain from the sale and exportation of juniper-knees; but, in affording protection to the ship-building interests, it will increase the general prosperity of the Colony; and the interests of the few must yield to those of the many.

Mr. [Robert] MOONEY. Nothing can be more cruel than to say to the poor tenant upon an unimproved farm, on which, perhaps, there may be a swamp bearing Juniper trees, “you shall not cut down and sell them to the Americans who will give you the best cash price for them; but you must allow them to stand until they die of old age or are destroyed by fire, unless they may happen to be wanted by some of our ship- builders who will pay you for them in molasses or tea at their own exorbitant prices. The imposition of an export-duty on juniper-knees would be a very unjust and cruel act indeed. In many instances it would, I believe, not only deprive individuals of the means of procuring the only little luxuries in which they ever seek to indulge—such as tea, sugar, and molasses—but shut up the only present source whence they could derive such money as would enable them to pay their rents. I think it would be the giving effect to this proposition—the preventing of poor men from sending to the best market, in order to realize a little cash, the only spontaneous production of the soil

they have to dispose of whilst otherwise employed in clearing improvable portions of their farms,

Hon. Mr. PALMER. We know very well that the land on which juniper trees grow is not in itself valuable; but, allow the timber to grow, and that will, eventually, make it, for a time, more valuable than the productive portions of a cleared farm.

Hon. Mr. [James] WARBURTON. They who have juniper trees growing on their farms, have certainly a right to make the most of them, and ought to be left at perfect liberty to sell them to those persons, whoever they may be, who will give them the best price for them, whether as timber or knees; and whether required for home use or for exportation. It is a fact that as good prices cannot be obtained for juniper, from our Island ship—builders, as from the Americans; and therefore, the export of them ought not, I think, to be interfered with. It might, indeed, be perfectly fair and reasonable to require all the juniper growing in the Island, to be reserved for home use, provided there were a sufficient demand for it, and that fair and reasonable payments were made for it by our ship-builders. But that is not the case; and therefore, to prevent the exportation of it, by the imposition of a heavy export—duty, would be a very arbitrary and oppressive act. It is not from hear—say that l speak; but from my own knowledge. In my own district [i. e. the First District of Prince County, comprising Lots 1 to 74] the poor farmers are paid for their juniper, and, in fact, for any other kind of timber that they may be able to dispose of, in a way which is shamefully unfair: they are paid for it in all kinds of trash, at most exorbitant rates. In my neighbourhood, l

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