Report of the Work of the Public Archives ...

The work is continued in the usual manner, so that little remark on that head is necessary. The copies of State papers for Upper and Lower Canada have been received down to 1840, shelf marked, and put in place. The minutes of the Executive Council of Nova Scotia were sent to the binder in November last, as were three volumes of correspondence of that province from 1741 to 1752; other work of the same province being in progress. Miscellaneous papers of Upper and Lower Canada not included in the general terms of "State papers are in process of collection and copying, so as to have the collection made as complete as possible. The same care as has always been taken, is exercised in guarding against error and securing exact transcripts of the papers. Copies have been completed here of the Bougainville papers received from Quimper, France, and for the receipt of which an acknowledgment was made to Mdme. de Saint Sauveur Bougainville, and to M. de Kerallain, in the report for 1899.

Inquiries have been repeatedly made as to the reason of Lord Halifax signing himself "Dunk" Halifax, an answer to which is furnished by Hone, in the second volume of his "Every Day Book." He quotes the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1741, which says:- "that on the 2nd of July of that year, Lord Halifax married Miss Dunk with a fortune of £100,000. According to the will of Mr. Dunk, the lady was to marry none but an honest tradesman, who was to take the name of Dunk, for which reason His Lordship took the freedom of the Saddler's Company, exercised the trade and added the name to his own."

The varying dates as to the creation of the peerage of Glenelg, led to some inquiries to ascertain the exact date. In the Century Cyclopædia, the date is given as 1828, a palpable error. In Burke's Peerage, letters patent are said to have issued on the 8th of May, 1836, creating the Peerage. When Mr. Grant (afterwards Lord Glenelg) was Colonial Secretary, Lord Aylmer on the 16th June, 1835, addressed him as Mr. Grant. A week later (23rd June) he was addressed as Lord Glenelg. The

64 VICTORIA, A. 1901 answer from the High Commissioner's office was that the letter patent to create the barony of Glenelg was dated on the 8th May, 1835, although Mr. Grant had signed as Lord Glenelg a short time before that.

In a work entitled Wentworth Land Marks, published by the Hamilton Spectator, a description of the Desjardins Canal is given, but nothing is said of the projector. In a dispatch from Sir John Colborne, Lieut. Governor of Upper Canada, dated 6th November, 1835, in dealing with the question of the proprietorship in Canada of property belonging to aliens, Sir John Colborne in reference to the relief bill for the heirs of Peter Desjardins stated that these heirs consisted of two brothers and a sister, who ask to be empowered to inherit the property of their late brother as if they had been natural born subjects. The question submitted by Sir John Colborne was whether the Crown should forego its rights in favour of the family in consequence of them being closely related to the late Peter Desjardins, "projector of the Desjardins Canal,” a statement which may be taken as correct as being officially reported by the Lieut. Governor to the Colonial Secretary (Series Q. 387-2, page 273).

In a memorial addressed by Mr. Charles Shirreff, of Fitzroy, to Lord Dalhousie, dated 28th August, 1828, some account of the origin of the lumber trade in Upper Canada is given incidentally. Extracts from this memorial accordingly follow, the purely personal parts of it being omitted. After stating the policy of the Northern Powers of Europe in shutting their ports against Great Britain the memorial continues :

Although the political causes which had made it necessary for Great Britain to procure timber from the Colonies were removed, yet the trade being once opened has been continued. It does not appear, however, that Government till within these few years ever gave any legal sanction, for cutting the timber on the Crown lands, excepting that the mercantile houses in England contracting to supply the Naval yards with timber received annually licenses to take a certain quantity, to enable them to fulfil their engagements with Government. These licenses were transmitted to their agents at Quebec, and contracts were made accordingly with the lumberers in the country. But the quantities of timber brought down had for several years far exceeded the extent of the licenses. This did not arise from neglect on the part of the Provincial Government, but rather from a tacit permission, the trade being considered of consequence to the country and favoured accordingly in the financial arrangements of the general Government.

The contractors with the Government, however, remonstrated a few years ago against those who were cutting without licence as interfering with their privileges, and the Law Officers of the Crown in Upper Canada, from which Province the supply was chiefly obtained, finding that the business was carried on illegally were under the necessity of ordering the Sheriffs of the District to seize all the timber which they should find cut without license.

Your Memorialist has resided since the year 1819 on lands granted to him and situated on the Ottawa, in the Township of Fitzroy, 150 miles from Montreal, and in the neighbourhood of that part of the country where the red pine is procured. He has not been engaged in the trade, but has observed its progress and growing importance, and he saw with regret the above measures adopted, probably unavoidable under existing circumstances, but which, if persisted in, must have destroyed a branch of commerce very beneficial to the country.

Having occasion to go to York in the autumn of 1824, he took an opportunity of speaking to the present Chief Justice (then Attorney General), and Major Hillier, Secretary to His Excellency, the Lieutenant Governor, on the subject, and the result of these conversations was a request that he should on his return home communicate such

SESSIONAL PAPER No. 18

information as he might think useful in the consideration of measures necessary for the regulation of the trade, which he accordingly did in a letter to Major Hillier.

Your memorialist went to York again in September following, and found that His Excellency Sir Peregrine Maitland had thought it proper to communicate with Earl Bathurst, previous to taking any steps in the matter. An answer having been received from His Lordship shortly before, His Excellency proceeded to the consideration of the subject as soon as other business permitted, and Your Memorialist had the honour of giving His Excellency in Council what local information he could communicate and of stating the opinion he had been led to form on the subject.

After a very attentive investigation The Honble. Executive Council submitted a report of considerable length to His Excellency, and your memorialist received the following letter from Major Hillier, dated

GOVT. HOUSE, 9th Nov., 1825.

DEAR SIR,-The consideration of the Government has been very attentively given to the subject of the present state of the timber trade in this Province, and a report made by the Executive Council will be transmitted without loss of time to Lord Bathurst, containing certain suggestions calculated to place the matter, as it is hoped, on a more clearly defined and better footing for the future.

With respect to the adoption of any intermediate measure it will be clear to you that, even were the Lieut. Governor disposed to assume such a responsibility, the situation of the river Ottawa (in the circumstance of its left bank, during its whole course through this Province, being within the limit of another government) would render such measures in a great degree nugatory.

In making this communication to you, I am commanded by His Excellency to express to you his thanks for the valuable information you have afforded to the government on the matter in question.

I have the honour to be, &c.,

G. HILLIER.

CHARLES SHIRREFF, Esq.

The matter being brought to this point with the government of the upper province, the stay of the memorialist at York was no longer necessary. Still, however, the business was but half completed, as from the situation of the River Ottawa, dividing as it does the two provinces for several hundred miles, any measures respecting the timber trade which might have been adopted by the Government of one, could only have been made effectual, as Major Hillier remarks, by the co-operation of that of the other.

A communication, therefore, on the subject with your Lordship became desirable, and it was proposed as the shortest and most effectual mode that the memorialist should proceed to Quebec and request an opportunity of stating and explaining the business; which he did as soon as the ice became safe for travelling from his residence on the Ottawa.

Your Lordship gave the subject immediate attention and after due consideration and enquiry, the Honourable Executive Council submitted to your Lordship the propriety of adopting and co-operating in the measures recommended by the Government of the Upper Province. In consequence thereof and in order to remedy the inconveniences which arose from the trade being on an illegal footing, proclamations were issued of the same tenor by each Province giving liberty to cut timber on the waste and unappropriated lands upon payment of certain prices to the Crown.

On receiving the accounts and returns at the end of the first season, the Honourable Executive Council of the Lower Province expressed their sense of the salutary effect of the measures which had been adopted in terms, too flattering perhaps to the memorialist. (The terms are given but are here omitted).

64 VICTORIA, A. 1901

From the Ottawa being on the confines of both Provinces, their respective Governments saw it most convenient to appoint only one collector for that river. A raft frequently consists of timber from the Crown lands in both Upper and Lower Canada and likewise from private property, so that it would be impossible for an officer not on the spot to ascertain the quantity from each.

(Series Q., Vol. 375-2 page 350.)

The following extract is from a letter from Lord Dalhousie, written from Dalhousie Castle and dated July 26, 1832 :

MY DEAR SIR,-I feel great pleasure in declaring upon all occasions, and particularly when you are urging claims upon the Government, that at many times when I was in the administration of the British Colonies in America, I had great cause to acknowledge services rendered by Mr. Shirreff your father. In these days (1820) the timber trade was rising into activity and posperity, regulations were necessary and system called for. Mr. Shirreff, an eminent merchant from Leith, came then into the Canadas. (Series Q. vol. 375-2 p. 359).

Part of this letter is a personal testimony to Mr. Shirreff's merits, and has no direct bearing on the lumber trade; it has, therefore, been omitted. Some letters written by Lord Dalhousie are no doubt answers to others from Mr. Shirreff, which it has evidently not been thought necessary to publish. Much of the correspondence relates to claims for remuneration for services rendered and the letters being of no general interest require no comment, but Mr. Shirreff's remarks on the delays and consequent expense caused by the Falls of the Châts and the Chaudière may be quoted as showing the state of affairs that existed on the Ottawa in 1831, so far as the lumber trade was concerned. The object of the remarks was to obtain improvements on the Ottawa, so as to facilitate the transport of timber.

The conflicting interests with regard to the Colonial Lumber Trade make it of the greatest importance to this country that the article should be shipped at Quebec on as low terms as possible, the prices in the English market being kept in check by those of the timber from the Northern countries of Europe. But to enable the lumberers to furnish it moderately, facility of conveyance must be given them, particularly on the Ottawa from whence the greatest part of the Red Pine is brought.

The first serious obstruction which the general body of the timber meets with is at the falls of the Châts where the rafts are broken up in coming over, and must be again formed in the Bay called Fitzroy Harbour. This creates a delay of at least three weeks, and frequently longer, which at the lowest calculation occasions an expense of d. per foot.

The same detention takes place at the Falls of the Chaudière and consequently the same expense.

The timber being thus detained on its way in the upper parts of the Ottawa, loses the most favourable season for going down the rapids at Hawkesbury and at the Island of Jesus, the River falling before the greatest quantity of the Red Pine Timber can reach them, so that it must be taken down in one or two cribs at a time, whereas earlier in the season, one half of a raft, or, if not a very large one, the whole of it, might be carried down these rapids at once. Thus a great deal more time is consumed, and a further expense incurred of at least 1d. per foot. Moreover by this detention a great proportion of the timber from the Ottawa is thrown into a late season. Instead of reaching Quebec in September, as it might do, if these obstructions were removed, many of the Rafts do not arrive till November, when they meet with stormy weather and are frequently broken up and much of the timber lost. All this hazard and expense could be easily saved by the improvement of the passes at the Châts and Chaudière. Slides

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