Volltext Seite (XML)
136 CANADIAN GUIDE BOOK. And to this we might add a very liberal percentage; for, on the most minute enquiry among persons capable of forming an estimate on such matters, it has been universally asserted that many of the Articles, particularly Lumber, are far under-rated, Pine Lumber especially. We have certain Returns from several Saw-mills in Up per Canada, by which it appears, that even in those which have given in the quantity manufactured, the produce was upwards of 200 millions of feet; and, as the consumption does not equal one half of that amount, we have nearly double the quantity stated for export, that is, allowing the produce of the Lower Canada saw-mills to balance the quantities exported by sea. As the official returns from the United States on goods imported from Canada merely gave the declared values without the quantities, we can only institute a comparison, so far, between that year and 1848. The following are the leading articles : flour in 1847 . £24,722 9 3- -in 1848 . £310,965 9 3 Butter ee 1,016 16 0 ee 8,722 6 0 Ashes ee 6,052 0 0 ee 43,000 0 0 Wool u 5,654 0 0 ee 5,324 16 1 Horses ee . 15,723 15 0 ee 33,451 15 0 Wheat ee . 9,421 15 0 ee 63,127 5 6 CONSUMPTION. There is not any branch of Statistics, which more plainly indi« cates the state of prosperity of a country than the consumption of articles of import in relation to the population; the consumption of articles of home produce can scarcely be traced otherwise than from a general observance of the habits of the people. The object of the Commission being mainly to establish some starting point for future examination and comparison, every means was resorted to in or der to arrive at such a series of results as would prove satisfactory and least liable to objection. To any one at all conversant with the Canadian people, it must be evident that the general comfort is far more extensive than in most other countries, abject poverty is com paratively little known, and the class, constituting what were in a former Census designated as “ persons living upon alms,” consisted chiefly of the old and infirm who could not labour for their sustenance,