It was expected by the merchants and others interested in the trade of this river, that some measures respecting it would have been taken by the Legislature in their last session.--Nothing has been done--the poor manufacturer, the country-trader and the merchant that exports the produce of the State, are all left without any regulation to govern themselves by.--The staple commodity of this State is lumber; on the profits arising from the trade with this article, the support of a very considerable part of the community depends; it is this that principally employs our navigation, and from the returns of this export, arises a considerable revenue to the Government.--As we are now shut out from any carrying trade for other nations, the whole employ of our navigation must be to freight with our own produce; the price we shall obtain at foreign markets, will entirely depend on the quality of our lumber, and the character it has. It ought then to be an object of attention in the Government, that it should be under the strictest regulation.--Lumber cargoes at present are hardly worth exporting, it requires a vessel that will cost from twelve to fourteen hundred pounds, to carry three hundred pounds value in lumber: the insurance and hire of the vessel will nearly eat up the profits of the cargo--add to this the gross imposition in the measurement of the lumber now in fashion, often as much as one sixth part, beside a quantity of refuse, which is totally dead freight: this is a ruinous trade, which requires an immediate remedy from Government---the remedy is easy and simple--make the lumber better, and it will immediately benefit every individual that is concerned in it, from him who first fells the tree to him who ships it--if it is one third better, it will more than double the freight--the surveyors should be independent of the neighbourhood they live in, there is at present a rivalry among them, and he that takes the lumber on the easiest terms to the seller, is very often preferred on that very account.--Every officer whose place it is to do justice between man and man, should be appointed by authority independent of both of them.---It is unnecessary to be more particular on this matter; it is notorious to every dealer in lumber in this river, and the neighbouring State, and even as far as the name of Piscataqua lumber reaches, that the fraud and villainy in this kind of traffic exceeds all bounds, and even men under oath to prevent it, have a considerable share in the iniquity.--How destructive this practice is to the trade and morals of a young State, and the immediate necessity of laws to remedy the evil, I submit to the consideration of the Legislature, whose attention has been engrossed so much with the settlement of the affairs of a long war, and the regulation of a new Government, that they have not yet found leisure to attend to so necessary business as the trade of the State--excepting the impost of two and half per cent.
