We shall now present a few facts
respecting the commerce and other prominent interests of the island.
Through the courtesy of the efficient collector of customs,—Mr. Donald
Currie,—a gentleman whose polite attention and hospitality to strangers
visiting the island deserve a permanent record,—we have been favored
with important returns. As an illustration of the wonderful progress
made in the development of the agricultural resources of the island, we
may state that while the quantity of oats exported in 1862 was only
943,109 bushels, it amounted, in 1872, to 1,558,322 bushels!
The following is the value in dollars of the imports and exports of the
island from 1870 to 1874, inclusive. The returns represent a rate of
progress to which, perhaps, no parallel can be produced in the British
Empire: [J]
YEAR. IMPORTS.
EXPORTS.
------- ---------- -----------
1870 $1,928,662 $2,154,003
1871 2,336,800
1,625,635
1872 2,569,878
1,894,173
1873-4 1,908,522 1,908,461
1874-5 1,960,997 1,940,901
The island revenue was formerly derived from _ad valorem_ and specific
import duties, land assessments, sales of public and Crown lands. Since
confederation it comes from compensatory subsidies, and the two last
named sources. The revenue of 1860, in sterling currency, was £28,742,
and the expenditure £41,196; in 1865 the revenue was £45,360, and the
expenditure £48,350; in 1870 the revenue was £62,230, and the
expenditure £70,662,—thus the revenue has been increasing from 1860 to
1870 at the average rate of £3,400. The receipts for the year 1874 were
$403,013, and the expenditure for the same year was $435,207. The reason
why in this latter year the expenditure exceeds the revenue is to be
found in the fact of the large amount paid as compensation for land
appropriated for railway purposes. It is right, also, the statement
should go forth that the expenditure, which was so much in excess of the
revenue in previous years, has been owing to the judicious purchase, by
successive governments of the island, of freehold estates. Indeed, from
1854 to 1870 the government bought 445,131 acres of land, at a cost, in
sterling money, of £98,435, of which 345,475 acres have been resold up
to the year 1870. The money thus expended in the purchase of land is now
in process of indirectly yielding a profitable return to the island; so
that for contracting temporary debt, successive governments deserve
credit instead of condemnation. They have made bold and successful
efforts to shield the people from the misery and ruin entailed by the
reckless disposal of the land by the Crown, and from the gross injustice
of successive home governments in not making full and honorable
compensation for the evil consequences of their action.
Mr. John Ings has placed at the temporary disposal of the writer a most
interesting little manuscript book containing extracts from the survey
of Captain Holland, in 1765, and exhibiting penmanship and neatness of
arrangement of the first order. At this period the number of acres
cleared in the three counties was 11,235; houses, 391; churches, 2;
mills, 11.
The number of acres of arable land held by all families in 1861 was
368,127. The number held in 1871 was 445,103,—the increase in ten years
being 76,976 acres!
Prince Edward Island is the best fishing-station within the Gulf of
Saint Lawrence. But this important department of industry has not been
cultivated to anything like the extent it ought,—being mainly carried on
with United States capital. The following table from the census of 1870
shows that there had been, from 1860 until 1870, little, if any,
progress:—
1860. 1870.
------ ------
Fishing Establishments,
89 176
Barrels of Mackerel cured,
7,163 16,047
Barrels of Herrings or Alewives,
22,416 16,831
Quintals of Codfish or Hake,
39,776 15,649
Gallons of Fish Oil,
17,609 11,662
Boats owned for fishing,
1,239 1,183
Men engaged in fishing,
2,318 1,646
In 1870 the total number of schools in the three counties was 372; and
of scholars, 15,000. In 1874 the number of schools was 403; of scholars,
18,233. The salaries of teachers range from $113.56 to $324.44,—only
about twenty teachers receiving the larger sum,—an allowance which
cannot, by any possibility, command the necessary talent, and which must
be increased if the educational system is to be put on a proper basis.
The manufactures of the island are such as
promise further development. The importance of diminishing the import of
articles which can be produced cheaply on the island as elsewhere cannot
be overestimated. Merchants who send money from the island to procure
manufactured goods which they can obtain to equal advantage at home are
enemies to the material progress of the island. Is furniture required?
Men like Messrs. John Newson, Mark Butcher, or John E. Ferguson can
supply it. Are carriages or wagons needed? Visit Messrs. McKinnon &
Fraser’s establishment, or that of Messrs. J. & R. Scott. Are castings
needed? Messrs. McKinnon & McLean, or Mr. Edward Morrisey can
accommodate customers. Are window-sashes or similar woodwork in request?
Lee & Gale are prepared to execute orders. Is tobacco required? Messrs.
Hickey & Stewart and Charles Quirk produce a superior article. Are
mowing-machines needed by our farmers? Mr. Archibald White makes them in
great numbers and of excellent design and quality. Is well-made cloth
required? It can be supplied in abundance by the manufacturing
establishment of Mr. John D. Reid, Tryon. The men of whom these and
similar firms consist are practical tradesmen, who are not ashamed to
earn their bread by the sweat of their brow, and who naturally look to
their fellow-islanders for that support to which their skill and
enterprise entitle them.
The railway, under the management of Mr. McKechnie, prospers beyond the
most sanguine expectations of its promoters. It was opened in the month
of April, 1875. We give a statement of traffic earnings from the date of
its opening till the close of August, 1875:—
No. Passengers. Amount. Freight.
Mails. Express. Total.
--------------- ------- --------
------ -------- -------
47,847
$35,655 $14,381 $1,737 $1,391
$53,164
Mr. Stronach manages the mechanical department efficiently, and the
amount paid annually in wages is such as confers signal benefit on
Charlottetown.
One word about Charlottetown. If the city were to represent the
intelligence and enterprise of the fair and fertile isle of which it is
the capital, it would be celebrated in the Dominion for the excellence
of its sidewalks, its copious supply of water, its thorough system of
drainage, and the delightful salubrity of its atmosphere. Since our
arrival on the island, our head has been more than once in danger of
coming into violent contact with the dilapidated wooden structure
beneath. “I smell you in the dark,” said Johnson to Boswell, as they
walked on one of the then unwatered and undrained streets of Edinburgh,
and certainly, the redolence of Charlottetown can hardly with truth be
said to be elysian. The return of Mr. William Murphy, the representative
of pure water, to a civic seat, from which he ought never to have been
ejected, augurs that the legislative and municipal steps already taken
to furnish a remedy for evils which can no longer exist without injury
to the health of the inhabitants, will lead to a speedy consummation
devoutly to be wished; and then Charlottetown will stand, in the
estimation of tourists, in the position which its natural advantages
warrant.
In hotel accommodation, the extensive and well-equipped Island Park
Hotel of Mr. Holman, which we visited, is a credit to the island. The
hotel of Mr. John Newson, at Rustico, is also well reported; and we are
given to understand that Miss Rankin, determined that Charlottetown
should no longer lag behind the times, is about to have a handsome house
erected in a most suitable locality. A few first-class hotels will not
only be mutually profitable to the owners, but also beneficial to
respectable houses of all grades.
* *
* *
*
A Return of the Inhabitants on the Island of Saint John, taken in April,
1798, by order of His Excellency Governor Fanning, &c., &c., &c.: By
Robert Fox, Deputy Surveyor. [K]
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