Articles.

STATEMENT-Continued.

Quantity. Value

Rate of duty.

Total duty.

Pork, salted..... barrels. 14,480 $183,085 3s. per bbl... $10,860

An examination of the preceding table shows that the principal articles imported into Newfoundland from the United States are precisely those which give greatest employment to our people.

The value of salted beef imported in 1851 was $24,690; of bread, $25,923; of bricks, $3,895; of butter, $43,987; of cheese, $4,775; of Indian corn, $1,650; of corn meal, $24,318; of wheat flour, $475,330; of apples, $3,785; of pitch and tar, $3,333; of salted pork, $183,085;

of rice, $1,877; of tobacco, $54,535; of staves, $3,950; of wooden wares, $7,696, and of woollen manufactures, $11,736.

The total value of articles imported into Newfoundland in 1850, being of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the United States, was $767,550; the value of such articles imported in 1851 was $954,266, showing an increase in the latter year of $186,716.

The following abstracts of the trade of Newfoundland show, comparatively, the relation which the trade with the United States bore to the whole trade of the island with all countries in the year 1851.

The first abstract which follows, shows the number and tonnage of the vessels entered inward in the colony in 1851, with the value of the goods imported in such vessels, distinguishing British from foreign:

This table shows, that next to Great Britain and the northern colonies, the largest amount of imports into Newfoundland is from the United States. It exceeded the importations from the neighboring colonies last year by $59,000, and amounted to nearly one-half of all importations from every foreign country.

The succeeding abstract exhibits the number and tonnage of the vessels cleared outward from Newfoundland in 1851, with the value of the articles exported in such vessels, distinguishing British from foreign:

From the preceding statement it will be seen that the exports from Newfoundland to the United States have but a small value, as compared with the articles imported from this country. For the staple products of Newfoundland exported to Spain, Portugal, Italy, and the Brazils, amounting, in the whole, to $1,657,100, that colony receives a considerable proportion of its payment in ready money, a large share of which finds its way to our country for beef and pork, pitch and tar, breadstuffs and tobacco. The balance of trade being so largely against Newfoundland, in its dealings with us, creates much difficulty in that colony, and forces it to deal more extensively with European countries which purchase its products, than it would do if the trade with us were more nearly upon an equality.

In 1850 the number of vessels which cleared from the colony of Newfoundland was 1,102, of the burden of 129,832 tons. The total value of the various articles exported in these vessels is thus stated: British, $4,761,260; foreign, $117,590; total, $4,878,850.

The total value of exports in 1851 being $4,445,180 only, shows a decrease from the preceding year of $433,670.

The value of imports at Newfoundland in 1850 was $4,336,585, and in 1851 was $4,455,180, being an increase in the value of goods imported in the latter year of $108,595. There was, therefore, an increased importation, with diminished exports, during the past season, in Newfoundland.

VALUE OF THE LABRADOR TRADE AND FISHERIES.

The exports from Labrador are cod, herring, pickled salmon, fresh salmon, (preserved in tin cases,) seal-skins, cod and seal-oil, furs, and feathers.

No accurate account of the value of the exports of Labrador can be furnished, because there are no custom-houses or public officers of any description on that wild and barren coast; but the following estimate is given as an approximation to the annual value of the exports. It has been carefully made up from the best and most perfect information that can be obtained:

houses having establishments on the coast.... In vessels owned or chartered by the people of Newfoundland....

480,000

1,200,000

Total....

*2,784,000

The number of fishermen employed on the Labrador coast every season is from ten to fifteen thousand.

The salmon fisheries average, annually, about thirty thousand tierces, not more than two hundred tierces of which find their way to Newfoundland. The salmon exported from Newfoundland are almost exclusively the catch of that island.

The herring fishery at Labrador is carried on by fishermen from Nova Scotia, Canada, Newfoundland, and the United States, and are shipped directly from the coast to a market.

Of the seal-oil, seal-skins, furs, and feathers, a very small share finds its way to Newfoundland. Merchants and traders on the coast buy them in exchange for their goods, being less bulky and more valuable than fish. The trading vessels do not buy many cod on the coast, preferring the other commodities named.

Since the treaty of Paris, in 1814, the Labrador fishery has increased more than six-fold, in consequence of the fishermen of Newfoundland being forced by French competition from the fishery on the Grand Bank, and also driven from the fishing grounds, now occupied almost exclusively by the French, between Cape Ray and Cape St. John.

The imports of Labrador have been estimated by the authorities of Newfoundland as of the value of $600,000 per annum.

THE PORT OF ST. JOHN, NEWFOUNDLAND.

The chief town in Newfoundland is its capital and principal seaport, St. John, in latitude 47° 34' north, longitude 52° 43' west.

It is the most eastern harbor in North America, only 1,665 miles distant from Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, being the shortest

* The total exports are by some persons estimated at $4,000,000.