The details of the revenue for the year help to an understanding of the country's problems, and are as follows, for the current year 1927:— Trade.—Newfoundland imports much she might well produce, much land for cattle being undeveloped, and unused, and thou sands more pigs might well be raised, than are at present. Duroc Jerseys and Berkshires flourish well in the North, and the pigs fatten well on codheads, berries, roots and offal. Coal exists in good quality and great plenty and might well be exported. Hay can be grown of perfectly satisfactory quality in unlimited quan tities in return for labour. Hides should be exported instead of im ported. Eggs also can be raised in abundance. It is true, bacon and eggs, and everything fed on fish foods are apt to taste fishy, but clean feeding for a while before slaughtering, and good cooking do much, and it is better to have quantity of essential food constituents than to haggle over flavours.
In 1926-27, Newfoundland imported: beef, salted, 46,879 bar rels, valued at $851,681; butter, 612,195 lb., valued at $219,884; coal, tons, valued at $1,745,451; flour, 368,240 barrels, at $2,927,236; cotton, wool, silk and clothing, $3,036,192; leather in 1924, 1925 $492,901, 1926 $280,162; hard ware in 1924, $1,461,283, 1926 $1,014,532; mo lasses, in gallons, in 2924, $686,368, 1925 1926 $589,889; sugar, in cwt., 1924, $135,509, 1925 1926 $130,752; pork, 1926, 23,990 barrels, valued at $626,876; salt, tons, 1924 61, 968, 1925 61,668, 1926 50,319; tea, 1926, 1,492,699 lb., valued at $562,811; tobacco, 1926, 675,403 lb., valued at $263,463.
In 1917 Prohibition became law in Newfoundland by 24,950 votes against 5,362, but was annulled by the Government in Since that year imports of wines and spirits were :— —a very rapid increase, but it is claimed by the anti-prohibition ists "with excellent results to both revenue and morality." These figures do not include beer, nor is the making of home brew, which is cheaper, and in a poor country therefore still certain to be manufactured in the outports as before, any more specially guarded against. The present law prohibits a great many things which those interested in the sale of intoxicants pretend are more enforceable than prohibiting and sale, but which in practice are just as difficult, and many absolutely impossible, to carry out. The fact that there have been no convictions under any of them is suggestive. Thus, Government liquor sellers may not sell to those convicted of drunkenness, nor to habitual drunkards, nor to in mates of public institutions, nor to policemen on duty, nor to the Indians, or Eskimo, nor to any minors, nor to owners or inmates of disorderly houses. Bottles must have a label on which the
Government endorsement is plainly marked. Those who sell liquor must not engage in other remunerative occupations. The Government sells eight brands of rum, which is the intoxicant most consumed in the Island. Its brandy is expensive, and so are its liqueurs, of which it sells twelve varieties. The law only allows each adult to purchase one bottle of intoxicating liquor per day three hundred and twelve days per year. The Government may not establish a sales depot in a community without a two-thirds major ity vote for it and so far not a single town or outport has asked for this blessing. Moreover, St. Pierre and Miquelon still are on the map, and it has not yet been shown that the new law has caused any change of heart in their liquor traders. The experience of the Seamen's Institute was that prohibition was much better than the present arrangement.
The imports and exports are as follows for 1926-27:— Newfoundland's greatest new financial developments have, how ever, been in the exports of paper and pulp, and the opening of new mines. For the first time in her history, the value of any other industry has equalled that of the island's codfish—that being her export of paper:—i927, $12,057,440 codfish against 665 paper, and this latter promises to grow rapidly.
The history of this is interesting. Lord Northcliffe opened the first undertaking in 1909, with far more extensive and better tim bered areas than he could have obtained in Canada or America, with cheaper labour, far more favourable legislative grants to the industry, with better wood (as its black spruce has proved), and cheaper and quicker manufacturing facilities. The fir, at first difficult to use, has been also most successfully handled; it might be all used for artificial silk instead of newspaper sheets. A splendid remunerative business has been built up, which, with new adaptations such as using a southern harbour, called Heart's Con tent for shipping, makes only a short storage during winter neces sary for material produced, and even that, if essential, could be avoided by carrying it to St. John's, an all-the-year-open harbour. The whole management of the business has been admirable as far as Newfoundland is concerned, and every kind of progressive method has been introduced to improve the scale of living and to carry high standards in every department at their capital at Grand Falls. The possession of two fine falls, the Grand Falls and Bishop's Falls, has completely solved their power problems. To Sir Mayson Beeton, as well as to Lord Northcliffe, the island owes a very big debt.