Newfoundland in 1897 - Rumbolt

108 NEWFOUNDLAND :
a dwelling-house thereon, shall be entitled to an estate
of homestead not exceeding twenty acres, and such
homestead shall be exempt from attachment, levy, or
execution sale for the payment of debts or other
purposes, etc.
There is also a law called " The Paper Pulp Act," of
an exceedingly liberal character, under which licences
are granted to cut timber for the purpose of manu-
facturing paper or paper pulp. Several companies
have taken up lands under this Act, and are now
erecting machinery for the manufacture of paper pulp.
The materials for such an industry are almost in-
exhaustible, while the demand for it is extending
rapidly.
The forest wealth of the Colony still unutilized is
immense. These forests are chiefly along the banks
of the larger rivers and their tributaries, and around
the heads of the bays. The principal varieties of the
indigenous forest growths are white pine,
white and
and white
black spruce, tamarack or larch, fir, yellow
birch. The yellow birch, which abounds around Bay
St. George, is said to be equal in durability to the
English oak, and, with the spruces and larches, is
admirably adapted for ship-building purposes. The
lumber trade, already developed along the portion of
the new line of railway which has been completed
and operated, furnishes ample proof of the forest
resources of the country, and gives good promise for
the future. The pine shipped to England commands
the best prices in the markets.
Erroneous ideas regarding the climate of Newfound-