in addition to the field artillery and other munitions now stored there. He would therefore respectfully recommend to the honorable the Legislature not to grant the prayer of the respectable petitioners at this time. All which is respectfully submitted. HENRY ARCULARIUS, IN ASSEMBLY, April 25, 1833. MESSAGE From the Governor, returning the bill entitled " An act relative to cullers of staves and heading in the county of Rensselaer," with objections thereto. TO THE ASSEMBLY. GENTLEMEN, After mature consideration of the bill entitled "An act relative to cullers of staves and heading in the county of Rensselaer,” I have deemed it my duty to withhold from it my signature and return it with my objections to the Assembly, wherein it originated. The second section of this bill contains, as I apprehend, an unnecessary and injurious restriction on trade in the article of staves and heading. Previous to the enactment of the Revised Statutes, the law prohibited the exportation of staves and heading out of this State to any foreign market, unless they had been culled in the manner therein directed. The Revised Statutes prohibit the exportation of them, by sea, from this State to any port without the territorial limits of the United States, unless they had been inspected and declared merchantable. I am inclined to think that the expression “foreign market” used in the law previous to the revision, is of similar import to the expression "any port out of the territorial limits of the United States" in the Revised Statutes; if so, the bill now presented to me for my approval contains a provision which has not been heretofore sanctioned by our Legislature, and which, by reason of its effects upon an extensive branch of business, is interesting to a considerable portion of the people of the State. [Assem. No. 329.] 1 The section of the proposed law provides, that no staves and heading shall be exported from this State, by sea, to any port out of the territorial limits of this State, unless they shall be inspected and culled in the manner provided by the Revised Statutes, and on such inspection shall be declared merchantable. My objection to this provision of the law is not that it requires staves and heading to be inspected, but that it prohibits all such as are not merchantable according to the provisions of the inspection law from being carried by sea, under any character whatever, to a market without the territorial limits of this State. According to the inspection law, only the following description of staves and heading are merchantable, viz: Butt staves, made of good white oak timber, of specified dimensions: Pipe staves, made of good white oak timber, of specified dimensions: Hogshead staves and heading, made of good white oak timber, and red or rock oak hogshead staves, of specified dimensions: and All barrel staves made of good white oak timber, of certain dimensions. All staves and heading not of the precise dimensions designated in the law, even if made of the best quality of white oak timber, and all staves and heading made of any other kind of timber than white oak, (except hogshead staves of red and rock oak,) whatever be their dimensions, or however excellent their quality in other respects, must be declared, on inspection, not to be merchantable, and by the operation of the proposed bill, if it becomes a law, would be confined almost exclusively to this State for a market. Ash staves, in considerable quantities, are brought to market in this State, but none of them under the proposed law can be carried by sea beyond its territorial limits. Staves brought from other States into the port of New-York, or from Ohio or Vermont through the canals, can not be re-exported, or carried from the State again by sea, unless they should be found, on inspection here, to be of the particular timber and dimensions specified in our laws. Our inspection laws have not, I believe, except in the single article of refuse shingles, imposed any restrictions on any kind of lumber, destined to a market in another State, that are not imposed upon it when sold in our own markets, and no strong reasons have occurred to me for a departure, in the article of staves and heading, from the general rule adopted in regard to other descriptions of lumber. The staves and heading annually brought to market, which are not merchantable under our laws, are not small in amount, nor inconsiderable in value; they are éstimated to be about one million five hundred thousand, by those who are acquainted with this branch of business. The demand for them, for consumption within the State, is, I believe, far short of this quantity. If the bill before me should become a law, it is probable that the quantity manufactured would bear nearly the same proportion to the good staves that they now do; but if they could not be carried out of the State, by sea, a much less amount of them would be brought to market, otherwise there would be an over supply for the demand. The effect of the proposed law would, therefore, in my opinion, be injurious to the interest of those employed in making staves and heading; the business of transporting them to market would be lessened, and the tolls on the canals somewhat diminished. In my judgment the benefits to be derived from the proposed change in the existing law on this subject would not compensate for the injury that would be sustained by the restriction it imposes on this branch of trade. The objection to circumscribing the market for this article of merchandize I the more readily entertain, from the consideration that a fit remedy for the evil this bill is designed to prevent, may, in my opinion, be applied without the sacrifice which this mode of effecting it seems to involve. The object of this bill is to have the quality of the staves ascertained by competent inspectors in order that those who deal in them may be shielded from imposition. This might be effected, it appears to me, by directing all staves and heading to be inspected, and allowing those which do not pass inspection to be exported as culls; or by so modifying the law as to make several qualities and include in the least valuable kind a considerable portion of those which are now rejected as culls. The inspection laws of the several States differ from ours in the description of staves which are allowed to pass inspection. Many that are rejected under our law would be passed as prime staves under the laws of some other States. It is certainly unwise to fix the standard of inspection so high as to exclude a valuable part of any kind of property from the description which is declared merchantable, and then prohibit the sale in the domestic or foreign market of the part thus rejected. If however it should, on a full view of this subject, be deemed proper to make the change in the law proposed by the bill before me, it is respectfully submitted, whether a due regard to the interest of those who have large quantities of this article on hand does not require that they should be allowed some little time to accumodate their business to the new state of things which will result from such a change. They ought not to be suddenly deprived of the ordinary market which they have heretofore enjoyed. I am the more inclined to submit this subject again to the consideration of the Legislature, because the title of the bill in which this important alteration in the law is made, was not such as was best calculated to apprise those whose interest and pursuits are to be effected by it, and who might be desirous of making their views known to the Legislature, that the matter was to be considered and acted on by that body. The course I have deemed it my duty to take will afford an opportunity to such as desire it, of conferring with their representatives, and making known to them their views of the effects and bearing of the alteration in the law upon the interests of the State, before the final disposition of the subject. I therefore return the before named bill, with an imperfect statement of some of the principal reasons which have influenced me in withholding from it my approval. Albany, April 25, 1833 W. L. MARCY. |