The symbolic ruins of the Labrador Development Company Ltd. sawmill in Port Hope Simpson, 27 July 2002. The first loggers who settled in this area in 1934 were in fact paid at a starvation level of about $1.30 per day after deductions of 70c. per day for his board and 10c. per month for his straw-filled mattress. The men worked hard hard, in fly-infested woods using bucksaws and axes for up to 12 hours a day. Some were paid 12c. per hour whilst others were paid between $1.75 - $2.00 per cord of cut pitwood. Coupled with the fact they were forced to buy food at exhorbitant prices on credit from the only Company store in the settlemnt it was the same as the fishery. They were always in debt. By 26 July 1934 within a month of arriving, 225 lumbermen had returned to St. John's because they were dis-satisfied with their wages and working conditions which were not as they had been led to believe. On 9 July 1935, Simpson wrote that the loggers were earning great wages of about $3.00 per day!