

37.-THE FISH FRIES OF CANADA. 



BY L. Z. JONCAS, M. P. 



All those who have written on the fisheries of Canada have agreed to say that 

 they are inestimable; and, as a field for industry and enterprise, they are inexhaust- 

 ible. Besides their general importance to the country as a source of maritime wealth 

 and commerce, they also possess a special value to the inhabitants. The great variety 

 and the superior quality of the fish products of the sea and inland waters of these 

 colonies afford a nutritious and economic food, admirably adapted to the domestic 

 wants of their mixed and laborious population. They are also in other respects 

 specially valuable to such of our people as are engaged in maritime pursuits, either as 

 a distinct industry or combined with agriculture. The principal localities in which 

 fishing is carried on do not usually present conditions favorable to husbandry. They 

 are limited in extent and fertility and are subject to certain climatic disadvantages. 

 The prolific nature of the adjacent waters and the convenience of their undisturbed 

 use are a necessary compensation for defects of soil and climate. On such grounds 

 alone, the sea and inland fisheries to which British subjects have claims on this con- 

 tinent are of peculiar value. 



From whatever point of view we may regard them, the teeming waters of the 

 British American Possessions, and those which form their great lakes and magnificent 

 rivers, must be reckoned as a national property, richer and more perpetual than any 

 mere estimate in money can express. It is in the highest degree satisfying to find that 

 Canadians are becoming every year more and more alive to the vast' importance of 

 their fisheries, and that they are now more than ever anxious to preserve them as the 

 finest material portion of our colonial heritage. 



Dr. George Brown Goode, one of the most prominent citizens of the United States, 

 whom I had the honor and pleasure to meet in London at the International Fisheries 

 exhibition, in one of his speeches at the Fishery Congress in connection with this 

 exhibition referred to the immense growth of the Canadian fisheries during the last 

 ten years. He declared that in the course of his owu studies he had occasion each 

 year to peruse the Canadian reports, and had been perfectly amazed at the rapidity 

 with which this industry had been developed. In fact, if we consult the statistics so 

 carefully collected every year by our fishery officers, these official figures will show 

 that the value of the Canadian fisheries, which in 1870 was only $7,573,000, had 

 doubled during the succeeding ten years, and amounted in 1880 to $14,500,000 ; and if 

 we open the last official report published by the Department of Marine and Fisheries, 

 we shall see that the same fisheries produced in 1892 over $20,000,000. 



Although our system of inspection is effective, although the organization of the 

 outside service of our department of marine and fisheries and our method of collecting 

 fishery statistics are given as models to other countries, yet they are susceptible of 

 many improvements. It is easy to understand that in such an extensive country 

 as Canada, where every settler has facilities for fishing, it is utterly impossible for our 

 statisticians to impart a mathematical precision to their reports or to give accurately 



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