FIFTY YEARS OF FISHERY ADMINISTRATION 

 IN CANADA 



By Prof. Edward E. Prince 



Dominion Commissioner of Fisheries, Secretary-Treasurer 



of the Biological Board of Canada 



Ottawa, Canada 



The Dominion fisheries have been for over fifty years ad- 

 ministered by a department, or bureau, of the federal service 

 under a minister, who is an elected Member of Padiament, 

 a member of the cabinet, and holds the portfolio of marine and 

 fisheries. 



Federal administration was established by virtue of an 

 act passed by the Imperial Parliament in London, and dated 

 March 29, 1867, and naming "Sea-Coast and Inland Fisher- 

 ies," as among the subjects within the exclusive legislative 

 authority of the Parliament of Canada, along with twenty- 

 eight other matters coming under that authority. The four 

 Provinces, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec, 

 had been separate colonies before coming into confederation, 

 and had their separate jurisdictions. As other Provinces, 

 like Prince Edward Island, and British Columbia, came in 

 (until there were at least eleven divisions, nine Provinces and 

 two Territories included in the Dominion) it is easy to under- 

 stand that rights of property, and of jurisdiction, which had 

 not been fully defined, readily became subjects of legal dispute. 

 From time to time test cases have been tried, and the highest 

 Imperial Court, the Privy Council Judicial Committee in Lon- 

 don, has been appealed to and has given many important de- 

 cisions. 



Fisheries Department Created. — The first Minister of 

 Marine and Fisheries was the Hon. Peter Mitchell, a native of 

 New Brunswick, and long a prominent figure in Canadian poli- 

 tics. In his first report, addressed to His Excellency the Right 

 Hon. Sir John Young, Baronet, Governor General of Canada, 



