164 American Fisheries Society 



he says : "No such department had previously existed in any 

 of the Provinces which now form the Dominion, but when 

 the extensive and varied interests, connected with these 

 branches of the pubUc service, were duly considered, it was 

 deemed advisable to create a separate department for their ad- 

 ministration, with a member of the Government at its head; 

 but the Canadian act, specifying its organization and scope, 

 passed during the first session of the new Federal Parliament, 

 did not receive His Excellency's assent until May 22nd, and 

 the department did not begin its legal existence until July 

 1, 1868." 



Successive Heads of the Department. — During the 

 period, over fifty years, which has elapsed since that date no 

 less than a dozen distinguished Canadian statesmen have held 

 the fisheries portfolio. Including the present minister, these 

 are and have been: Hon. Peter Mitchell, Hon. Sir Albert 

 Smith, Hon. A. W. MacLelan, Hon. J. C. Pope, Right Hon. 

 Sir George E. Foster, Hon. Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper, Hon. 

 John Costigan, Hon. Sir Louis H. Davies, Hon. J. Suther- 

 land, Hon. Raymond Prefontaine, Hon. L. P. Brodeur, Hon. 

 Rodolphe Lemieux, Hon. J. D. Hazen and Hon. C. C. Ballan- 

 tyne, the last-named being the present head of the department. 

 Five of these received from the hands of the Sovereign the 

 high honor of knighthood, and in every case it was in recogni- 

 tion of services rendered in connection with the Canadian fish- 

 eries. The fisheries have been recognized by the King, as 

 the fathers of confederation recognized them, to be of su- 

 preme importance and involving interests of the greatest na- 

 tional and international moment. 



Early Conservation Efforts in Nova Scotia and 

 New Brunswick. — Prior to confederation in 1867 the su- 

 pervision of the fisheries, in the respective areas named, had 

 been in the hands of the United Provinces of Upper and Lower 

 Canada, and administered by the Crown Lands Department, 

 but in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, a fisheries committee 



