THE REPORT UPON No. 32 



It is inconceivable, in view of the above statements published by author- 

 ity of the Honourable the Minister of Marine and Fisheries, and sanctioned 

 by His Excellency the Governor- General, that any man, no matter how 

 exalted his position may be, should be allowed to decide that the North Chan- 

 nel, which to all intents and purposes is a Canadian inland water, should 

 be international. International boundary lines between the United States 

 and Canada have for some years past been fairly well defined, and while it 

 is no doubt the duty of the Federal authorities respectively to guard and 

 protect those boundaries for the purpose of preventing international compli- 

 cations, the provinces should have the power untrammelled to transact and 

 administer provincial affairs. It having been decided that the fish in pro- 

 vincial waters are the property of the Provinces, it naturally follows that 

 the provincial authorities have the right or power, and they alone, to say 

 what aliens or others should pay for the privilege of catching them. Pro- 

 vincial authorities should not be compelled to acknowledge licenses or per- 

 mits issued by alien authorities to aliens empowering them to take provincial 

 property from provincial territory. 



The only way the fisheries can be perpetuated in the international 

 waters of the Great Lakes is to have identical and adequate close seasons on 

 both sides of the boundary, ajid preventing the use of nets of any descrip- 

 tion with small mesh that destroy immense numbers of immature fish. 



Each section of our waters should produce revenue at least equal to the 

 cost of protecting them. It cannot be reasonably expected that the Govern- 

 ment should continue to spend upwards of |5,000 a year to protect the fish- 

 eries of the Eiver St. Lawrence between Kingston and Prescott for the almost 

 exclusive benefit of residents of the State of New York. To prqtect the fish 

 effectively in those beautiful waters, it is imperative that fees for angling 

 should be collected, and the non-sale of bass and maskinonge enforced on 

 both sides of the river. Residents on the Ontario side bitterly complain, 

 and not without cause, that the waters on the Canadian side of the river 

 are being depleted for the purpose of supplying the State of New York with 

 bass and maskinonge, where these game fish are allowed to be sold. 



I regret that, with the construction of railroads in the sparsely settled 

 parts of the Province, professional and business men, for speculative pur- 

 poses, apply for licenses for net fishing in many of the small lakes in the vicin- 

 ity of the new roads. Many of these lakes are shallow, and others small areas, 

 and would soon be depleted, for the purpose of enabling these gentlemen to 

 add to their professional incomes, and supplying the American market with 

 fish. These lakes, if kept free from the speculative fishermen, will be a 

 prominent factor in opening up and settling these new districts. 



Nepigon. 



The Nepigon River was not visited by as many tourists this year as form- 

 erly, owing for one reason in particular to the unhappy state of the financial 

 situation in the United States, and also the pending election. The fishing, 

 however, was good, and to those who were able to take advantage of it, 

 it afforded excellent sport, and many a visitor was heard to remark that it 

 would not be his last visit. 



Re-Stocking. 



The re-stocking with parent bass in the inland waters was unfortunately 

 begun later than usual, and was not carried on to the extent that the Depart- 



