36 THE REPORT ON [ No. 27 



Observance of the Law. 



It has been very gratifying to receive assurances that there has this season been a very 

 general disposition on the part of licensed fishermen to comply with the law, notwith- 

 standing that the impending changes and transfer of authority from the Federal to the 

 Provincial Government probably led to some relaxation of vigilance on the part of 

 t Dominion officials during the last year of Dominion administration. It must be borne in 

 mind that nearly all of the overseers were new appointees, and unfamiliar with their 

 duties ; that the force is in an initiatory stage, and that much confusion was created 

 among the fishermen by the transfer. In some parts advantage was, no doubt, taken of 

 these conditions to refrain from making application for license and to evade the payment 

 of the required license fee ; but that few escaped or were desirous of escaping this obliga- 

 tion is evident from a comparison of the operations of this year with those of other years. 

 Many alleged violations of the license law were, upon investigation, found to be merely 

 irregularities arising out of the conditions aforesaid. In a few instances parsons were 

 found taking fish illegally, but for the sole purpose of sustaining their families ; and in 

 such cases a reprimand was thought to be sufficient, as arrest would only have entailed 

 additional suffering and hardship. A number of anonymous reports of illegal fishing 

 were received, and, though these were investigated as promptly as any, the investigation 

 proved the in advisability of acting always upon information transmitted in that way. 



The Commercial Fisheries. 



' As a national possession they are inestimable, aud as a field for industry and en- 

 terprise they are inexhaustible." They are perhaps unsurpassed in any country on the 

 giou«, not only in extent, but for their great economic value. Practically no attention 

 has as yet been directed to our great north west and northern waters, which teem with the 

 finer qualities of fish. These fisheries are destined in the near future to afford a liveli- 

 hood for thousands of our population, and become an important and continuous source of 

 food supply and revenue. In the older portions of the province, under a judicious 

 licensing system, a vigorous policy of supervision, and the requirement of a strict com- 

 pliance with the laws and regulations enacted for the protection of the fisheries, there 

 may soon be expected to be a large increase in the supply of fish and a perceptible im- 

 provement in the fishing industry, a matter which concerns not the present generation 

 only but which ia of vital importance to succeeding generations alsa. Any other course 

 will result in their complete extinction. ' : Propagation may plant and generous nature 

 may water, but a reasonable protection must be added to give permanent increase " The 

 fishermen for a consideration, are granted the privilege of netting in the public waters, but 

 this privilege must not be abused, nor the public's interests in the fisheries prejudiced 

 thereby. The history of commercial fishing in the great lakes of this province, until 

 within very recent years, has been one of wholesale destruction. Not many years ago 

 Lake Ontario teemed with whitefish and there are well authenticated instances of as 

 many as forty, fifty, and even ninety thousand having been taken in one night at Bur- 

 lington Beach. No thought was then had of saving the immature and unmarketable por- 

 tion of the catch, aud no thought was had of the morrow, but they were thrown upon the 

 beach to die, rot and be carted away as manure, and as a result of this improvidence 

 there are now but few whitefish in that lake ; aud, as in Lake Ontario, so in most of the 

 large bodies of fresh water where fishing has been engaged in to excess. The urgent 

 necessity of some decisive action to prevent the continued destruction of the immature 

 fish led to the introduction into our licenses, and subsequently into the Fisheries Act, of 

 the clause prohibiting the taking of any trout or whitefish under two pounds in weight — 

 in other words, the taking of these fish before they have arrived at the age of reproduc- 

 tion. It was suggested that the object desired could be accomplished by requiring the 

 mesh of the pot of the pound net to be sufficiently large to permit the escape of all fish 

 under that size ; and while this might have been a remedy in some place?,, in others — 

 such, for instance, as in Lake Erie, where a variety of kinds and sizes of fisll inhabits the 

 lake, and where the bulk of the catch is of herring and a small kind of pic ":erel — such a 

 condition would have resulted in the bankrupting of the fishermen, and was therefore 

 impracticable. Could a size have been stipulated, it would have been admittedly prefer- 



