14 THE REPORT OF THE No. 31 



have been refused it has been because this notice was not received, or that 

 the nsii weie at the time packed and ready for shipment and less than a full 

 box was required. The Department has during the year insisted upon a 

 pedlar being supplied where he was ready to pay, though there seemed to 

 be some friction between him and the fisherman, and though the latter pre- 

 ferred not to have business dealings with him, and the Department is pre- 

 pared to intervene in all such cases where its attention is called to the sub- 

 ject. And it might go still further. It might, if asked to do so, offer to 

 see that dealers in towns and cities are regularly supplied where they are 

 prepared to make with the fishermen satisfactory arrangements as to pay- 

 ment. But this would appear to be all in that connection that the Depart- 

 ment could at present properly do. Then the Department might ask the 

 Dominion to consider whether the fishermen should not be required to find 

 a home market for all of their whitefish. There would be no doubt that this 

 could readily be found, and at prices as advantageous as those obtained in 

 the United States. The total catch this year of whitefish was 2,817,420 

 pounds. This would relieve the situation very considerably, and would not 

 prejudice their sales of the coarse fish in the American market. The time 

 will no doubt come when there will be a home market for the whole catch, 

 but that time is not yet ; so that total prohibition is for the present out of the 

 question. And the same may be said of Government ownership, which has 

 also been suggested as a solution of the problem of home supply and cheaper 

 fish. 



Commission or Enquiry. 



It would appear to the undersigned that a commission might properly 

 issue to enquire into the personnel of the fishermen of the Province, and 

 as to the ownership of the gear — tugs, boats, nets, etc. — which is being 

 operated by them. This Department found, upon assuming the administra- 

 tion of the fisheries in 1898, that the fishing industry of the Great Lakes 

 was largely controlled by American companies, though the licenses appeared 

 to have been applied for and issued in the names of Canadians; and it is 

 believed that, notwithstanding the policy of this Department has since been 

 to issue licenses to British subjects only, such a condition exists at the pre- 

 sent time. The fact could only be ascertained positively by a commissioner 

 taking evidence under oath. It might be found that the number of Can- 

 adian license holders is so small that, if future licenses were confined to 

 Canadians, it would require all the catch to supply the home market. In 

 that case, the Canadians who are operating American plants would have no 

 difficulty in obtaining equally lucrative employment in other fields of labor. 



Pollutions. 



Great mortality among the fish in a stream emptying into the Grand 

 River was reported during the early summer. It was said that the fish 

 died by hundreds, and that the stench arising therefrom was a menace to the 

 health of the people in the neighborhood. Two reasons were assigned as 

 to the cause of the mortality, one being that it was occasioned by the alkali 

 from a neighboring starch factory, which was allowed to enter the race, and 

 the other that the sudden lowering of the water when the fish were in the 

 shallows left many of them stranded in small pools, where they died in con- 

 sequence of being unable again to reach the deeper water. The undersigned 

 personally visited the starch works, and after a careful inspection of the pre- 

 mises suggested a remedy, which- was to prevent the liquid from entering 



