DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 725 



go back where we were, so far as commercial intercourse with the British prov- 

 inces is concerned, when the treaty of 1818 was made. In other words, declare 

 non-intercourse ! Put Canada in the same relation to the United States as 

 she was seventy years ago! Then our fishermen would have the same rights 



they have now under the treaty of 1818, and we should then be in a posi- 

 434 tion to say to her : "Are you willing this should continue, or do you prefer 



to deal with us on a fair basis and give to all our vessels, as we are 

 willing to give to yours, full commercial rights in your ports? " 



It is not proposed here to dwell on this alternative nor to discuss 

 the propriety of the assumption of a representative character by the 

 National Fishery Association. But in the event the treaty is re- 

 jected, if the President heeds this demand, as perhaps under the law 

 he may, neither the association, nor whomsoever it represents, if 

 anybody, nor, more particularly, that part of the community which 

 now fails to rise up against its pretensions, can justly complain. 



The fishing interests of New England welcomed with great expecta- 

 tions the expiration of the treaty of 1871, which came about in June, 

 A. D. 1885 ; but the result has shown how little the prosperity of these 

 interests can rely on political events. The seasons of 1886 and 1887, 

 so far as the mackerel catch was concerned, were disastrous through 

 natural causes, both for our own fleets and for those of Nova Scotia, 

 though less for the latter than for the former. Although the catch 

 for these two seasons was only one-third of the catch for 1882 and 

 1883, yet the prices made no corresponding advance; so that the 

 money aggregate for the two latter seasons, including all grades of 

 mackerel, could not have been much in excess of one-third of that for 

 the two earlier seasons named. With reference to cod and other 

 ground fish, there was a considerable diminution in the catch for the 

 seasons of 1886 and 1887, with an extremely low market in 1886 and 

 a somewhat improved market in 1887, the net money yield for each 

 being comparatively small. In neither branch of the fisheries, how- 

 ever, were these evils caused by Canadian complications. This is well 

 understood with reference to mackerel, and becomes entirely plain 

 as to cod when the fact is considered that in A. D. 1883, A. D. 1884, 

 and A. D. 1885. the catch on the New England shores and George's 

 Banks exceeded that on the Grand and Western Banks, while the 

 reverse occurred in A. D. 1886 and A. D. 1887. Before the Senate 

 Committee on Foreign Relations in A. D. 1886, Sylvester Cunning- 

 ham, of Gloucester testified that 



The price of fish is so low now that, if we should allow Canadian fish to come 

 in free, our vessels would not sail. The price is very low. 



Mr. O. B. Whitten, vice-president of the Fishery Union, also testi- 

 fied before the same committee, October 6, 1886, as follows : 



Q. Have you ever noticed that the duty has increased or that the absence of 

 duty has decreased the price of fish to the consumer during the last fifteen 

 years? 



A.. I do not know that the duty has anything to do with it whatever. In fact 

 it is stranf/c that salt fish were ti'Tcr so low as Ilici/ arc at Hie present time 

 with the diit i/ an. 



Mr.,L. R. Campbell, deputy commissioner of labour for the State 

 of Maine, in an interview with a reporter of the Kennebec Journal, 

 on the 17th day of November last, said : 



The fishermen are in a worse condition to-day than they have been for a 

 number of years, for the reason that they had two bad seasons in succession. 



