560 MISCELLANEOUS 



Q. But you have not been employed fishing ? A. No. 

 Q. Even in your youth? A. No, not as a fisherman. 

 Q. You consider yourself, then, well acquainted with the mercan- 

 tile side of this matter? A. Yes, I do. 



* ****** 



Q. And you think the fishermen are better off serving the merchants 

 in that way than they would be if they undertook to fish for them- 

 selves ? A. Well, they get advances that enable them to begin, which 

 they would be deprived of otherwise. I don't think they would be 

 as well off without as they are with them. 



******* 



Q. Now what is the rate between May and October of charge for 

 credit? What is the difference between what a man would pay who 

 offers cash, and what he would pay if obtaining his supplies on 

 credit? A. That requires some little figuring, for some goods are 

 taxed more highly than others. 



Q. Take an average? A. I think 20 to 25 per cent, would be an 

 average. 



By Mr. WHITEWAY: 



Q. What period do you refer to ? A. I am speaking now of credit 

 given during the fishing season. 



EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT DATED APRIL 24, 1793, OF A COM- 

 MITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS OF GREAT BRITAIN AP- 

 POINTED TO ENQUIRE INTO THE STATE OF THE TRADE TO 

 NEWFOUNDLAND. 



******* 



Your Committee again called William Know, Esquire, who being 

 examined, said, That in order to give the Committee the fullest in- 

 formation he was able upon the subject of their enquiry, he should 

 begin by stating the objects of the Act of the 15th of His present 

 Majesty, and the motives which induced the then Ministers (all of 

 whom are now dead) to adopt the several provisions it contains, 

 which he was the better enabled to do, as he was then one of the 

 Under Secretaries of State in the American department, and fur- 

 nished much of the information upon which they acted. 



That the island of Newfoundland had been considered, in all 

 former times, as a great English ship moored near the Banks during 

 the fishing season, for the convenience of the English Fishermen. 

 The Governor was considered as the ship's Captain, and all those 

 who were concerned in the Fishery business, as his crew, and subject 

 to naval discipline while there, and expected to return to England 

 when the season was over. The English had then no rivals in the 

 trade but the French; and although the French Fishery exceeded 

 theirs, the English gradually increased, and those who carried it on 

 were generally successful. The treaty of Paris, by adding Canada, 

 all Nova Scotia and Cape Breton to the British American dominions, 

 deprived France of the advantage she had from the employment of 

 the inhabitants in the Fishery ; but at the same time a new rival was 

 raised up to the English Traders and Fishermen in those and the 

 other northern British colonies, and as the profit the French inhabit- 

 ants had made under the French Government by the Fishery on 



