1612 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



i*ot tbat the fishing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was to be better than 

 t had been for a long time. Let us see what has happened this year. 

 We have a part of the Port Mulgrave returns; down to the 25th of 

 September, 1877. There is another page or half a page which our friends 

 have not furnished us. I invite them to put that in now. I would like 

 it very intifh. But so much as we were able to extract produced the 

 following result: 60 vessels; 8,365 barrels; an average of 139 sea- 

 barrels or 1L'.") packed barrels: and one of our affidavits says that the 

 li.xli on one vessel were all bought. The John Wesley got 190 barrels, 

 verv much over the average, and the witness said he went to the gulf, 

 cou'l.l not catch any mackerel, and thought he would buy some of the 

 boatmen. Hut 125 packed barrels is the average catch, and 8,365 is 

 the total number of barrels. Now, multiply that by the value of the 

 mackerel after they are lauded aud see what is the result. It is about 

 $31,370. 



I will not stop to do that sum accurately, because it is too small ; but 

 1 will call your attention to the results of the importation this year. 

 The importations into Boston, to October 1, from Nova Scotia and New 

 Brunswick, were 36,576 barrels; from Prince Edward Island, 14,549^ 

 barrels; in all, 51,1254 barrels, which would amount in duty saved to 

 102,251, up to the 1st of October. It is not strictly evidence, and if 

 my friends object to it, it may be stricken out ; but here is the last report of 

 the Boston Fish Bureau, that came yesterday, which gives later results. 

 I'p to November 2, there had been 77,617 barrels imported into Boston 

 from the provinces, more than double the amount that was imported in 

 1S76, up to the same time ; so that, while there has been this great fall- 

 ing off in the vessel fishery in the gulf it is a total failure to-day there 

 has been double the catch by boats, and double the catch by the Prov- 

 incial fishermen. They have saved 8155,234 of duty as against some- 

 thing like *30,000 worth of fish, when they are caught. It may be said 

 that these returns will not represent the average, but we had a witness 

 here, the skipper of the schooner Eliza Poor, Captain William A. Dickie, 

 who testified on page 264 of the American evidence, that he had 118 

 Hea- barrels, or 106 packed barrels. He was one of those men who hap- 

 jKMied into Halifax, on his schooner, aud upon cross-examination it was 

 drawn from him by Brother Doutre, that Mr. Murray, the collector at 

 Mulgrave, told him that he had an average or more than an average of 

 the catch of the United States fleet. He saw fifty United States vessels 

 in the gulf. In the absence of more complete returns, that is the best 

 account 1 am able to give of the condition of the mackerel fishery in the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence since the Treaty of Washington was enacted. 



might confirm this by calling your attention to the testimony of 



Nvitnesst'H from the other fishing towns in Massachusetts, Provincetown, 



fleet, and other places, showing how the number of their vessels 



( decreased, and that the business is being abandoned, so far as the 



Lawrence goes. Whatever is left of it is couceutrated in. 



ster, and there its amount is insignificant. 



lave spoken incidentally of the amount of duties saved upon the Pro- 

 catch. On the subject of duties I propose to speak separately 

 1 lo not wish to leave this branch of the subject with- 

 k r your attention to what strikes me as evidence so convincing 

 t no answer. We have shown you how, under the oper- 

 the J reaty of Washington, or for natural causes, the mackerel 

 the tinted States vessels in the Gulf of St. Lawrence has been 

 ing down; that hardly any profitable voyages have been made 

 since the treaty. Certainly there has been no year when the 



