AWARD OP THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1617 



accommodate themselves to the waters of the gulf. Year by year they 

 are made longer aud deeper, that a school of fish may be more success- 

 fully enveloped by them. Then there must also be much better fishing 

 in the gulf than has existed for several years past. It has been going 

 down in value every year since the treaty went into effect. It has 

 got down to an average by the Port Mulgrave returns (I mean by the 

 portion of the returns which we have) of 125 barrels a vessel this 

 year, and, according to the verbal statement of the collector of Port 

 Mulgrave, 108 barrels is quite up to the average. If any one takes the 

 trouble to go through the returns we have put into the case and analyze 

 them, it will appear that 108 barrels is quite as large as the average this 

 year. Some vessels have come out of the gulf with nothing at all, and 

 some with hardly anything at all. In the next place, in order to induce 

 American vessels to go for mackerel to the Gulf of St. Lawrence in any 

 considerable numbers, mackerel must have an active market at remuner- 

 ative prices. There must be a different state of things in the United 

 States in that respect from what has existed for many years past, for, 

 by all accounts, the demand has been declining and the consumption 

 has been diminishing for ten years past. 



Without stopping to read at length the testimony on that point, there 

 are two or three of the British witnesses who in a short compass state 

 the truth, aud to their testimony I wish to call your attention. Mr. Har- 

 rington, of Halifax, page 420, says, in answer to the question, * There 

 has not been as much demand for mackerel from the United States for tlie 

 last five years as formerly?" "Not so great." Aud in reply to the question, 

 "There must be an abundant supply at home, I suppose?" he says, " I 

 should say so, unless the people ar using other articles of food." Mr. 

 Noble, another Halifax witness, page 420, being asked the same ques- 

 tion, says, " I think for the past two years the demand for mackerel has 

 been quite as good as before." Mr. Hickson, of Bathurst, is asked this 

 question, '< Fresh fish are very rapidly taking the place of salt mack- 

 erel in the market, and the importance of salt mackerel and other cured 

 fish is diminishing more and more every year. Is not this the case?" 

 His answer is, " That is my experience in my district." .'* And owing to 

 the extension of the railroad system and the use of ice-cars, pickled, 

 salf, and smoked fish will steadily become of less consequence ?" " Cer- 

 tainly." Mr. James W. Bigelow, of Wolfville, Nova Scotia, on page 

 223 of the British evidence, states very emphatically the practical con- 

 dition of the business. He says, " The same remark applies not only to 

 cod-fishing, but to all branches of the fishery : within the past ten years 

 the consumers have been using fresh instead ot salt fish. The salt-fish 

 business on the continent is virtually at an end." He is sorry to say 

 that he states this from practical knowledge of this business. He then 

 jgoes on to say that fish is supplied to the great markets of the United 

 {States " from Gloucester, Portland, and New York ; but from Boston 

 principally." " And the fish is sent where ?" " To every point West, all 

 >\cr the Union ; the fish is principally boxed in ice." Then he goes on 

 ><> state that if the arrangements of the Treaty of Washington should 

 become permanent, instead of being limited to a term of twelve years, 

 with the new railroad communication with this city that has been al- 

 t'ady opened, the result will be to make Halifax the great fish-business 

 enter of the continent; that the vessels will come in he with their 

 'ivsh. fish instead of of going to Gloucester or Boston or New York ; 

 luit a great business, a great city, will be built up here; and he 

 iys that, notwithstanding the treaty is liable to terminate in seveu 

 "irs, he is expecting to put his own money into the business, and es- 

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