2122 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



By Sir Alexander Gait : 



Q. In what year was that ? A. 1858. 

 By Mr. Foster : 



Q. How many mackerelers sail from Newbury port now ? A. We have 

 7 vessels that are licensed by the government, being over 30 tons. We 

 have a little fleet of vessels under 30 tons. 



Q. How many vessels from your port have been engaged mackerel- 

 fishing in the bay this summer ? A. The Miantonoma went to the bay, 

 and two or three weeks ago she packed from the bay 96 barrels. 



Q. Name any other vessels? A. S. C. Noyes, G. W. Brown, Lizzie 

 Thompson, Greyhound, S. E. Babson, Edward Burke. The Edward 

 Burke arrived with 150 barrels, which she caught with trawls on Brad- 

 ley and sold in Gloucester. 



Q. How many mackerelers from your town are in the bay ? A. There 

 were six ; there are five there now, if they have not left since I came 

 from home. 



Q. Are they seiners, or hook-and line vessels ? A. Two are seiners 

 and three hook-and-line. 



Q. Has any returned ? A. The Miantonoma. 



Q. What did she do ? A. She packed 96 barrels, and she caught 10 

 barrels on the way home ; she packed altogether 106 barrels for the 

 voyage. Had she not lost her mainmast, she would have had a fare in 

 three days after she left Cape Sable. 



Q. Did she fish altogether in the gulf? A. I don't know where she 

 fished ; I was not there. The vessel came down to the gulf and got 

 something like 100 barrels. 



Q. What was the last year in which you were interested in fishing- 

 vessels ? A. In 1872 or 1873, I think I had a little interest indirectly. 



Q. In mackerel vessels ? A. Yes. She went to the Banks one voy- 

 age, and was in the bay two years. 



Q. Without dwelling on particular voyages, I ask you where the 

 greater part of the mackerel has been taken- by vessels you have been 

 in, that have come to tlie gulf, and by such other vessels as you have 

 reason to know about ? A. I can speak from my own observation. I 

 have overhauled the statistics of my own personal accounts as I settled 

 with the crews and owners, and I find I packed from the time I was 

 skipper to the end, 1,600 barrels from the bay and 3,200 from our shores. 



Q. And of those you took in the gulf, what portion, so far as you can 

 judge, was taken within three miles of the shore ? A. I never caught a 

 single mackerel within three miles of the land in any part of Bay St. 

 Lawrence, except at Magdalen Islands, where I had a perfect right to 

 do so. 



Q. Then, if you were asked whether it would make any difference to 

 you, and prevent you from fishing in the gulf, if you were otherwise 

 disposed, that you were excluded from fishing within three miles of the 

 shore, what would your answer be ? A. My answer would be that I 

 would rather, to-day, if I was 25 years old, and going to prosecute the 

 fishing business, be debarred from going into Bay St. Lawrence at all. 

 I would not want to go there. 



Q. Why ! A. For the very reason that I don't think it is a profita- 

 ble business. I never found it so there. I never went there of my own 

 free will in my life. I went there because of the majority of the vessel 

 was owned outside myself, and we have to please our owners sometimes. 



Q. If you were coming to the gulf, would you regard it as a matter o 

 consequence to be deprived of the right of fishing within three miles of 



