2220 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



I take the commission out. I had a catch of 104 barrels I and one of 

 my boys. I lost $500 besides the mackerel thrown in. She lost $700. 



Q. Now, when you speak of what a vessel nets at the time she divides, 

 then half goes to the owner. He has to calculate not only insurance 

 and repairs, if there are any the average rate of repairs and sails you 

 have to have a new suit of sails once in two years, haven't you ! A. 

 Generally. 



Q. Now, take the cables. You used heinp. How long do they last ? 

 A. Sometimes on the Georges they do not last over a year. We say 

 two years ; sometimes a little more. 



Q. How long are they ? A. We had 150 fathoms. We should not 

 trust the whole of that over two seasons. Part of it would be good and 

 the rest bad. 



Q. It would be between two and three years that it would last in the 

 bay ? A. Yes. 



Q. Besides the expense, there is interest on the cost of the vessel, and 

 there is depreciation. Can you give the Commission some idea what 

 the depreciation of those vessels is ? Take any vessel an average of 

 vessels. I do not care about your own particularly, but you can judge 

 from that. A. Well, I run my own more economically. 



Q. Well, take thent as they are, managed with average prudence, and 

 employed steadily, coming into the bay for a portion of the year, and 

 for the rest of the year on the coast. How much is the natural depre- 

 ciation f A. I think 15 per cent. That is reckoning low. I reckon 

 that, providing a vessel costs $05 a ton, and you could build the same 

 kind of a vessel for $05 at the end of five years. But if you were going 

 to reckon that a vessel cost $65 a ton when she was built, and then take 

 the vessel at the end of five years, when the building-material had gone 

 down to about $45, she has depreciated oue'-half. 



Q. 1 don't mean to count that ; suppose the price of material has re- 

 mained the same, say it is 15 per cent. It is a short life ? A. Yes, 

 everything is giving out. 



Q. You have been cod fishing on the Georges ? A. Yes; all I ever 

 fished was on the Georges. 



Q. With baud-lines ? A. Yes. 



Q. Where did you get your bait ? A. Well, the first year we used to 

 get bait ou the Banks ourselves. Latterly it got to be the custom to 

 get it at Grand Mauan and in Newfoundland. 



Q. That is early in the season ? A. Then we have the pogy. At 

 Grand Manan the bait does not last a long while. 



Q. Have you been yourself to Grand Mauau to buy bait? A. I have 

 been there to buy herring, but never to buy bait. 



Q. You mean herring to sell again ? A. Yes j frozen herring to sell in 

 New York. 



Q. You were never there to get bait ? A. No. 



Q. The vessels you have been in took bait from home and caught 

 it ? A. As a general thing. 



Q. You catch some bait going and coming and ou the Banks? A. 

 We do along the summer months, in May and June. 



Q. You have no personal knowledge about Grand Manan ? A. All I 

 have about it is from going dowu to buy frozen herring. 



Q. You know nothing about it as a place for fishing, for the purpose 

 of getting bait for fishing ? A. No. I only know my vessels go down 

 one vessel would in the season. She would go there once between the 

 time of the frozen herring and the time of what we call the pogy sea- 

 son. 



