2256 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



mackerel-fishing-vessel owners and the captains of the vessels was the 

 failure of the catch on their own coast ? A. I did not say so. 



Q. You think that this had nothing to do with it ? A. I say it is not 

 a failure ; the fishing on the American coast this yeaV has not been a 

 failure, but dispatches received induced vessels to go to the bay. 



Q. I understand you to say that during the first part of the season 

 the fishery was a failure on your coast ? A. I said that during the first 

 part of the year off Block Island, and out south, there was an abundance 

 of fish. 



Q. You stated that the catch on your coast during the first part of 

 the season, up to the 1st of July, was below the average? A. Yes. 



Q. Do you think that this fact had anything to do with your vessels 

 coming down to the Bay of St. Lawrence ? A. I do not think so. I 

 think that they would have made a good catch this year on our shore, 

 had not the mackerel schooled during the night instead of during the 

 day, as has been their usual custom. 



Q. Do you think that the lying dispatches had anything to do with 

 their coming to the bay ? Will you be kind enough to state from 

 whom these lying dispatches came, and who posted them up ? A. I can- 

 not tell you anything about it. I did not say that lying dispatches 

 were sent. 



Q. You said false dispatches were posted up with the intention of in- 

 ducing your fishermen to come to the bay ; did you not say that false 

 dispatches were posted up with the intention of inducing your people 

 to come to the bay ? A. That is not what I meant to say. 



Q. Did you not say so ? A. I would not say exactly that this was 

 what I said. 



Q. How, I want to see what you do mean. You understand there 

 were false dispatches posted up in the reading-room in Gloucester ? A. 

 Dispatches which proved to be false. 



Q. Can you state who they were from ? A. I cannot. I think they 

 were from those who sold supplies to American fishermen in Canso. 



Q. What makes you think so ? A. Well, I think I saw one stuck up 

 on the bulletin -board in the reading-room in Gloucester. 



Q. Were they published in any Gloucester newspapers ? A. No. 

 Generally when they had any dispatch as to bait or fish in any direc- 

 tion they telegraphed to Gloucester, and it was stuck up in the read- 

 ing-room. 



Q. Can you state from whom any one of those dispatches came ? A. 

 I could not. 



Q. You cannot give any one name ? A. I could not. 



Q. Did you see any more than one dispatch that turned out to be 

 false ? A. I don't know that I did. 



Q. Can you give me the tenor or purport of that dispatch? A. 

 " Plenty of mackerel in the North Bay." It was that, or words to that 

 effect. 



Q. Are you prepared to say that the substance of that was false, as 

 they sent it that year? A. I know the result has shown it so. The 

 letters that have come home have reported a different story. 



Q. You are not prepared to say whether at that date there were 

 plenty or not ? A. There might have been ; I don't know. 



Q. Do you know what the catch has been this year in the gulf ? A. 

 I do not. 



Q. Have you taken the trouble to inform yourself from statistics what 

 have been the results, or what have been the importations into the 



