AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2299 



Q. What was its object? A. It was to make onr government under- 

 stand that we needed some help to continue our business. We were in 

 former years granted a bounty, and in other ways we had been helped 

 to sustain ourselves. 



Q. Then it prayed the government to continue the bounty system ! 

 A. I think that it embraced that, or some other statement as to relief 

 being required by us to afford an offset for the $2 a barrel duty which 

 was taken off your fish. 



Q. You wanted the government to do something for you ? A. Yes. 



Q. Did you definitely express what that something was, or did j*ou 

 just deal in generalities? A. I think it was rather couched in gen- 

 eralities. I believe that we spoke of what they had done, and desired 

 that they should consider our interests in some way. Afterwards we 

 obtained a repeal of the duty on salt, which was some relief to us. 



Q. And now your salt is free of duty ! A. Yes, with the exception 

 of weighing-fees, 8 cents per hogshead, and papers. 



By Mr. Foster : 



Q. It was two years after the ratification of the Washington Treaty 

 before this repeal went into operation ? A. Yes. 



By Mr. Davies: 



Q. You said that the Magdalen Islands was one of the safest parts of 

 the gulf? A. For fishing purposes for vessels, I consider them a great 

 deal safer than Prince Edward Island, though around Georgetown there 

 is a good harbor. 



Q. I understand you to speak almost solely from information that yon 



have gained as a merchant in Gloucester and from your connection with 



insurance companies, &c. ? A. I have been all around Cape Breton and 



' Prince Edward Island, and I know the location of the harbors. I have 



never been at the Magdalen Islands. 



Q. Therefore you speak entirely from hearsay ; do you not know, as 

 president of an insurance company, that some years at least you had 

 serious losses at the Magdalen Islands f A. Yes ; in 1873 our losses 

 there were very serious. 



Q. How many vessels were lost there that year ? A. None ; but a 

 great many went ashore. I was president of the company that year. 

 We got these vessels off. Those that were lost were in the bend of the 

 island ; there vessels and crews were lost ; and that is where the risk is. 



Q. This is novel information for me. A. It is true. Vessels and 

 crews were lost in the Bend of Prince Edward Island. 



Q. In 1873? A. Yes. 



Q. Are you really sincere in making that statement ? Name the ves- 

 sels and crews. A. There was Capt. James Gushing, who was in charge 

 of a Gloucester vessel ; but I cannot think of her name. She was lost 

 with all hands; and was last seen stretching up the bend of the island. 

 The vessel's boat came ashore just above Tracadie; and neither he nor 

 his men were ever afterwards seen. 



Q. This happened off the bend of the island? A. Yes. 



Q. How far off'? A. It was perhaps off' Tracadie or Kustico. 



Q. You do not know how far off at sea she was ? A. He was last seen 

 doing the best he could to get by North Cape, but he did not succeed. 



Q. I thought that the vessels went ashore with the crews? A. No; 

 these were vessels that struck on the bottom, or else they would not 

 have been lost. 



Q. That is the only vessel you know of ? A. Yes. 



Q. And how many vessels were lost at the Magdalen Islands, which- 



