AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. _'..'.! 



agaiust its ratification ? A. I was there before the treaty was com- 

 pleted and at the time when it was completed. 



Q. Originally the fishing- vessels of Massachusetts were largely engaged 

 in the cod fishery ? A. Yes. 



Q. Aud the mackerel fishery has since grown up! A. I remember 

 the first man who went to the bay to catch mackerel. 



Q. But the cod fishery is two hundred years old? A. Yes; it is 

 ancient. 



Q. And in connection with it there used to be a bounty ? A. Yes. 



Q. How much was it ? A. $4 a ton. 



Q. For every vessel ? A. It was paid for every vessel that wai at 

 sea fishing 4 months for cod. 



Q. When was this bounty taken off? A. I cannot give the year; it 

 was perhaps twenty years ago. 



Q. Was not this bounty a pretty important element in the cod fishing 

 business? A. Yes. 



Q. And when it was removed it was felt that the fishing interests 

 must decline ? A. Yes. 



Q. Did you ever know of a nation where the fishing industry pros- 

 pered except under a bounty ? A. No. 



Q. Is it not always then prosperous because it is the policy of the 

 nation to cherish it as a nursery for its seamen ? A. The French al- 

 ways pay a bounty. 



Q. Aud did not the duty on Canadian-caught fish replace the bounty? 

 A. Yes ; and the reduction of the duty on salt was granted as an off- 

 set for the removal of the duty. 



Q. And that came later ? A. Yes; two or three years after the rati- 

 fication of the treaty. 



Q. When it was proposed to take the duty off you remonstrated, thiuk- 

 'ing that this would reduce the price of fish, and this was the general 

 feeling among the fishermen aud of the inhabitants of the coast of New 

 Eu gland ? A. Yes. 



Q. And the next year after the Washington Treaty went into opera- 

 tion you got help in the form of a drawback on salt ? A. Yes. The 

 government passed an act allowing salt to be used in the curing of fish 

 to be entered duty free. 



Q. You took it out under bond ? A. Yes ; and at the end of the year 

 we furnished sufficient proof that it had been used in the curing of fish. 

 A small charge, 8 cents per hogshead, was made for weighing. 



Q. How does the gain you obtain by the removal of the duty on salt 

 compare with the gain which was derived from the old bounty system ? 

 A. It is in part an equivalent ; but I have not figured it up. 1 think 

 one-half, or about that, went to the owners under the bounty system. 



Q. The poorer qualities of mackerel are used as food by the poor? 

 A. Yes; and they used to be shipped in great quantity to the Southern 

 States ; very few were sent to the West Indies. We supposed that they 

 were used on the plantations. 



Q. Any considerable rise in price would destroy this market ? A. 

 Yes ; if they do not buy this sort of fish at a low price they will not buy 

 it at all. 



Q. Then what market is there for the very best mackerel, the other 

 extreme, which is a luxury for which some are willing to pay a pretty 

 high price ? A. This mackerel is used by families and in hotels in New- 

 York ; and 10,000 barrels would be a large quantity of this quality to 

 sell in the United States market at anything over $20 a barrel. 



Q. The impression seems to prevail in some quarters that the pros- 



