2512 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



A. From Point Lepreau to St. Andrews and all the islands connected, 

 including Campobello, I should put less than a million. It is a pretty 

 hard thing to estimate, but I should say considerably less than a mill- 

 ion, with everything included herring, oil, the fish-tummies, smoked 

 herring, hake sounds, and the fish themselves. 



Q. That excludes Grand Manau ? A. Yes; I put down Grand Mauan 

 at $400,000, and all the other places around our vicinity at not over a 

 million. 



Q. Now, I will read some questions put to and answers made by a 

 gentleman supposed to be familiar with that portion of the fisheries, and 

 without asking you to contradict him, I want to ask you how far your 

 judgment agrees with his. I refer to the evidence of James Maclean, 

 merchant, Letite, parish of St. George, Charlotte County, New Bruns- 

 wick ; do you know him ? A. Very well ; I am very intimate with him. 



Q. These are the questions and answers, if you will attend to them : 



Q. Judging from your practical knowledge of the fishery, being an owner of vessels, 

 and dealing with the men who fish as yon do, what do you say, at a low figure, would 

 be the value of the fisheries and the actual worth of the fish caught by British subjects 

 between the points you mention from Lepreau to Letite ; what w'ould be a fair aver- 

 age value from 1871 ? A. I should estimate the quantity for Charlotte County and the 

 adjoining islands. We all fish, and it would be difficult to separate the two. 



Q. You are acquainted with the value of the islands ais well ? A. Yes ; I visit Grand 

 Manan occasionally, and the adjoining islands often. 



Q. What is the catch of the whole ? A. A low estimate for our fishing would be 

 $1,000,000 for each year. 



Q. For British subjects? A. Yes. 



Q. That is a low estimate ? A. I think I am under the mark ; in fact, I have no 

 doubt of it at all. 



Q. And it may be a good deal more ? A. Yes. 



Q. You have not a shadow of a doubt that it is at least a million ? A. No. 



Q. And our American friends take a considerable amount more ? A. They take as 

 many. 



Q. They have more men and more vessels ? A. Yes. 



Q. And they take at least as much ? A. Yes, fully as much as we do, if not more. 



Q. Have you any doubt that they take more ? A. I believe that they take more. 



Q. You have no doubt of it ? A. No. 



Q. With your knowledge, would you say that was an accurate state- 

 ment of the fishing between Letite and Lepreau ? A. I shall not alter 

 my estimate by hearing that. 



Q. Do you know of any American vessels engaged in these waters, 

 in those fisheries, taking anything like an approximate amount of a mill- 

 ion? A. No; it is impossible. It is erroneous. The imports of the 

 country would not show it, and cannot show it ; it is impossible. 



Q. Now, here is from another witness whom you may know also, 

 Walter B. McLaughlan, light-house keeper and fishery-overseer at Grand 

 Manan, in the county of Charlotte, New Brunswick ? A. I have known 

 him from a bov. 



Q. (Heads:)' 



Q. You are well acquainted with the fisheries of Charlotte County ; take the main- 

 land fishing from Letite as far as Lepreau, is that a good fishing ground ? A. It is con- 

 sidered a good fishing ground ; I ain not personally acquainted with it, and can only 

 say from what I have heard. My duties have never carried me there. 



Q. But your practical knowledge extends there ? A. Yes. 



Q. What would be the value of the mainland fishery, the Britisli fishery alone, tak- 

 ing it from Letite to Lepreau ? A. My own fishery is, say, $500,000 ; Campobello and 

 West Isles must equal mine, and the mainland will certainly be more than half of 

 that, if not equal to it. 



<.). WH1, then, you put Campobello and West Isles as about equal to Grand Manan ? 

 A. Yes : speaking as 1 do. Not knowing exactly, I should say so. 

 *. (/. That would be a half a million for these' two islands, and a half a million for 

 Grand Manau, that makes a million, and you think the mainland is half as much as 

 cither of those; that would be a fairjestimate for the mainland f A. Yes; Charlotte 



