AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2517 



American Government would amount almost to a prohibition of the 

 smoked-herring business. 



Q. Well, how as to $2 a barrel on mackerel ? A. Mackerel is a fish 

 I don't know much about. I never fished it. I have packed a good 

 many while I was fish inspector at Eastport, twenty-five years. 



Q. Are there any being smoked on the American shores as at Campo- 

 bello? A. Yes. 



.Q. Would they increase in price in consequence of a duty ? A. I can- 

 not answer that question. 



Q. Are you serious about that ? A. I am. If you put on a duty and 

 call me after it has been in operation a few years, 1 will answer that 

 question. I can't anticipate anything that might happen. 



Q. You are serious in saying that five cents a box on herring would 

 be a prohibition to British fisheries, but you can't say whether, if they 

 were prohibited, it would have the effect of raising the price of Ameri- 

 can fish ? A. No, I could not say. 



Q. Then, according to you, the influx of British fish has no effect upon 

 the price of American fish at all ? A. I didn't say so. 



Q. Well, do you say so ? I think it follows from what you have 

 said? A. I don't say anything about it. 



Q. Do you decline to give any opinion in regard to it ? A. I won't 

 at the present time. 



Q. Have you any doubt that the fish sent in from the British prov- 

 inces has a sensible effect in making the price of fish smaller in the 

 United States market ? A. They may ha^e that tendency to keep the 

 price down. 



Q. Tell me if you believe they have that tendency or not f A. I 

 think they may have that tendency. 



Q. Do you say that they have that tendency ? A. The more fish put 

 on the market, of course the tendency is that way, but there is a point 

 beyond which that tendency is inoperative. The moment you reach the 

 point of the consumer, when he can't afford to pay, he has to buy some 

 other article of food. Since my time the quantity of smoked herring 

 sold in the United States markets has increased tremendously. The 

 prices they are selling for now are 20 cents in New York, 21 cents in 

 Boston, and 15 cents in Eastport. With the boxes of the present size 

 that will pay the fishermen, but at the sizes they made boxes fifteen or 

 twenty years ago, no fisherman could follow it. When you come to 

 increase the price of herring over 25 cents per box the consumers won't 

 buy them. 



Q. There is" a certain amount of fish of that description carried into 

 the United States and certain prices are paid. I presume you got the 

 same price for American fish as you got for English cured fish. Is it 

 not so ? I mean smoked fish in boxes. A. Yes. 



Q. I want you to tell me, if you will, whether the importation of that 

 kind of fish from the provinces has any effect on the price of American 

 fish ? A. I presume it may have some effect ; but, as I told you before, 

 I cannot answer that question, because last year smoked herring was 9 

 djents a box. 



Q. Do you say it makes a difference or not the importation of that 

 fish from the provinces on the price of American fish ? A. Last year 

 we had the same supplies, and smoked herring were 9 cents a box ; and 

 this year, with still the same supplies, they are 15 cents a box at East- 

 port. I cannot tell what occasions the difference in price. I suppose 

 the consumption rules it more than anything else. 



Q. Does the importation of American fish affect the price, injuriously 



