2518 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



or otherwise, of American cured fish of the same description ? A. I 

 could not tell you. 



Q. You have no opinion on the subject at all ? A. No. 



Q. I now ask you if the fish that come in from the British provinces 

 have not the effect of making the fish cheaper to the consumer, what- 

 ever effect it may have on the fishermen ? A. I don't know but what it 

 may. 



Q. Have you any doubt about it ? A. I cannot form any correct esti- 

 mate, because the price is not two years alike. But there is one thing I 

 can assure you, that the price of fish can never rise above a certain level, 

 because it then gets beyond the reach of the consumer, and when it goes 

 beyond the consumer's means he will not buy it. Consequently that will 

 regulate itself. 



Q. Does not the larger supply of fish that comes in from the provinces 

 under the treaty, than what did before the treaty, have the effect of 

 diminishing the price of fish, and therefore diminishing the price to the 

 consumer ? A. I cannot answer the question ; I don't know. 



Q. Though you have dealt in fish forty years f A. Yes ; fully forty 

 years. 



Q. How often have you gone of late years to Grand Manan to look 

 how the fisheries are carried on ? A. I have not been at Grand Manan 

 much for the last six years. 



Q. You have not been there for the last six years ? A. I have been 

 there, but not much. 



Q. How many visits in the last six years ? A. Three or four visits. 



Q. And how long would the visit be on each occasion ? A. Not very 

 long. 



Q. About how long ? A. Sometimes one day, sometimes only a few 

 hours. 



Q. Then each visit would not average half a day ? A. Perhaps not. 



Q. And how many visits have you made in six years ? A. I have made 

 perhaps four, maybe five. 



Q. What season of the year would you visit Grand Manan ? A. In 

 summer time. 



Q. The summer time is not the brisk fishing-season there ? A. Yes. 



Q. I thought it was spring and fall ? A. It depends on what kind of 

 fish you have reference to. 



Q. Take herring. A. The frozen herring are only taken in the winter. 

 The smoked-herring trade is in the summer at the center of the island, 

 Wood's Cove, and round there, and late in the fall at White Head, Three 

 Islands, Two Islands, and other parts of the island. They don't com- 

 mence their smoked-herring fishing there till later in the season. 



Q. For six years- yfou have only been there five times, on an average 

 half a day at a time, and of course you have had no opportunity of 

 knowing from personal observation what American vessels fished round 

 the island nor what American boats fished round the island. That is 

 obvious, is it not'? A. I think I have. 



Q. Although you have not been there ? A. Although I have not been 

 there. ^ 



Q. I said from personal observation. A. I have not seen an Ameri- 

 can boat fishing at Grand Manan ; not in the act of fishing. 



Q. From personal observation you could not possibly say ? A. I have 

 not seen any fishing there. I deal with all those men. 



Q. Then the information you have been pleased to give the Commis- 

 sion in regard to the business done at Grand Mauau has not been from 



