2526 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



him, or whether it is not the fact that you are in agreement with him. 

 Mr. McLaughlin says : 



Q. Do yon make your return for the whole year? A. Yes ; from the 1st January to 

 the 31st December. 



Q. You do not make it up for the fiscal year ? A. No ; I am -ordered to make it up 

 to the 3Ut December ; the return states itself that it is so made up. The amount in 

 my estimate, as I made it up from inquiry last year, is $383,691, but that is far under 

 the real catch. 



Q. You say that is far under the actual value of the catch ; how do you account for 

 its being under the amount ? A. Well, the fishermen are reluctant to give an account 

 of what they make, on account of the taxation. We have a free-school law now, and 

 are taxed very heavily for it. 



Q. It happens that you are an assessor of taxes ? A. I am at times, and I am a county 

 councilor, and have been a census enumerator. 



Q. And they do not like to give this information to you ; you are the last person to 

 whom they want to give it f A. Well, I tell them that the marine department never 

 lets such information go out of its possession. They tell me there is no need of doing 

 so ; that I have it all in my hands. They say it is too thin. 



Q. Then you believe the amount you have given is an underestimate f A. I know 

 it must be over half a million dollars ; that is, our old 500,000. 



Q. That is within the mark for your own island ? A. Yes. 



Q. Of the British catch ? A. Yes ; our own Grand Manan people ; because sometimes 

 they come over from Campobello and other places, but I have nothing to do with that. 



Q. Well, now, is the American catch larger or smaller ? A. I think it is larger. 



Q. Have you any doubt ? A. No ; because their appliances are so much better than 

 ours, and I think their men outnumber ours. 



In regard to the last portion of the answer, what is your judgment 

 as to the proportion of the American catch to the British catch ? A. 

 The American catch at Grand Mauan is very small. I don't think I 

 was called upon to make an estimate of the amount. The American 

 catch is very small indeed. 



Q. What is the relation of the British to the American catch at Grand 

 Mauan ? A. I have denied emphatically that there was any American 

 catch to amount to anything taken within three miles of the shore. The 

 American catch at Grand Mauan is taken almost entirely outside of the 

 three miles. 



By Mr. Thomson : 



Q. I understood you to swear that within three miles round Grand 

 Manan there was no American catch whatever? A. I did not say so. 

 I said very trifling. 



Q. What do you call very trifling? A. I think the catch inside of the 

 three-mile limit at Grand Manan by American boats is very trifling. 



Q. Or schooners? A. There is not any American schooner fishing 

 within three miles. You cannot mention and you cannot prove one. I 

 do not believe but that $2,000 would buy all that is caught by American 

 boats inside of the three-mile limit. 



Q. Then Mr. McLaughlin's statement that the Americans caught 

 $500,000 worth of fish there is and must be willfully false ? A. Inside 

 of three miles yes, or he was mistaken. 



By Mr. Trescot: 



Q. Mr. McLaughlin's conversations as to the British catch could give 

 him no information as to what was the American catch f A. Not the 

 slightest. Mr. McLaughliu must have reckoned the value of all the 

 cargoes of frozen herring taken off the island and caught by Dominion 

 subjects, or he must have reckoned the fish caught by American vessels 

 at Grand Manan 15 miles out, or at the Rippliugs 8 or 10 miles out to 

 sea. He has made a gross mistake some way, but how I don't know. 

 He may be able to accouut for it; I cannot. 



