AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2709 



Q. You swear that the Grand Manan people fish round their own 

 coast? A. Yes. 



Q. Do you say that the American vessels do not outnumber the Grand 

 Manan vessels? A. I say they do not. 



Q. Though you had not been there at all ? A. I have not been there, 

 but I know. 



Q. You swear positively that the statement is not true? A. Yes. 



Q. Mr. McLaughlin also said : 



Q. Do these vessels come in fishing within three miles? A. At a certain time of the 

 year; in winter it is entirely within ; the fall and winter fishing is entirely within. 



Do you contradict that ? A. The most of those vessels fish on Grand 

 Manan Banks. 



Q. That is not the question. [Extract re-read.] What do you say to 

 that? A. I say that in winter perhaps half a dozen vessels owned in 

 Eastport may go over to Grand Mauan fishing. They all fish inside 

 when the herring are inside ; within the last two or three or four years 

 the herring have been outside, and they fished outside for them. 



Q. So the statement is not true that the fall and winter fishing for 

 herring is entirely inside ? A. It is not entirely inside. 



Q. Is the bulk of it outside ? A. No ; I don't know that the bulk is. 



Q. You say that the fall and winter fishing is entirely outside ? A. 

 Not entirely ; I say to a great extent. 



Q. The larger portion is outside 1 A. The boat fishermen of Grand 

 Manan and the islands of New Brunswick are complaining that the 

 nets each year are being set further off shore, and within the last year 

 or two or two or three years they have been so greedy, they say, that 

 they have put their nets four or five miles out. 



Q. Tell me a single man who has told you that the fishing in the fall 

 and winter fishery is not within three miles of the shore ? A. I cannot 

 give you the name of a Grand Manan man, but I can give you the 

 name of a man who has been continually fishing there and in that 

 vicinity for twenty years. It is not only at Grand Manan but at other 

 places they are complaining. 



Q. Can you give me the name of any Grand Manan man who told 

 you that ? A. It was not a Grand Mauan man who told me. 



Q. It comes to this: those men who are on the spot and ought to be 

 able to know all about the fishing, you contradict, though you have 

 not been on the spot ? A. I say my means of information are as good 

 as theirs. I have been employed in business twenty years, and I have 

 been accustomed to converse with fishermen. 



Q. Do you seriously swear before the Commission that your opinion 

 with reference to the fisheries prosecuted on the main laud and at 

 Grand Manan Island is as good as the opinion of those who have lived 

 there all their lifetime ? A. I consider that my opinion and my means 

 of information are as good as theirs. 



By Mr. Trescot : 



Q. In giving your testimony before the Commissioners, you d<^ not 

 mean to give it as a practical fisherman ? A. No ; not at all. 



< v >. You give it as a man representing a house which has been in the 

 business for 60 years. You give your testimony, as I understand it, as 

 a cotton-buyer would give his experience of dealing in cotton. He 

 knows the brands, the qualities, and the places from which the cotton 

 comes; aud his views would be based on that sort of information. Now, 

 with regard to this question about the fishery, you have expressed the 

 opinion that in winter it is not exclusively an inshore fishery, and Mr. 



