2760 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Q. What other statistics did you examine? A. Not those of any 

 other State. 



Q. Does that return give you the quantity taken by those vessels on 

 the American shore and the quantity taken on the British shore ? A. 

 There is; no distinction made ; they are all put together. 



Q. When you said that one quarter of the aggregate catch was taken 

 in British waters, what did you mean ? A. I mean by that, that if the 

 whole catch of mackerel in the State of Maine and Massachusetts 

 amounts to 280,000 barrels, and you add the Nova Scotia and Prince 

 Edward Island catch, which might amount to 40,000 or 50,000 barrels, 

 that would be 330,000. I took one-fourth of that. It is merely an esti- 

 mate. 



Q. You don't know what proportion of the fish are taken in British 

 and what in American waters ? A. I can tell when a very small fleet 

 comes into British waters and has poor success, that it will not add 

 largely to the aggregate quantity. 



Q. You understand me to be speaking of the whole gulf aud not of 

 the three-mile limit? A. I understand. 



Q. When you say that one-fourth only of the aggregate catch is taken 

 in British waters did you mean to include the catch taken by British 

 people, or did you mean that the Americans themselves catch one-fourth 

 on our shores? A. I mean to say that aside from what are caught by 

 American vessels, what are caught at Prince Edward Island and Nova 

 Scotia, which are the two principal places where mackerel are taken by 

 their own people, amount as near as I can estimate without going into 

 figures, to one-fourth of the gross aggregate catch. 



Q. There is a little point regarding which I wish to put myself right 

 before the Commission. I stated the other day here that there was no 

 inspector of fish on Prince Edward Island. Now, have you paid any in- 

 spector for the last two or three years since confederation ? A. I am 

 very certain that every year I paid the inspection fee to the general in- 

 spector of Prince County. 



Q. Since confederation? A. Yes. I talked the matter over this sea- 

 son with my bookkeeper as to whether it was best to pay that again, 

 and he concluded it was. 



Q. It enabled you to send your fish into Massachusetts. You are 

 deputy inspector and you put your brand on your mackerel as such, and 

 it is a benefit in that way to you ? A. I consider it so. 

 - Q. If it was not a benefit you would not continue it ? A. I do not 

 think it is worth while to disturb the thing at all. I never saw that he 

 was very reluctant to receive his fees. 



Q. From your knowledge of the people of the United States and those 

 engaged in fishing, are they anxious to have the right to fish in our 

 waters are the people greatly anxious to have it ? A. I don't kowii 

 what the feeling is at the present time, but in former years, from coiiver 

 sations that I have had with them, I should say that they were anxious to 

 have the right of fishing here, particularly those having expensive ves- 

 sels here. They want full range of the whole waters of the Dominion, 

 and, of course, those who own expensive vessels do not want them to be 

 disturbed by cutters. 



Q. It was looked upon as a valuable privilege the right to come into 

 the gulf and fish? A. Yes. 



Q. Near the shores ?^ A. Yep. There was a great difference of opin-. 

 ion among fishermen and among skippers of vessels about it; some did 

 not seem to care much about it and some did. 



Q. That accounts for the fact that some of the witnesses have said 



