2892 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Q. The general result is that as Gloucester has increased the other 

 fishing: places have decreased ? A. Yes. 



Q. If you cannot make money in the fishing business in Gloucester, 

 is there any place on the continent where it can be so made ? A. No ; 

 if it cannot be made there, then it can be so made nowhere. 



Q. You have all the appliances necessary in this connection? A. Yes. 



Q. And you know your business ? A. Yes. 



Q. You have said that your vessels have done well up to this year, 

 and that sometimes they have made as much as 25 per cent. ; and I 

 would like you to state more fully the business which your vessels have 

 done and the way in which they have made money. A. We never, 

 with my father, went anywhere except on our own shores ; and he 

 always, I think, from the time he commenced business, made a great 

 deal of money in the fishing business ; but we only went on our own 

 shore exclusively, and have only taken the bay fishery and the mack- 

 erel fishery as incidental. We have done very well, for the reason that 

 we have been on our own shore when other vessels were in the bay, 

 when the bay fishery was followed more largely than is the case at 

 present. 



Q. Your firm is undoubtedly the most prosperous and the largest in 

 Gloucester ? A. I would not say that. 



Q. Is there any doubt about it ; there is no doubt about it f A. We 

 are called so. 



Q. Did you have a brother who went out of business a few years 

 ago? A. Yes; he went out in 1865,1 think. He was the one who 

 went out of our firm in 1861, when our firm dissolved; he then went 

 into business by himself, and was in business in 1862, 1863, and 1864, 

 and I think he went out in 1865. 



Q. Was he by himself? A. Yes; he was for four years by himself, 

 and then he retired altogether. 



Q. I want to know whether you, yourself, would not have been better 

 off at the present time if you had followed your brother's example, and 

 retired in 1865 ? A. Yes ; I would then have been better off to-day. 

 By Mr. Da vies : 



Q. What did your brother retire on, or withdraw from business on ? 

 A. When he retired from our own firm ? 



Q. Yes. A. I think on something like $25,000 or $30,000, or there- 

 abouts. 



Q. What share had he ? A. One-third of the profits of the business. 



Q. Exclusive of vessels ? A. Y^es ; he owned part of the vessels, all 

 of which were inackerelers, and he took his stock. 



Q. During how many years had he been in the business ! A. I think 

 he went into it in 1853. 



Q. And he retired in 1861 ? A. From our firm ; yes. 



Q. Worth $30,000 or $25,000 ? A. Yes. 



Q. Your firm owned about twenty vessels ? A. Yes. 



Q. What would be the average price of these vessels ? A. This year? 



Q. Well, yes. A. Values have gone down so much that it is almost 

 impossible to select an average value right along ; but this year these 

 vessels would be worth, perhaps, a little less than $5,000 perhaps 

 $4,500 or $4,800. 



Q. All round ? A. Yes ; that would be their average value. 



Q. This would be about $100,000? A. They cost us more. 



Q. Did they cost you $150,000 t A. I think so. 



Q. I suppose that you have large establishments there besides ' A. 

 Yes. 



