2896 AWARD OP THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Q. I know that the catch for Prince Edward Island was very large 

 that year, with very low prices. A. Well, the island fish are poor fish. 



Q. That may be, but that is not the question at all ; I am asking you 

 whether the catch was large that year or the price small ? A. They 

 mostly all say that the catch in 1870 was the largest catch but one that 

 we ever had, and the price that year was the largest we have had ; you 

 cannot form a calculation that will work uniformly from year to year. 



Q. I uaderstand your evidence to be that no matter what the catch is, 

 the price will remain about the same ? A. No ; I did not say that. 



Q. What did you say ? A. In 1870 we had the largest catch but one 

 which we ever had, I think, in Massachusetts ; it numbered, I think, 

 318,000 barrels, and No. 1 mackerel ruled that year, I think, at $20 a 

 barrel; while in the next year, 1871, there was about an average catch, 

 and yet the price was then from $4 to $5 lower than it was in 1870, with 

 a very large catch ; and in 1872 and 1873 there was a small catch, if I 

 mistake not, and I think that the prices were that year about the same. 

 They did not vary, save very little, from 1872. 



Q. The catch does affect the price, in your opinion ? A. I say it 

 does some ; but then I say there are a great many things which influ- 

 ence the price, such as the manipulations of operators, and all those 

 things. 



Q. Is the rise or fall in the price more owing to the manipulation of 

 operations than to other causes ! A. I do not say that ; but all these 

 things operate. 



Q. To what extent do you think that the catch affects the price ; is 

 not the price of mackerel, like that of every other article, governed by 

 the laws of supply and demand ; if the supply fails, does not the price 

 go up ? A. That would be the case if the selling price was always so 

 governed; that would be the case if the price to the consumer was al- 

 ways governed by the selling price; but this is not so in the case of 

 mackerel. 



Q. You say then that the price to the consumer always remains the 

 same ? A. The price to the man who eats them does not vary, save 

 very little. 



Q. That is not affected by the catch at all, in your opinion ; the price 

 to the consumer remains the same ? A. It has been the same for the 

 last ten years. 



Q. You think so? A. I know so. 



Q. You do not know it ; your evidence does not agree with other evi- 

 dence. A. I know that is so, because I have had experience in the 

 trade. 



Q. You say that the price is uniform, and th?t, in your opinion, the 

 catch is not affected by it ? A. The catch does not affect the price 

 which the consumer pays ; that has not affected it one fraction during 

 the last ten years. I mean this is the case as regards the man who 

 eats and buys them. 



Q. The catch, in your opinion, would not affect that price ! A. It has 

 not done so during the last ten years. 



Q. Would it do so, in the course of trade, iu a long period of time ? 

 A. If competition was sharp, it might reach that point, but it has not 

 done so as yet. 



Q. If the catch was reduced to one eighth, would the consumer, in 

 your opinion, then pay exactly the same for his mackerel which he would 

 pay were it otherwise f A. They would not pay any more for them. 



Q. He would pay the same ? A. I think so ; the price is generally 

 fixed at the highest price that will be paid. 



