28 KEPORT OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



suckers and other coarse fish of little commercial value, it would not be 

 safe to jump to the conclusion that all such fishes could be ruthlessly 

 destroyed with advantage. In fact it is a matter for most careful, scien- 

 tific study. 



It has been shown in a preceding section that the establishment of 

 a considerable Provincial fish hatchery plant is an urgent necessity if 

 the fisheries are to be improved or even only maintained on their present 

 footing, aEd that the success which has attended fish hatchery opera- 

 tions in certain of the watens of the great lakes is suflflcient of itself to 

 warrant such an undertaking. 



From the present section it may be, then, concluded that in enter- 

 ing on this business there exists a real necessity to arrange at the same 

 time for the energetic prosecution of scientific research. In this regard 

 it may, perhaps, not be amiss to recall the fact that while Ontario has 

 as great an interest in the fisheries of the great lakes as all the Ameri- 

 can States combined, she has, as yet, with the single exception of Mr. 

 C. W. Nash's check list of the fishes of the Province, published by the 

 Department of Education, contributed nothing to the proper scientific 

 understanding of them, a condition which can hardly be held to become 

 her dignity or the enterprise of her responsible authorities. 



The Licensing of Nets. 



Attention is called in the Report of the Dominion Fisheries Com- 

 mission on the Fisheries of the Georgian Bay to the apparent anomaly 

 of charging a fixed license for a given quantity of nets, irrespective of the 

 area in which this license is to be operative, and consequently irrespective 

 of the catch, and it is recommended that, as a fair means of determining 

 the value of a license, the catch should be taxed to the amount of |2 per 

 ton of the finer species of fish and |1 per ton of the coarser varieties, the 

 fishermen being required to make a sworn declaration as to their catch 

 on an oflScial form, which form, again, would have to be countersigned 

 by the responsible government fishery official. In view of the fact that 

 such a system would reverse the present system under which the value 

 of the license is collected into the Treasury before it is issued, and that 

 such a reversal is not altogether desirable, it is further suggested that 

 the value of the license applied for be estimated on the catch of the pre- 

 vious season, and paid for before issuance on these terms, the balance 

 in favor of or against the Government being adjusted when the final 

 figures for the year have been compiled from the sworn returns of the 

 fishermen and fishery overseel's. 



At the present time the value of the pound and gill net licenses in 

 the Canadian waters of the great lakes is briefly as follows : 



Pound Nets $50.00 per net 



