I 



1912 AND FISHERIES COMMISSION. 53 



tration now in force is not adapted to the attainment of such an end. 

 The abnormal expansion in all directions necessitates the undertaking 

 of many other great public enterprises, and problems both difficult and 

 intricate, but none the less requiring immediate solution, are constantly 

 developing, so that it is impossible to conceive that a Minister, already 

 so overloaded with vast responsibilities as must be a Minister in charge 

 of so great and growing a Department as that of Public Works, should 

 be able himself to devote either the requisite time or energy to the intri- 

 cate and complex details surrounding the evolution of a fisheries policy 

 calculated to produce a machinery equal to the task and likewise to 

 foster and develop a demand for fish food among the citizens of the Pro- 

 vince, who are an yet to a great extent unappreciative of its inherent 

 economic value. Further, the delegation of such a duty to a subordinate 

 official, even though that official were mentally and physically capable 

 of discharging, it would inevitably result in the matter being treated as 

 one of secondary importance, a fact which the present condition of the 

 commercial fisheries situation would appear clearly to demonstrate, in 

 so far at least a's that where successive incumbents of a Ministerial office 

 have had neither time nor opportunity to master even the basic prin- 

 ciples of a problem, matters will be allowed to drift, or patchwork 

 legislative remedies be deemed amply sufficient. Consequently it would 

 seem apparent that the first step in the evolution of a new Provincial 

 FisherieK Policy must be the establishment of an efficient authority to 

 carry it out; the creation, in fact, of an executive controlling power, 

 sufficiently stable to ensure the ultimate execution of plans laid over 

 several years, and with sufficient time at its disposal to attend to all the 

 intricate details on which the ultimate success of the policy must so 

 largely depend. 



The advantages to be derived through the elimination of party poli- 

 tics in the matter of petty appointments to the fisheries protective ser- 

 vice were discussed in the Interim Report of this Commission, and it is 

 evident that in the institution of such important measures as the estab- 

 lishment of a chain of fish hatchery plants, the provision of adequate and 

 suitable equipment, the creation and development of a Provincial Fish 

 Agency and the fixing of close periods and areas, the less political in- 

 fluence could be brought to bear on the executive chief, the greater would 

 be the certainty of really permanent and satisfactory results being 

 attained. The most obvious method of removing the fisheries from the 

 sphere of party polities would be the creation of a small Commission to 

 control them in conjunction with other matters of a somewhat kindred 

 nature, as previously recommended by this Commission in its Interim 

 Report, but, if such a course should be deemed inexpedient, at least 

 some attempt should be made to place the control of Ontario's great com- 

 mercial fisheries where they could receive the individual attention of the 

 executive head which they both need and merit. The people of the Pro- 

 vince cannot forever remain indifferent to the spoliation that is taking 



5 F.c. 



