242 THROUGH CANADA 



in netting practices is most important and throws a 

 searching light on the question. 



"Just as those who first exploited the forest 

 wealth of this country took the most valuable species 

 of wood, the pine, so those exploiting the fisheries of 

 Ontario took the most valuable of our fish, the white- 

 fish. Let us consider the position with regard to 

 this : the total catch of white-fish in 1873 was nearly 

 five million pounds, and to-day it is less than two 

 and a half million pounds. The decrease appears to 

 be in round figures about 2,350,000 lbs., but remember 

 that the engines of capture have been greatly 

 improved since that time, and many more men are 

 engaged in the work. In valuing this food diminu- 

 tion at its present price, it would show that in the 

 value of whitefish alone, a decrease has taken place 

 to the extent of quite ^50,000 a year, which 

 capitalized at 5 per cent, would show that the capital 

 value of the whitefish alone had decreased between 

 1873 and 1907 by ;{J" 1,000,000. There has been really 

 no necessity for this alarming decrease having 

 taken place. In 1892 a Government Commission, 

 after taking testimony throughout the provinces, 

 reported to the Dominion Government some alarm- 

 ing facts. Old fishermen who gave their evidence in 

 1882 spoke of the good old times when they took as 

 many as 90,000 whitefish at a haul, with a net at 

 Wellington Beach, and said that instead of endeavour- 

 ing to use sewage for fertilizers . . , they acted upon 



