THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICS UPON THE WORK 



OF THE FISH CULTURIST, AND HOW FISH AND 



GAME PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATIONS 



MAY ASSIST THE LATTER 



And 



THE INTERNATIONAL PROBLEM OF THE PROPER 



REGULATION OF THE FISHERIES OF 



THE GREAT LAKES 



BY A. KELLY EVANg, OF TOKONTO. CANADA. 



^Ir. A. Kolly Evans: Mr. President and gentlenK'n, it i:\ 

 witli a ,ureat deal of trepidation indeed that I venture to make a 

 few reiiiarks, considering that the gentlemen may be considered 

 savants on the question of fish culture, but as I shall not be long, 

 I trust you will bear with me. I want to give you an idea of 

 what might be deemed the necessity of taking an interest in or- 

 ganizations which may help you largely in the work you are 

 carrying out. I refer to fish and game protective associations 

 and organizations of that kind; and in order to make my argu- 

 ment clearer, I wish to explain certain things that have occurred 

 in our province of Ontario. 



I feel you must all take an intei-est in the province of On- 

 tario, particularly because it controls practically one half of the 

 fisheries of the Great Lakes. Besides this, it has enormous re- 

 sources in other lakes which do not touch your borders, besides 

 very large rivers. There have been two commissions appointed 

 of late years in Canada, one by the provincial government at 

 Toronto, a liberal administration, and one by a conservative ad- 

 ministration at Ottawa. This docmnent is a very rare one. It 

 contains siU'li an expose of the horril)le destruction that has been 

 going on, that it lias been more or less suppri'ssed : l)ut I am 

 fortunate enough to possess a co])y, and I will simply read one 

 little l)it of sworn testimony to show you the condition existing 

 in Lake Ontario comparatively a small number of years ago; you 

 are quite aware of the condition existing now. 



This commission was appointed by the late Sir Hibbard Tup- 

 per, in 1893. The commissioners proceeded all through the 



