INTERIM REPORT 25 



James Hixtley had 50 years' experience, and noticed the decline in the shad 

 during the last 10 years. Food is as plentiful as ever, and sawdust has no serious 

 effect. Stop the taking of spawn shad and build hatcheries. The stoppage of the 

 shad fishery for a few seasons would not be serious. I farm as well as fish. 



Eeid Shaw engaged for 45 years in shad fishing, beginning when 15 years old. 

 He farms, and has share in two seines, bringing $10. to $30 a season. We have no 

 license, but hold our rights by possession. We have fished at a loss for 11 5'ears, i.e., 

 we do not clear more than $10 after payiug expenses. We used to clear $500. A 

 close season is necessary for the fish on the spawning grounds. 



Fourth Sitting. 



Oddfellows' Hall, Canning, 



August 4, 1908. 



Tliere was a large attendance of fishermen and the public when Professor Prince 

 formally opened the sitting, followed by Mr. Commissioner S. F. Morrison. 



William Kinsman, Kingsport, was the first witness, and stated that he fished and 

 farmed. He began at Mill Creek, called Blomidon P.O. That was 69 years ago. His 

 father had fished herring in a brush weir, and occasionally "got shad. It was rocky 

 ground and shad avoided it. After moving to Kiagsport he had a share in one of the 

 two weirs at Habitants river. There were 38 shares, each worth $100. It was the 

 upper weir and went to high water. It was a seine tied to stakes and at high water 

 tiiey went out in a boat and cut the twine when up came the seine. They took it out 

 at two tides (two springs) in a week. About 1838, so great a school of herring came 

 against the seine and collected there that the river was dammed completely. We 

 caught no shad at Medford. Even when our take was 400 bushels we got no shad 

 mixed with the herring as they swin over the mud flats. A few years after that some 

 Newfoundlanders came and used drift nets and fixed a pound net at the mouth of 

 Eiver Habitants. Next year they were seized. The Kings and Hants men then went 

 into drifting, and they would load their boats. Shad then declined in number and 

 size, and finally they gave it up. That was 30 or 40 years since. In 1896 I fished a 

 seine with Mr. Hills for three years, and one year we got 150 barrels of shad, but they 

 gol scarce and drifting ceased to pay. The size of the fish kept \vp and improved 

 under drifting. The fish came in July and left the latter end of August. They 

 lasted two months, the hottest months of the year. There were a few in June. The 

 Rhad were big fat fish with no spawn in them. The spawning had passed. They 

 moved up and down on the flats feeding there. In 1896 shad struck into St. Mary's 

 bay. We went there, using St. John shad nets, and so many nets were in the water 

 that the fish were cleaned out in a night, the water being shoal. We thought the 

 school came from Mexico, and the southern United States coasts, and after spawning 

 had travelled north. The causes of the scarcity of shad seem to be du e to : 1. Drift 

 nets which drive them away as they are not in the great ocean but in limited waters. 

 The government should not have allowed continuous drifting. 2. Breeding shad are 

 destroyed in St. John river. They are very poor and not worth eating. We must 

 have conjoint action with the United States as they have more breeding shad than 

 occur in our waters. 3. Shad can't get over mill dams and fish-ways are not provided. 

 As there are not many seines, they cannot be the cause of the decline. We got small 

 shad in seines, and once in a while a salmon. I had my seine at Borden's wharf and 



