h 



408 



Mr. Thornton. — It i« not very important, except for the purpose of arriving; at the 

 corclusion as to whether this man told the truth or not. That is the only manner in which 

 it is important. That the American fisliin;; fleet comes down here every year is a settled 

 fact. Hut (hero is an important point connected with this fleet, to which 1 ri'8|)cclfully 

 call tlip ntttTitiou of the C'onnnisi-ion. It is u confessed fact that the Amcriciin fleet 

 docs come down there, tliat very large quantities of herring are taken, and have hecn taken 

 yearly, and will he taken for all time to eoine, 1 suppose ; hut not one single captain of all 

 tliat ileet — and the names of the captains and vessels they commanded arc known — has 

 been put on tiie stand for the purpose of eontradictinp the British evidence in rei^ard to 

 the fisheries of Grand Manan, and the adjacent shores of New Brunswick to the north of it. 

 That is u most extraordinary circumstance, that not u single man of all that fishing fleet has 

 been called for the purpose of Q;ivin(!: evidence on that point. 



Mr. Foster. — You arc entirely uiistuken about that. Here is Ezra Turner, and 

 SylvanuH Smith hod been there. 



Mr. Tliomson. — He had not been engaged in the fishery for eleven years back, if my 

 memory serves inc right. We will take Ezra Turner firet. I am speaking now of within 

 the time covered by the testimony of those witnesses whom the four witnesses were called 

 to contradict. If you say Ezra Turner comes within the reference, I am quite willing to 

 be shown that such is the fact. 



Mr. Foster. — What time do you say is covered by the witnesses ? 



Mr. Tliomson. — I say it was during the time of the Reciprocity Treaty, and possibly a 

 few years later. 



Mr. Foster. — If you look at Ezra Turner's evidence, on page 227, you will find the 

 following : — 



" Q. In regard to the herring fishery at Grand Manau, have you l)eon in that neighbourhood after 

 herring ? — A. Yus, I 3ui)poso 1 was the man who introduced that business. 



" Q. How niiiiiy ycuis ago was that > — A. That is twenty-live years ago, I guess. 



" Q. Did you go there to catth herring or to buy them '. — A. That is the way all our vessels do ; 

 they go and buy tliciu from the inhabitants llieie, who fish the herring and freeze tliem. 



" Q. When were you there lust ? — -V. I was down there lu;it year, lost winter. I only stopped 

 a little while." 



Mr. Thomson.— Was he down there as captain of one of the vessels ? 



Mr. Foster. — He is a man who has been captain all his life. 



Mr. Thomson. — What I said was, that of all the fishing fleet coming there, not one of 

 the skippers had been called for the purpose of contradicting the evidence given by 

 McLiuighlin, Lord, and McLean, and they could not coritradict it unless they were down 

 there as captains during the period over which the testimony of tiiese men runs. Now, 

 as far as I remember, Turner has not done so, 



Mr. Foster. — Here is the evidence of I.^wrcnce Londrigan, who was there last winter 

 in the " J. W. Roberts." He does not come within the terms of the statement, because 

 he was not captain. P. Conley was captain of the vessel. Londrigan, in his evidence, 

 says : — 



" Q. What were you doing last winter ? — A. I left to go in a vessel for frozen herring. 



" Q. What is the name of the vessel ? — A. ' J. W. l{ol)erta.' 



" Q. Wliere did slie hail from ? — A. From Rockport, Me. 



" Q. Who was her captain ? — A. P. Conley. 



" y. When did you start from Rockport ? — A. .Sixteenth December. 



" Q. How long were you gone ? — A. Wo were at Beaver Harbour and around Grand Manan about 

 two weeks. 



" Q. Were other vessels there ? — A. Yes. 



" Q. How many ? — A. ' Electric Flash,' ' Sladawaska Maid,' ' Mary Turner,' ' Episcatawa.' 



" Q. How many frozen herring did you get ? — A. .Some were bought frozen and some were bought 

 green, and t0f)k ashore, and some we froze on the deck of the vessel. 



" Q. What did you pay for them ? — A. For most of them 50 ceuid a hundred, for about 25,000, 

 45 cents a hundred." 



Then I can quote from affidavits. 



Mr Thomson. — I believe I am making an admission, which is not borne out by the 

 evidence, when I say I admit you can turn out twenty such cases as this, which is no 

 contradiction, nor does it fall within that to which I called attention. I said not a captain 

 had been called as a witness — and I am willing to treat this man as a captain — for the 

 purpose of contradicting the British witnesses. Our witnesses swear that the Americans 

 come down and get an immense quantity of fish there, to the value of 1,000,000 dollars 

 yearly. This man (Londrigan) con'es down and partly bears out that evidence. He 

 comes down to tell you how many herring the captain of the vessel bought and paid for. 



