15 



tration has not been in the best interests 

 of Cauadians. It is ail th3 greater griev- , 

 auce, because it is we who grow the tish that 

 the Americans catch. My friend from South 

 Essex (Mr. Allan) has shown the very large 

 amount of fish taken by the American people 

 and sold at Sandusky and other American 

 towns. If this enormous quantity of lish ' 

 is taken on the American side, it is largely 

 because the people of Canada have been 

 forced to protect the fish for the benefit of 

 the American people. When we have the 

 spawning grounds, and the feeding grounds 

 and all the advantages, why should we not 

 have our fair proportion of the fish. May I 

 read, and that is all I will say on the sub- 

 ject, the following petition :— j 



To the Honourable the House of Commons of the 

 Dominion of Canada, in Parliament assembled : 

 The petition of the council of the township of 

 Sandwich East, in the county of Essex, in the 

 province of Ontario, humbly showeth : That the 

 fishing interests of the province of Ontario are 

 very valuable ; that they belong to the people ,1 

 that they should be administered in the best in- , 

 terests of the people ; that in this province the \ 

 most valuable fisheries are contained in the inter- ; 

 national waters which are common to the fisher- ; 

 men of Ontario and the United States ; that in j 

 international waters the American fishermen have , 

 free fishing, are not restricted in the number or ■ 

 description of nets, and have practically no close 

 season, while in Ontario our fishermen must ob- ; 

 tain a license to fish, which places them under j 

 the control of the department, when applications : 

 may be discriminated against ; when granted, a ; 

 high license is exacted ; they are restricted in , 

 the number and description of nets, locations for | 

 fishing, a weekly close season impossible to ob- j 

 serve by lake fishermen, various close seasons for ^ 

 different kinds of fish, and a general close season < 

 for the month of November ; to such an extent j 

 is over-protection carried that in Canada we have ' 

 close seasons for mullets, suckers, sturgeon and j 

 herring,' which live largely upon the eggs of other \ 

 kinJs of fishes. Results — the American catch in | 

 the great lakes in three years, 1880-85 and 1889 — 

 the only years in which we have official reports — 

 the American catch is : 1880, 68,742,000 pounds ; 

 1885, 99,842,076 pounds ; 1889, 117,085,568 pounds ; 



total in three years, 285,669,644 pounds. Cana- 

 dian catch in all the great lakes and in lakes in 

 Ontario, same years, was : 18S0, 11,473,000 

 pounds ; 1885, 27,378,180 pounds ; 1889, 32,169.032 

 pounds ; total in three years. 71.020,212 pounds. 

 The Americans employed in 1889 fishing in the 

 great lakes 6,896 men, whose average catch was 

 16,977 pounds of fish. The Canadians employed 

 in the great lakes in the same year were 3,528 

 men, whose average catch was 9,118 'pounds of 

 fish. A comparison of the catch of fish in Lake 

 Erie for the years 1880, 1885, 1889.— The American 

 catch was 144.217,149 pounds, of which 10,189,427 

 were whitefish. The Canadian catch in Lake 

 Erie during the same years was 18,928,252 pounds, 

 of which 697,893 pounds were whitefish. The 

 Americans employed 2,181 fishermen on Lake Erie 

 in 1889, whose average catch was 29,134 pounds. 

 The Canadian employed 465 men in Lake Erie 

 fisheries during the same year, who*e average 

 catch was 20,700 pounds. The value of the Ameri- 

 can cat^h in the great lakes in 1889 was |6,743,- 

 359.19 ; the value of the Canadian catch in the 

 great lakes in the same year was $1,963,122.80 ; 

 difference in favour of the Americans of $4,780,- 

 236.39. The value of the American catch in Lake 

 Erie in 1889 was $3,248,361.66 ; the value of the 

 Canadian catch in Lake Erie in the same year 

 was $487,604.47 ; in favour of the Americans, $2,- 

 760,757.19. 



The prices of the various kinds of fish have 

 been reckoned at the prices used by the MinJster 

 of Fisheries of Canada in valuing the fish caught 

 in Ontario in 1889. 



Under similar regulations there is no apparent 

 reason why as many Canadians should not be en- 

 gaged in the fishing industry as Americans, or 

 that the catch on their side should not be as 

 large as by American fishermen. 



Your petitioners, therefore, pray that Canadian 

 fishermen be placed under the same system of 

 free fishing as the American fishermen fishing in 

 waters that are common to both, and that tho 

 fishermen of Lake St. Clair and Detroit River be 

 granted permission to fish for whitefish in the 

 month of November, the only month of the year 

 that they are to be found in said waters. 



And your petitioners will ever pray. 



That is the case, so far as we ran lay it 

 before you in a condensed form. I thank the 

 House for the hearing they have given me. 



