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proselytes, we hope, from every county in the State, thus bringing an influence tuo 
_bear upon members of the legislature, Public sentiment is the natural power by 
which we must move in effecting a revolution of this kind. 
While the people of our state generally sympathize with the efforts of the 
Commission in the conduct of its work, and give us much encouragement, there 
are, in our state as well as in every community, some individuals who think that 
the state ought not to contribute to this work because, as they insist, no one but 
the person immediately interested in the fishing industry reaps a benefit. It is 
gratifying to know that but few men look at the question in this narrow way. 
With such men as these we use the argument that any industry which brings 
into the state a large amount of moneyeach year contributes to the general 
prosperity, as the money so realized is disseminated through the ordinary chan- 
nels of trade, and redounds to the advantage of everybody ; we might as well say 
that the State of Michigan had no business to have originally invested more than 
eight hundred thousand acres of the public domain in the construction of the ship 
canal at Sault Ste. Marie. That it would be equally true to say of this enter- 
prise that the people of the state are not interested in it, when reflection would 
show that the vast mining industries of the upper peninsula of Michigan, which 
owe their great value to this improvement, could only have been made produc- 
tive by this outlay, and that no one would have the hardihood to gainsay the fact 
that the money which continually flows into Michigan in exchange for this 
_ mineral wealth, does not benefit the people at large. 
And now let me say a word with regard to the great Lake of Ontario, which 
lies at the door of New York and the Province of Ontario, and in which you should 
have a keen and lasting interest. It is a matter of regret that New York and 
the Province of Ontario should have been so derelict in their duty as to permit 
this great lake with its whitefish industry, to have fallen into absolute decay 
without raising a hand to arrest it. There was a time, within my own personal 
remembrance, when these waters were so productive that in the fall of the year 
the product of the fisheries along the New York line were distributed for miles 
inland from its shores to the farming community of Northern New York. But 
that time has long passed, and the nets of the fishermen have been withdrawn from 
these waters and the industry has been deserted as one which is no longer 
profitable. You have here at your doors a great lake which nature has 
provided with an ample store of natural food of commercial fishes, and all 
that it lacks is an adequate restocking at the hands of the State. There never 
was a water better fitted to be stocked by those who are interested in artificial 
propagation than Lake Ontario. You have it in your power here to demonstrate 
beyond question, the advantages of artificial propagation and restocking. The 
conditions of this lake are such that with the practical abandonment of the fishing 
industry you are now at liberty to secure, without opposition from fishermen, pro- 
per and just restrictive laws with which to protect the tish if you should restock the 
lake. ‘The amount of outlay necessary to establish proper stations upon this lake 
for the hatching and distribut:on of fry, would be but a mere bagatelle to such 
wealthy States and Provinces as lie upon its borders. The results of such a re- 
stocking, if intelligently conducted, will in the years to come make the fisheries 
of this lake a source of great revenue to the State. . 
While I do not decry the attempt on the part of the general government to 
contribute its share of work to this end—on the contrary, 1 welcome it—yet I say 
that the efforts of all interested, cannot be too thoroughly devoted to this object. 
I speak of the State and the Province engaging in this work for the simple reason 
that they are more directiy interested in this matter than anyone else can be, and 
