26 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



tugs in CoUingwood. If that is true somebody must be making more 

 than they have any right to make out of the commodity. The class of 

 fish he deals with is largely the so-called lake trout and whitefish. We 

 never get pickerel as he cannot put them on the market in good condi- 

 tion. He purchases the stock from the tug at the usual market price at 

 CoUingwood, which is somewhere around five to eight cents according 

 to the season and quality of the fish. I have never seen it in Barrie 

 under twenty cents a pound. It is nearer twenty-five cents a pound, 

 which appears to be an unreasonably high price for a commodity that is 

 advertised as being a cheap food. I do not know whether Mr. Byrne 

 could explain who receives that profit. Is it the distributor or the 

 express company, or who is it? 



Mr. Lefurgey : It is also an unsatisfactory method of retailing the 

 fish, taking it around in that way. 



Mr. Byrne : I am a wholesale dealer and if I could make anything 

 like the profit that this buyer in Barrie makes I should not be a whole- 

 sale dealer, I should be a retired merchant — long ago. The trouble I 

 touched on in my paper is that, when you get an article of food for 

 which there is not a large demand and towards which the public show 

 a certain apathy, you will find that the man handling it makes out that 

 it is a lot of trouble to handle it, that he runs a risk of loss on it and 

 that he, therefore, has to put the price up. The man in this case is 

 charging twenty cents for what cost him from five cents to eight cents. 

 If it is shipped by express, then the retailer is getting an exorbitant 

 profit. The same condition exists in many centres; the retail dealer, 

 partly because he has not a big trade in fish, assumes that he is entitled 

 to big profit and charges too much for it. Fruit is sold throughout 

 Canada at lower prices than it was sold for years ago. It is cheaper 

 because of greater demand, larger consumption, greater production. 

 Then, in the same way, in the fish business, if we get a larger consump- 

 tion, it will "bring down the price. 



I have been endeavouring to persuade the Government to start a 

 campaign to educate the public respecting the value of fish as food. 

 If that were carried on it would remove a lot of prejudice. This pre- 

 judice, some of it well founded, arises because people do not get fish 

 in good condition, and it tends to decrease the demand. If we can 

 get a campaign of advertising what will be the result ? What did it do 

 for the Canadian apples last year ? What is it doing for the Canadian 

 farmer this year? There is a greater field in the case of fish and, if 

 we could induce the Government to undertake such a campaign, it 

 would be a great thing both for the fish industry and for the public. 



