TECHNICAL EDUCATION FOR FISHERMEN 35 



" That is a bulletin by Dr. Robertson, on ' How to Keep Poultry in 

 the Best Way for Profit.' It has been printed by many hundreds of 

 thousands of copi6s and sent all over Russia. That happened many 

 years ago and, to-day, Russia sends to England more poultry than any 

 other country and is beginning to exceed Denmark in the egg trade. 

 Russia grows poultry as it is described in Dr. Robertson's bulletins 

 with plenty of pictures." I tell you that because I think the fisherman is 

 not less susceptible of instruction and improvement than the moujik 

 of Russia. 



Mr. CowiE : In connection with what Mr. Feilding said about the 

 fishermen, I take it he referred to the fishermen on the Great lakes. 

 There they are possibly an ignorant class of people. But I rather take 

 exception to that ■yjvhen speaking of some of the fishermen around the 

 shores of Nova Scotia. It would be difficult to find any working class 

 in any part of Canada that has more intelligence than some of our 

 fishermen in that province. On the bay of Fundy there is a com- 

 munity of 2,000 or 3,000 people. They have splendid homes, and own 

 twenty or thirty motor cars. Men who reach that stage of comfort 

 with regard to living and enjoyment of life, have fairly well mastered 

 their profession. I simply mention that fact as showing that our sea 

 fishermen, at least, cannot be classed as ignorant or uneducated. For 

 instance, you cannot tell some of the lobster fishermen very much 

 about the lobster. They know how to handle it, and I, for one, would 

 not undertake to tell them anything about the lobster that I supposed 

 they did not know. 



Mr. Feii-ding: My remarks only apply to certain stations on our 

 lesser lakes. I would not class within the category of ignorant men 

 the fishermen of a place like Port Stanley or Port Maitland. I mean 

 away in the backwoods of Ontario. 



Mr. LefurgEy: While the remarks of Mr. Cowie may apply to 

 some places in Nova Scotia, I think that in Prince Edward Island, 

 especially where they can only fish during a short season, it requires a 

 longer period for these people to get motor cars, particularly in the 

 Island, where they are opposed to motors. There is a great deal of 

 necessity for education and the fisherman is a hard man to approach 

 and educate. Distribution of pamphlets is perhaps the most effective 

 way of reaching him. I think that it is absolutely necessary that we 

 should have some further instruction to fishermen; that we should 

 have some schools to which we could send a certain number of fisher- 

 men from the different localities who would thus become interested 



