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at Montreal to be placed in the service of fruit. This is a very difficult thing to do 

 ■■ — a very difficult thing, from the steamship point of view. Last year, 1889, I think 

 we shipped only 140,000 or 150,000 barrels of fruit out of Montreal, while the pre- 

 vious year we shipped 2fi0,000 barre.s. 



Mr. Allan. — The rest went by New York. 



Mr. Watt. — Not at all. It was not in the country to ship ; you had not the 

 fruit to" ship this season — that is perfectly well known. The New York shipments 

 are precisely to the same effect. I only give these facts to show'that the steamship 

 people have to take a wider view than the fruit people, the cheese people or the 

 flour people. They have to formulate their rates to all classes of traffic, and they 

 have to assimilate their space to all classes of traffic, and do their best with this 

 multiplicity of business that comes to accommodate the freight. In the autumn it 

 is especially difficult. The freight, so far as material is concerned, is confined to two 

 months, during the time during which the harvest crop moves, and the dealers in 

 every special expect just the same service as the freight which has been giving the 

 service during the whole season ; so we have to cut down our best customers, in a 

 certain sense and disappoint and shove them out in order to make a service for that 

 two months' business. We want to encourage all the business we can in the St. 

 Lawrence of this varied character, because if one class of business fails another will 

 keep up. We want to assimilate the fruit, just as cheese, flour or other products of 

 the countiy. I do not think I need answer the complaints made by Mr. Allan, as 

 they are matters of detail that can be discussed by the parties. I believe it is true 

 that the railway companies prefer giving bills of lading at shippers' risk ; but we 

 receive fruit on the steamships just the same as other things. We count the pack- 

 ages and give receipts by the package. So far as the steamship companies are- 

 concerned, I think I may say we will do our best to serve the interest of fruit 

 growers. 



Mr. BucKE. — What is the difference between the freight on a barrel of flour and 

 a barrel of apples ? — A. I do not think we have carried flour in ban els for flve or 

 six years : but the prices in October would be about the same. You might suppose 

 that the apples would be cheaper, but they occupj"- the same space. I think we 

 would carry it no cheaper. I do not think we would ask any less, unless there were 

 a great many barrels of apples and no flour. Broadly speaking, I should say the 

 freight was the same. 



Mr. Torrance. — Mr. Allan — I believe that is his name, although I have nt,t 

 the pleasure of his acquaintance — has made some statements which I call in 

 question. He says he visited Montreal, I suppose in the interests of the Pruit 

 Growers' Association, and had gone on board a steamer of one of the lines. That 

 was all right. He did not call on me. I had not the pleasure of a visit from him.- 

 As the representative of the Dominion Line, I should have been only too glad to 

 have gone on board one of our ships and shown him the accommodation ; but he 

 evidently did not think it worth his while. I leave it for this meeting to say if his 

 business was in the general interest, and if he did the right thing in thus acting. He 

 made some strong statements about the shipment of fruit. Did he ever ship a barrel 

 of apples ? The bills for a great many thousand barrels of apples have passed 

 through my hands, and I have never seen his name. Does he ship any ? 



Mr. MoD. Allan — I think the fruit growers of Ontario will answer that. 



3fr. WooLERTON — He is oneof our largest shippers. 



Mr. Torrance — That is news to me. He made a statement about the damage 

 from boilers. Was he ever on board a vessel, and has he ever seen where the 

 boilers are ? I think if he had taken the pains to look into that question he would 

 have seen that the chance of damage from that is very slight indeed. Then he made 

 another statement about the place ^where cattle are kept, and the chance of damage 

 there was from smell. Well, I simply want to say, as far as regards the Dominion 

 Line, we never make a practice of putting apples where we put cattle. Then about 

 the handling of apples in Montreal, he gave the impression that they were handled 

 better by one company than another. I would simply state the handling is the 



