The abolition of prohibition sounded the end of this prosperity. The 

 blow was the harder because at this time Saint-Pierre had lost all traffic 

 in the products of the metropolitan fishery, with the advantages which re- 

 sulted in all branches of local business. Important works of improvement 

 of the port facilities, which had been undertaken at the time of great pros- 

 perity were, nevertheless, continued, with the aid of the government, with 

 the happy result of giving the colony the installations it would eventually 

 need for future activities in better times. 



The local fishery had always subsisted after the extinction of the two- 

 masted vessels, with a modernized drying of its products. It employed 

 about 200 wherries and some dories. But, if the wherries are half as nu- 

 merous as formerly, their total yield is found considerably augmented by 

 the fact that they are, actually, all supplied with motors of American manu- 

 facture, of from 3 to 5 horsepower. The use of a motor gains precious 

 time for these boats in getting to the fishing places, sometimes 10 to 12 

 miles from the point of departure. It permits them to make many more trips. 



In the absence of handling the metropolitan catch, the products of the 

 coastal fishery have permitted the colony to maintain a modest movement 

 of exports to France and to the West Indies. 



The last years preceding the second world war marked an attempt to 

 restore the colonial fishery. From 1937 to 1939, the port of Saint-Pierre 

 outfitted a trawler of 488 tons which landed its catch many times in the 

 course of the season. In 1939, it also outfitted two two-masted vessels 

 with motors which practiced the line trawl fishery as carried out by the 

 Canadian and American fishermen. 



One cannot actually predict the future of the islands of Saint-Pierre 

 and Miquelon. However, it is not forbidden to suppose that this old colony, 

 which depends always on the fishery, can, with some new evolution in tech- 

 nique and economy in the conditions of exploitation of this industry, regain 

 at a period more or less distant, its position as a great center of prepara- 

 tion and distribution of the products of the enormous reserve of fish on the 

 banks of Newfoundland. 



147 



1581S 



