Prince counties. The total catch last season was 12,000 bbls. salted herring, besides 80,000 lbs. which were disposed of fresh or smoked, and many thousands of barrels which were used for bait. Mackerel The catch of mackerel last year amounted to 1,338 bbls. salted, which realized $15 per bbl., and 40,400 lbs. fresh, which were disposed of at 12 cents per pound. Experience tends to show that on whatever coast lobster fishing is vigorously carried on, mackerel become correspondingly scarce. The smelt fishing industry in this Province is in a thriving Smelts condition. Smelt nets to the number of 1,145, valued at $10,115, were in use last season, and the catch amounted to 857,550 lbs., which realized $51,453. These fish were, for the most part, shipped in a frozen state to either Boston or New York. Profitable as this industry is at the present time, it is unreasonable to expect it to continue so for any great number of years unless some measures are adopted to ensure the returning to the water, while they are yet alive, of all the undersized fish taken in the bag-nets. When a big haul is made, it frequently happens that all the small fish are dead before the culling of the take is completed, and the unsaleable fish are shovelled back into the water. Alewives The alewives, or gaspereaux fishery, is by no means as vigorously prosecuted as it might be, the catch last year amounting to only 500 bbls., which sold at the rate of $4 per barrel. The inland waters of this Province actually teem with these fish at certain seasons of the year. Lobsters Crustacea Prince Edward Island is particularly adapted to the industry of lobster fishing. Lobsters can be found everywhere along the coasts of the Island, and the coast line is indented with innumerable small bays and creeks which form good harbours for the boats engaged in this industry. The industry is of such great importance that it should not be allowed to die out for the want of proper conservation. There are in the Province, at the present time, 187 canneries, valued at $145,818, in which 2,429 men are employed. To supply these canneries 350,505 traps, valued at $240,474, were set out last season. The pack for the season amounted to 2,255,898 lbs., and, in addition, 1,850 cwt. were disposed of fresh in the shell. The lobsters packed, however, were, for the most part, very small in size. The practice of canning such very small lobsters, if permitted to continue, must of necessity prove fatal to the lobster packing industry. If this industry is to be perpetuated, all the traps used must be fashioned so as to prevent the small lobsters from being caught. The fishermen are usually indifferent as to what becomes of the small lobsters taken in the traps, as they are very destructive to the bait. A size limit never saved the lives of many lobsters; traps must be so formed that either the small lobsters cannot enter them, or else be made sufficiently open so that the small lobsters cannot be retained therein. The present system of killing so many small lobsters to fill a single can, when, in one year, those same lobsters would fill three or four cans, is detrimental alike to the interests of the packers, the fishermen and the industry. The Dominion Government is operating two lobster hatcheries on the Island: one at the entrance of Charlottetown harbour, and the other at Georgetown. These two hatcheries cost $6,453 last year for maintenance, but from them 148,000,000 young lobsters were returned to the waters from which the eggs were taken. Under the former system all these lobsters would have been lost. This is doing much to perpetuate the industry, but if these small lobsters are allowed to be killed before they arrive at maturity, the results will be largely nullified. Oysters That the quality of the Prince Edward Island oyster is excellent is universally acknowledged; the Malpeque oysters which grow on the natural beds in Malpeque bay are especially noted and prized throughout the continent. In the past, the natural, oyster beds have been constantly fished, regardless of seasons or regulations, and, as a natural consequence, they have become rapidly depleted, some beds being entirely exhausted and others only yielding pecks where thirty years ago they yielded barrels. The output from the natural beds last year amounted to 13,519 bbls., which sold on an average at $7 per barrel. There are, at the present time, about 4,300 acres of producing natural oyster beds in Prince Edward Island, but this is only a fraction of the area that could be made productive if artificial oyster culture were carried on as it is in the United States and in Europe. This would require the expenditure of considerable capital and industry, but that it would be a very profitable expenditure is beyond cavil, as the conditions are extremely favourable for oyster culture on practically the whole coast of the Island. Quahaugs Last season 12,378 bags of quahaugs were taken, and they were sold for $24,756. This was a slight increase over the catch of the previous year. The increase was due to the fact that a much larger number of men were engaged in the fishery, the catch per man being far short of that of the previous year. At the rapid rate of depletion of the quahaug beds, the time cannot be far distant when all quahaug fishing in this Province will be at an end. Clams Although clams are very plentiful and of a good size, as well as of a splendid quality, but little attention is paid to them, the total output last year being only 410 bbls., which sold for $4 per barrel, and 300 cases of canned clams, which brought $4 per case. The supply appears to be almost inexhaustible. License Every lobster packer and all persons engaged in fishing for quahaugs, oysters or smelts, as well as all non-residents angling for trout, are required to take out licenses before they commence fishing. For these the following fees are required: Lobster packers: $5 for first hundred cases packed and $2 for each succeeding hundred cases. Quahaug fishermen: $1 each. Oyster fishermen: 50 cents each man. Smelt fishermen using gill-nets: One cent for every fathom of net used. Non-residents angling for trout: Foreigners $5, British subjects $2. Open Quahaugs: From May 1st to June 30th and Sept. 1st to Sept. 30th. Oysters: From October 1st until the ice forms over the rivers. Smelts: With gill-nets, from Oct. 15th to Feb. 15th. Smelts: With bag-nets, from Dec. 1st to Feb. 15th. Lobsters: Queens and Kings counties, April 26th to July 10th. Part of Prince County, from May 25th to August 10th. Trout: From April 1st to September 30th. See sec. 26 of the Act. The The warden system, as at the present time sustained by the Dominion Government for the conservation of the System fisheries of the Province, costs that Government about $10,000 a year. The staff of fishery officers consists of an inspector, four overseers and about seventy wardens. This system, in so far as the fisheries of Prince Edward Island are concerned, has outlived its usefulness and should be replaced by one that is more efficient. The amount of money being now annually expended in supporting the warden system, if judiciously used, would be sufficient to effectually put a stop to all fishing at illegal seasons and by unlawful means. A clerk in the fishery office to keep the statistics and receive information, together with a force of six detectives under the supervision of a strenuous officer, similar to the Mounted Police of the North West, could easily be supported by the sum now expended; and their efforts, if judiciously directed, would not only do the work that the wardens have failed to do, but would cause Prince Edward Island to become the ideal summer resort for foreign anglers. FISHERIES OF MANITOBA On March 16, 1909, a Commission was appointed by the Dominion Government to investigate the fisheries of Manitoba. Complaints had been made that the existing regulations applying to the Western Provinces, were out of date and unsuited to present conditions. These regulations, in fact, applied to all of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the North West Territories, and one of the important tasks of the Commission was to recommend that a separate set of regulations should be put in force, applying only to Manitoba and Keewatin waters. The Commission, as finally constituted, consisted of Prof. E. E. Prince, chairman, J. B. Hugg, and D. F. Reid. The principal recommendations made are here quoted without any opinion being ventured as to their justness or accuracy. In their report the Commissioners state that: Licensing "The one marked abuse in connection with the regulations which have for over twenty years been in force, has been that, while a distinction was drawn between commercial licenses and domestic licenses, there actually existed no such distinction in practice. Domestic licenses have been constantly used for commercial purposes, and it has been a matter of common criticism that the idea of the domestic license has never been carried out at all. In our present recommendations we meet this difficulty by abolishing the commercial and domestic license and by providing for fishing licenses only, apart from the settler's permit for fishing for his own use. "It has appeared to us necessary to provide for only one type of fishing license, namely, the license to be used by the genuine fisherman, one license for summer fishing and another license for winter fishing and, instead of the domestic license to be used for food purposes, it has appeared to us that the issue of a settler's permit would amply suffice. Under this permit any settler or Indian can fish at any time for his own domestic needs. "Inasmuch as tugs are absolutely necessary on the lakes, we have provided for a special tug license, which will enable these vessels to do limited fishing, otherwise there was the possibility that steam tugs would not be operated in towing boats of the fishermen, an important accommodation, unless such tugs had some fishing privilege accorded them. As a matter of fact, this commission has abolished the Commercial Company's license altogether, the object being to remove all control by commercial companies or combines, and to place the fisheries, as far as possible, in the hands of the bona fide fishermen." Heretofore the method of issuing licenses has been exceedingly cumbersome, and has led to great laxity in the enforcement of the fishery regulations. Concerning this matter, the Commissioners reported as follows: "Apart from the question of insufficient supervision and control of fishery operations, there is one point of considerable importance respecting the matter of issuing licenses which we think has had a good deal to do with the laxity on the part of the fishermen and the fishing firms in the observance of the regulations. The method of issuing licenses requires to be greatly improved. We find that it is the rule for all licenses to be made out and issued by the department in Ottawa. The method is as follows:-Applications are sent in by the fishermen to the Inspector of Fisheries in the province, who enters them on official forms and forwards them to Ottawa with his remarks and recommendations and with the requisite fee. For effective supervision of the fishing operations, the license should be issued immediately, so that it may be in the hands of the fisherman before he begins to fish. But this we find is never done, and, under the present cumbersome and roundabout system, the fisherman, as a rule, goes to the fishing grounds, carries on his fishing operations for several months, and, on his return from the fishing grounds, may then possibly receive his license, though we have found that as long a period as five or six months may elapse after the fishing is all over, before his license reaches him. Thus, his license which is his authority for commencing to fish and for carrying on fishery operations, is never in his possession until long after the fishing is completed. This grossly lax method has a tendency to render the license, and the conditions attached to it, unimportant in the eyes of the fisherman. He goes to the fishingground before he has received his license, and not knowing whether he will receive a license at all. He has no means of becoming acquainted with the fishery regulations which are printed on the back of the license, and there is no doubt that a large number of the fishermen never see the conditions of the license until long after the fishing is started. The present system calls for a radical change, but, in addition to the serious laxity arising from the non-issue of the licenses, there is an absolute necessity for the reorganization or for the modification of the official fishery staff in the province if any effective improvement in the observance and enforcement of the law is to be accomplished." Supply of For many years, there have been constant complaints that Manitoba waters were being over-fished, and that there was real danger that the whitefish industry, especially, was being seriously affected. Concerning these reports the Fisheries Commissioners speak as follows: "The Commission, in reviewing the reports and records of the Manitoba fisheries for over thirty years, has been struck by the continual recurrence of the complaint that the lake Winnipeg and Manitoba waters were being over-fished, and that the total depletion of the fisheries was threatened. These fears have happily never been realized, and it is a proof of the wonderful productivity of lake Winnipeg and the Manitoba waters that, in spite of the abuses to which we have referred, and in spite of the over-fishing, the yield of fish has |