If the amount caught per head of the total population is made the
standard of comparison, then the Canadian catch is more than five times
greater than the Britishers', and more than ten times greater than the
Yankees'. And if, still keeping to this standard, the comparison is
made between totals caught in strictly territorial waters, Canada
surpasses both Britishers and Yankees, put together, ten times over.
There are nearly 120,000 fishermen in Canada and Newfoundland. The
proportion in Newfoundland is, of course, by far the higher of the two.
About 60,000 people are engaged in handling fish ashore, and many
thousands more are concerned in trading with fish products. One way
and another, the livelihood of at least one Canadian in every fifteen,
and one Newfoundlander in every two, is entirely dependent {158} on
fishing. Statistics are apt to become bewildering unless carefully
marshalled in tabular form. But one or two items might be added.
There is a fishing craft of some kind, however small most of them are,
to every single family in Newfoundland, a proportion immeasurably
higher than in any other country in the world. But even more
astonishing is the statistical fact that the fishermen of all nations
in Newfoundland waters catch each year nearly 1000 cod-fish for every
single individual person there is in the whole population of the
island. After this, numbers seem rather to weaken than strengthen the
argument. But it is worth mentioning that there are nearly 80,000
local fishing boats of all sorts actually counted by the governments of
Canada and Newfoundland, from little rowboats up to full-powered
steamers of considerable tonnage; that nearly a quarter of the whole
number in 1913 already had gasoline or other motors; that the total
length of all the Canadian and Newfoundland coastlines is nearly equal
to that of the equator; that, excluding all parts of the Great Lakes
within the American sphere of influence, the fresh-water fishing area
of Canada exceeds the total area of the British Isles by more than
100,000 square miles; and, finally, that the {159} mere increase of
value in the fisheries of the single province of British Columbia,
within a single year, has exceeded the value of the total catch
marketed in several of the smaller states of Europe and America.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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