PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

minister of marine and fisheries is the head of the department devoting his special atten- tion to these public services.

Two years before confederation there were 1,646 fishermen, 1,183 fishing boats and 176 fishing establishments in this Island. In 1901 there were 4,653 fishermen in boats, 111 on vessels, 7,286 hands employed, in- cluding canners, 21 fishing vessels, 2,586 boats, 7 seines, 5,287 Gill nets, 133 pound and trap nets, 222 scoop and bag nets, 50 hoop and fyke nets, 7,724 trawls and weirs, etc., 4,978 handlines, 283,916 lobster traps and 227 lobster canneries. The value of fishery products has varied in 1873, being $217, 595 and increasing to highwater mark, $1,955,290, in 1881, principally owing to large catches of lobster and mackerel (which amounted to over $1,300,000 the year before), gradually decreasing to less than half in 1889 and continuing at about a million dollars a year since that time.

There are immense possibilities for the furtherance of the fisheries. The fishermen of Nova Scotia. with a population only a little over four times that of our Island, secure over seven million dollars’ worth

I73

during the year. Let us double the results. Energy will do it. Add to our Island wealth and our population. By cordial and honest co—operation vessels or small steamers could be provided and we should not only overtake ' the fishermen of our neighboring province but be ambitious to lead. The importance and value of our fisheries cannot be over- estimated.

Too much praise cannot be given not only to the fishermen themselves who often risk their lives in prosecuting this industry but also to the enterprising men such as Hall Myrick McFadyen Tidmarsh, Longworth & Company, Walter Matheson, John McLean & Company, R. N. Cox, A. A. McDonald Brothers, Daniel Davies, John Cairns, R. T. Holman, John Agnew, the late R. A. Clark Prowse and Clow, McEwen & Howlan, For- rest & Company, Perry McNeil] and Cam- pion, whose names go down in history who have added to the national wealth by risking their means and devoting the energy of their lives to help bring about a fulfillment of the motto on one side of the old coppers for- merly in use in the colony, with a codfish in the center, “Success to the Fisheries.”

FREEMASONRY.

BY R. MCNEIL, 831) DEGREE.

The history of Freemasonry is as broad as the universe; its membership are found in every clime. The origin of Freemasonry is veiled in the mists of antiquity, but still there is sufficient evidence that our brother- hood is the most ancient and most honor- able society in the world. The principles in- culcated are a beautiful system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.

The aims and objects of this society have often been misrepresented. Masonry is a march and a struggle toward the light. For the individual as well as for the nation, light is virtue, manliness, intelligence, liberty. Tyr- anny over the soul or body is darkness. The freest people, like the freest man, is always in danger of relapsing into servitude. The magnificent tyrants of the past are but the