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it would be impossible for us to trawl unless we were allowed to shoot the trawl under the lee of the land close inshore and tow out into the deep water, as this place is so exposed to the weather. The sea is sometimes so very rough that it would be impossible and not safe to attempt to shoot the trawl into the deep water where we get the fish. Any questions I may be asked lam willing to answer to the best of my knowledge. Mr. Sullivan instructed me at all times where possible to give the linemen bait to enable them to catch line fish. I have done so on every occasion possible, and lam sure that without the bait the men would not have been able to catch the few they did. We have had very good catches. I have seen it worse than this in 1876, when all the seiners hung their nets and went quarrying. Fish are scarce every winter from a fortnight in August to about the 28th of September. The trawling is not injurious to the fishermen. They go out on the same grounds, or near about there, and in another month or so they will be out on the ground where we are now. We get soles, tarakihi, moki, and kingfish. They get groper, ling, and barracouta. We are getting a different class of fish altogether from what they are getting. It is like this :if it is blowing hard from the south-west we " shoot " perhaps in 16 fathoms and tow out into 25 fathoms, say about twelve miles off, and come home again. That is our day's work. I have not set a net under the three-mile limit for the last six weeks. I was trawling in shallow water last year in Papanui Bay. All the tides sweep down there. We got ten to fourteen dozen soles. It paid us better to trawl there. You can go into Blueskin Bay in February or March and get from fifty to sixty dozen soles in a haul. I do not think the supply of flounders is going down. They were very scarce in 1876. The fishermen do not altogether depend upon fishing ; they turn their hands to other things. I have been fishing for the past twenty-eight years, and if Ido not know what is wanted nobody else does. Mr. Fbancis Hewitt, Mate of S. Trawler " Napier." I have been twenty-nine years fish-curing and fishing, nineteen years of that time curing I have had no experience in trawling before. I can remember one year in particular, about twentyseven or twenty-eight years ago, when fish was as scarce as now. I was fishing at the time. Seine fish and outside fish were very scarce indeed. We were catching leather-jackets and skinning them and sending them to town and selling them to the shops. My experience of the winter time here is that flat fish—flounders—always go off, and then the only thing that the seine-men have to live upon is red-cod. Five years ago we were catching nothing but red-cod, and it was owing to that that Mr. Sullivan took up the trawling business. I think the trawlers have done more good than harm in supplying the market with fish. It cannot decrease the supply of any kind of fish. Tarakihi they never get in the boats, and kingfish they very seldom catch. They catch altogether different kinds. Q. Do you think that the small boats are capable of supplying the market even in the summer time ?—A. No, no. With certain kinds perhaps. In winter the shops would have to be shut up. We have brought in a considerable variety of fish. Trawling is a boon to the country. I say that spite is the cause of all this. I have cured fish and have had to import fresh frozen fish from Australia in the winter time before the trawlers were here. I have also got it from Napier and cured it here. I have imported barracouta even from Melbourne. Mr. W. Anderson, Mate of "Express." I have been in the country for twelve years. During most of the time I have been working for Mr. Sullivan and the Otago Trawling Company. I served an apprenticeship for seven years in Yorkshire, and I produce my indentures. I have had considerable experience in seine, trawl, and line fishing,T,but principally on the trawl. I have seen great differences in the supplies, because of the varying seasons and the conditions of the weather. Some seasons fish are much more plentiful in deep water, and some seasons they are much more plentiful in shallow water. The fish caught by the trawlers, with very few exceptions, are quite different from those caught by the seine and line men. I consider that, as this coast is very rough and the weather boisterous, it is principally on this account that the smaller boats are unable to go out, as it is unsafe, whereas the trawlers, being the largest in New Zealand, are out fishing days and days in weather in which it would be impossible for the small boats to live. I do not think the conditions here are the same as those at Home, and therefore it is not necessary to have a threemile limit, as the limit at Home is mostly to protect the long-line fishermen. To fish close inshore, unless we are unable to " shoot " within a three-mile limit under the lee of the land, would be impossible in very bad weather. lam mate of the trawler " Express," and have been fishing at Lyttelton, Napier, and here. I feel sure that if this limit is made to apply to the whole of New Zealand the trawling industry would not last long, and my calling would be at an end. Undoubtedly the trawlers have considerably increased the supply of fish, and had it not been for the trawlers this city and the inland towns would this season have been very badly off for fish. I shall be very glad to answer any questions at any time, and be pleased to give you any information of this industry, as I consider myself an expert, for I can make and mend nets and take charge of any vessel. When I was on the " Napier" we went seven to nine miles near the shore in from 12 to 14 fathoms, and we were getting good hauls of fish. I was brought up on the water, sir. The conditions around here are different to those at Home. We never catch fish in our trawl that is not fit to go to the market for sale. The width of the mesh of our net is from 3 in. to in., 3 in. at the cod end. It does not matter what sized mesh the net is. Trawling is doing no harm. Q. What proportion of small immature fish are taken up in the trawler of the "Express"?— A. I have never seen any to speak of as long as I have been here. If we get fifty or sixty dozen soles—good saleable soles—we will throw perhaps not a dozen overboard. Mr. William Galvin, Fishmonger. I have been fifteen years in the fish trade. Sometimes it fluctuated at different seasons. This season has been the worst for six years. I remember a very bad season six years ago, in the winter. The supply is never so plentiful in winter. I buy my fish at the public market. I think that the boats are not capable of supplying the Dunedin market in the winter time. In the