444 PAST AND PRESENT OF business on his own account at Souris , at first in his own name, hut since 1900 as A. Currie & Company. He carries a full and well selected line of general merchandise and has enjoyed a large and steadily in¬ creasing business. He has also been engaged to some extent in the packing of boneless hake and codfish, putting out about one thousand boxes per year, and in 1899 at the Jamaica Exhibition he received the silver medal for excellence in these delicacies. Mr. Currie is also a stockholder in the Souris Bait Freezer Company, which was organ¬ ized in 1901. Mr. Currie has been active in politics for many years, is a member of the Liberal party and during the last two years has been president of the Kings County Liberal Association. He is a jus¬ tice of the peace and a magistrate of Kings county, having been appointed in 1890. In 1898 Mr. Currie was made a member of the lobster commission appointed by the Domin¬ ion Government for the maritime provinces. This commission made their report the same year at Ottawa, and on their statement was based the present lobster fishing laws. Mr. Currie was the only member of the commis¬ sion who originally held out against the size limit and succeeded in carrying his point. Had the limit been adopted, it would have killed the lobster fishing industry on the Gulf of St. Lawrence . Owing to the failure of the hay crop in 1904 it became necessary to distribute government hay throughout Kings county and in 1905 Mr. Currie was the agent in charge of this distribution for that county. He is secretary of the Souris Board of Trade and has taken a prominent and influential part in advancing the com¬ mercial interests of this locality. Mr. Currie married in Queens county, Prince Edward Island , Miss Annie Wright , a daughter of William and Sarah (Dennis) Wright, natives of England , who located in Charlottetown , where Mr. Wright was a successful architect and contractor; he is now deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Currie have been born the following children: William Duncan , who is associated in business with his father; Sidney Wright , who was edu¬ cated at College and is now a teacher at Hillsboro, Prince Edward Island ; Edith A. W . is a graduate of Prince of Wales College and took a scholarship in her senior year; Patti Jean, at home. In religion the family are active members of the Presbyterian church, of which Mr. Cur ¬ rie is an elder, and because of their many estimable qualities they are highly respected throughout the community. Samuel Macdonald , late of Dundas , Kings county, and a successful merchant, ship-builder and farmer, who in 1826, at the age of sixteen years, came from the Isle of Skye , Scotland , in the ship " J °lni Walk¬ er", located about 1839 at Dundas . Even¬ tually he went to Boston, Massachusetts , and entered on a business career, but soon discern¬ ing that ship-knees, which were very valu¬ able, could be made more cheaply in Prince Edward Island , he returned to Dundas after an absence of three years and in 1845 started to make the knees for ships. He developed this into an extensive and prosperous busi¬ ness, but when the railways afforded quick and cheap transportation from the States, up through Maine and New Brunswick, the knees could be put into Boston more cheaply from those localities, consequently the Prince Edward Island business declined. About 1865 Mr. Macdonald started a general store