33 



ply to the employment of vessels under foreign registry or to their 

 orews, boats, seines, nets or other appurtenances belonging to such 

 foreign vessels. 



The object of this legislation is to give to our herring vessels and 

 bankers the right to employ the shore fishermen in the taking of her- 

 ring or other bait fish which cannot be obtained in anj r other manner 

 and putting this and perhaps other kinds of fisheries into the hands 

 of our fishermen for curing, transportation and distribution, giving to 

 the shore boat fishermen what is their natural right, the taking of 

 these fish, and our own fishermen the right to cure them and bring 

 them to market. 



This has been the practice for the past 25 years, and legislation 

 defining the rights of American fishermen in this business will save 

 them from a vast amount of revenue quibbling and expense which 

 has invariably been the case in New York and other ports. 



This is our side of the question, but Canada will do all she can to 

 obtain our free markets ; the histor} r of the past 12 years shows that 

 as far as equity and honesty are concerned we have been cheated and 

 imposed upon. Our government is bound in honor after building up 

 Canadian fisheries for the past 12 years to give some heed to the 

 claims of her fishermen. Give to the fishermen of the United States 

 a permanent policy of protection for the same number of years that 

 Canada has had our own markets and we will quadruple our fleet 

 aud number of seamen as she has done. 



Anything less than this and our country is a marine beggar with- 

 out vessels or sailors, resources or naval strength. Therefore in no 

 political sense, in no sectional sense I submit that the American fish- 

 eries are the wards as well as the defence of the nation, and ever}' 

 treaty or act of legislation calculated to diminish their growth and 

 strength is the act of a suicide and national lunacy. 



This was followed by an interesting address by O. B. Whitten, 

 Esq., of Portland. 



We have met, he said, to consider questions of the utmost import- 

 ance to the fishing industry of New England. We are told that there 

 is no occasion for alarm, and no call for action, on the part of the 

 fishing industry ; that the country will never renew the fishery treaty ; 

 that this is a false alarm, founded on ignorance of the facts ; that all 



