EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES, *9 



amount witliin twelve months alter tlie award should liave hecMi ^iven. 

 Tlie coiJiuiissioners were to be three : one appointed by the I'resident of 

 the United States, one by Her Britannic Majesty, and the tliird by tlio 

 two conjointly; and in case the third coinmissioncr should not have 

 been named within three months of the appointment of the others, lie 

 was to be designated by the Austrian minister in London. 



The conrt so constituted was also to meet at llalifax at the earliest 

 convenient period. An agent was to be apxjointed respectively by Great 

 Britain and by the United States for tlie purpose of conducting the 

 proceedings. 



The treaty having been ratified by all the parties interested in 1873, 

 its provisions commenced in that year, but it was not until 1877 that the 

 convention referred to met at Halifax. 



Governor Clifford, of New Bedford, Mass., was appointed the Ameri- 

 can commissioner by the President of the United States ; but his death 

 prevented the organization of the convention, and it was not until some 

 time afterward that Mr. Ensign H. Kellogg, of Pittsfield, Mass., was 

 chosen and arrangements initiated for holding the convention. Sir 

 Alexander T. Gait, of IMontreal, was appointed commissioner by Her 

 Britannic Majesty, and the third commissioner, who was also president 

 of the court, was Mr. Maurice Delfosse, the Belgian minister at Wash- 

 ington. The American agent was Hon. D wight Foster, a prominent 

 lawyer of Boston ; the British, Mr. Francis Clay Ford, some years ago 

 secretary of the British Legation at Washington, but at present Her 

 Britannic Majesty's minister at Darmstadt. 



5. — THE IMEETING AT HALIFAX. 



After some time spent in collecting evidence and in preparing for the 

 case, the meeting finally opened at Halitax, on the 15th of June, 1877, 

 and the period of six months, within which the treaty required that the 

 operations of the court should be concluded, was appropriately par- 

 celled out. The proceedings commenced with the adoption of rules of 

 procedure, followed by the i)resentation of the British case, in which a 

 claim was made for $12,000,000 in behalf of the Dominion of Canada 

 and of $i;,400,000 for Newfoundland, after which an adjournment of six 

 weeks was had to permit the American agent to make up his reply. 



When the convention again met six weeks were allowed for the pre- 

 se:itation of testimony on the British side, followed by six weeks for that 

 of the American. A week was then given for rebuttal, after which the 

 American agent and counsel summed up for their side of the question, 

 and were followed, after a suitable interval, by their opponents. 



The decision was rendered on the 23d of November, closing the opera- 

 tions within the six months limited, which would have expired on the 

 15th of December. 



The American agent, Hon. Dwight Foster, had as associate Mr. Rich- 



