REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. *9 



amount A^itliiii twelve montlis after the award sliould liave been given. 

 Tlie commissioners were to be three : one appointed by the President of 

 the United States, one by Iler Britannic Majesty, and tlie third by the 

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

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

 was to be designated by the Austrian minister in London. 



The coiu't so constituted was also to meet at Halifax at the earliest 

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

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

 proceedings. 



The treaty havhig 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 Montreal, 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. Dwight Foster, a prominent 

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

 secretary of the British Legation at Washington, but at x>resent Her 

 Britannic Majesty's minister at Darmstadt. 



5. — THE jMEETENG AT HALIFAX. 



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

 case, the meeting finally opened at Haliftix, on the loth of June, 1877, 

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

 operations of the court should be concluded, was api)ropriately par- 

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

 procedure, followed by the presentation of the British case, in which a 

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

 and of $2,400,000 for jSTewfouudlaud, 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- 

 sentation 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 woidd have expired on the 

 15th of December. 



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



