CHAPTER III. 



ROADS AND RAILWAYS IN NEWFOUNDLAND. 



I^' iiu otlu^' country lias tlie material and social advaiLceiiient 

 of the people been so seriously retarded Ijy the want of roads as 

 in Newfoundland. Tlie original settlement of the island took 

 jdace entirely in connection with the fisheries. The gathering 

 in of the sea-harvest was the onh' industry contemplated or 

 attemjjted. Around the shores fishermen, chieHy from England 

 and Ireland, collected at first in hamlets and small villages, 

 situated in such localities as were found best adapted for catch- 

 ing, drying and shijiping fi.sh. These, as they multiplied and 

 the population increased, were dotted around the shores of the 

 great bays, or wherever there was a sheltered inlet where fish 

 could be landed and the fisherman's stage and hut erected. 

 Sprinkled thus along an extensive seadjoard, tliey were generally 

 widely apart from each other, and intercourse was maintained 

 mainly or entirely by sea oi by rude paths through the woods 

 between neighbouring settlements. 



BAD LAWS. 



Had the clearing and cultivation of the soil been combined 

 with fishing, the construction of roads would have become a 

 necessity ; but the unhappy policy adopted by the Imperial 

 Government, at the prompting of the English capitalists who 

 carried on the fishei'ies, effectually prevented colonization. The 

 policy was to keep the island solely as a fishing station in order to 

 train seamen for the British navy. All grants of land were pro- 

 hibited, the cultivation of the soil made a penal oflfence, and 

 a vigorous attempt was carried on for a long period to remler the 

 fishery migratory by carrying home the fishermen at the close of 

 each season to return the following summer. 



SLOW PROGRKSS UNDER DIFFICULTIKS. 



In .->pite of these stupid, selfish laws the resident population in 

 the fishing villages continued to increase and in many instances 



