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“ ments are such as to more than compensate for the natural 
“ advantages possessed by the people of Newfoundland, so that 
“‘ the former are able to maintain and continually increase their 
** products, while the latter are less and less able to maintain the 
“ unequal struggle. 
“17. American fishermen are protected in the markets of the 
“ United States, which take all their produce, by a duty of 56 
“cents a quintal, which is almost prohibitive to the results of 
*¢ British industry ; while the French fishermen are supported not 
** only by a law absolutely prohibiting the importation of British- 
“caught fish into France, but by bounties, on export and other- 
‘‘ wise, and varying from 8 to 12 francs per quintal, according to 
** destination, on such as is exported to foreign markets. 
“18. Under the circumstance, while the United States 
“ market is practically, and the French market is actually, closed 
“to British-caught fish, the latter is, by the operation of the 
“ French bounties, being gradually extruded from all other 
“ markets, except as regards the limited quantity taken by Brazil 
“and other tropical countries requiring a quality such as cannot 
“ be produced by the French, owing to the want of the facilities 
“ of curing afforded by the neighbouring coast of Newfoundland. 
“*19. At the present moment French fish can, I am told, be 
“ bought all over the Continent of Europe at 12s. 6d. a quintal. 
“The French fishermen, however, obtain for it 21s. a quintal— 
“the bounty being thus equal to 72 per cent. of the value—while 
*‘ the British fishermen for their superior produce can obtain only 
* 14s, a quintal, or 35 per cent. less. 
* 21. Now it happens that the quantity of fish caught on the 
‘* Banks very largely depends on the supply of fresh bait-fishes, 
*‘ and these are principally obtained from the territorial waters of 
‘“* Newfoundland, or in the immediate neighbourhood, being 
“bought by foreigners, as well as British subjects, from the 
“ fishermen of Fortune Bay and the neighbouring inlets. Salt 
“ or otherwise artificially prepared bait, though cod can be caught 
“with it, does not attract them by any means in the same 
* degree, while fresh bait, if the supply from the neighbouring 
“ coast were closed to foreigners, could only be procured by them 
“on the more distant portion of the Newfoundland coast where 
“the French have fishing rights, or elsewhere at considerably 
