77 
. “season; and the French Government, having received no 
| : “ formal intimation that the practice hitherto uniformly main- 
_ “ tained will be departed from, has been entitled to assume that 
- there will be no alteration in the arrangements for the current 
“year. Her Majesty’s Government would, consequently, not be 
“justified in disregarding the strong protest of the French 
_* Government against the introduction, at this late period, of 
“yestrictions calculated to inflict great loss upon the French 
_ * fishermen ; and, as for this reason they are unable to advise the 
_ Queen to allow the Bill to come into operation in respect of the 
_® approaching fishing season, it will not at present be submitted 
_ * for Her Majesty’s confirmation. 
TJ do not desire now to raise the question how far the 
_ © objection to the sale of bait to the French should, if well 
_ founded, have been pressed at an earlier date. 
} “The papers before me make it clear that it has but very 
By recently been discovered that the operation of the French © 
: “hounties has so lowered the price of fish in the markets of 
_ “Europe as to make the fishing no longer profitable to the 
- eolonists, who are not aided by bounties. In the 19th para- 
_ “graph of your despatch, you state that on the continent of 
_ “€urope French-caught fish is sold for 12s. 6d. per quintal, 
_ «while that caught by British fishermen, being better prepared, 
“ fetches 14s. per quintal.’ 
: “ As the French fishermen receive, in addition, a bounty 
“which you state amounts to some 8s. 6d. per quintal, it is 
_ “sufficiently obvious that the British fishermen lie under a 
_ grave disadvantage ; but I do not perceive that it has yet been 
_ “shown in detail that although there is a great difference 
_ between the present price of 14s. per quintal and the former 
price of 15s. to 20s.—which, as stated in a memorandum to Her 
“ Majesty's Government, was obtained for Newfoundland fish 
until about two years ago—the colonial fishery has actually 
« ceased to be remunerative, and to what extent. 
“Tt is desirable that the case for the allowance of the Bill 
should be supported by full evidence on this point, and during 
“ the current year it will be possible to ascertain accurately the full 
* effect of the French bounties and the exact position of the 
_ “British fishing trade. Until these facts have been established 
_ it is not possible for Her Majesty’s Government to decide with 
