THE PEOPLE OF THE COAST 169 



lieve that the seals are being killed out. As yet, however, 

 it has not been possible to get a law prohibiting the use of 

 steam fishing-vessels sanctioned in the Upper House of the 

 Legislature. It should be added that laws relating to the 

 fishery are, all together, very few, and the total number of 

 cases where trouble arises from all causes, when added up, 

 are so small as to be almost negligible. The use of steamers 

 to bring fishermen and their families to the fishery and 

 back again is greatly to be desired. 



His Excellency, Sir William MacGregor, in the report 

 issued in 1906, after his official visit to the coast, says: 

 "The difference in conduct between the present generation 

 of Labrador fishermen and the banditti, or 'irregular,' 

 crews that formerly frequented it, forms, perhaps, one of 

 the most striking contrasts that could be found in the 

 annals of Justice." He further states that "the administra- 

 tion of justice in Labrador is now so easy as to be, perhaps, 

 without any precedent in any other country." He de- 

 scribes our fishermen as being "phenomenally law-abiding." 

 This is certainly my experience, after acting as magistrate 

 on the coast for the past ten years. 



The greatest drawback to the Labrador fishery has been, 

 and still is, the want of proper communication. A small 

 steamer, which is used for seal-hunting in the spring, makes 

 ten trips each year. She is supposed to complete each 

 trip in a fortnight, but as she has ninety ports of call to 

 make, fully fifteen hundred miles to steam, is loaded with 

 freight, and has fog, ice, and bad storms to contend with, 

 she is frequently unable to keep within several days of her 

 schedule time. With a captain second to none for pluck, 

 and acquainted with the coast as probably no other man is, 



