THE PEOPLE OF THE COAST 173 



lands have been made to Canadian firms in Sandwich Bay 

 and Hamilton Inlet, covering about two thousand square 

 miles in all. Grants to fishing firms have apparently been 

 made to Baine, Johnston & Company at Battle, to Isaac 

 Mercer at Long Tickle, to Job Brothers at Blanc Sablon 

 and Indian Harbour, and to a few others at other points. 



The policy of the Newfoundland government has always 

 been in theory to leave the land free to any one, so that 

 when one man leaves it another may make use of his former 

 situation. Presumably this is on the assumption that 

 nothing of value will be left behind. But though no legal 

 conveyance has been made, men who fish any particular 

 place, and even move a stone to " spread fish on," will claim 

 that place, though they have not been using it for years, 

 and the courts at home have upheld them. It leaves the 

 land about the harbours in a very anomalous and undesirable 

 condition. There are fishermen anxious to come and settle, 

 there is land unused, and with no marks on it; yet either 

 some one refuses to allow them to settle or they dare not 

 settle for fear some one may arise who will some day eject 

 them. Several of these cases have come before me as 

 magistrate on the coast. 



Labrador has no representation, and no one is appointed 

 to look after its interests. The Governor's Report for 1906 

 does not put the matter one iota too strongly. The follow- 

 ing paragraph taken from it is very significant, when the 

 varied experience of its author in other out-of-the-way 

 parts of the world is taken into consideration: 



"If the difficulties of representation are considered to be 

 too great, then there remains the obvious alternative of ap- 

 pointing a minister, or, at least, a secretary for Labrador, 



