DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 253 



fisheries is more safely entrusted to Her Majesty's navy by which 

 disputes are more likely to be prevented, I recommend under any 

 circumstances that provision should be made for the constant employ- 

 ment of a vessel in the Bay of Fundy during the fishing season, and 

 also of one on the northern coasts. 



As Mr. Simonds is about to proceed to England I have on 



149 the suggestion of the Council entrusted him with a duplicate 



of this Despatch, and I can confidently refer to him for such 



further information as your Lordship may desire to receive on the 



subject. 



I have the honour to be my Lord 



Your Lordship's most obt. humble servant 



W. M. G. COLEBROOKE 

 The Right Honorable LORD STANLEY 



&c &c &c 



[Enclosure In above Despatch Dated June 21st 1845.] 



IN COUNCIL 20th June 18-'i5 



His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor brought under the consideration of 

 the Board Lord Stanley's Despatch No. 298 dated May 19th 1845 relative to 

 a relaxation of the Regulations under the Convention of 1818 in reference to 

 fishing vessels belonging to the United States of America with enclosures 

 stating that the Government have deemed it advisable to admit, American 

 fishing vessels into the different bays on the British American Coasts and 

 requesting to be informed whether there are any objections to the measure on 

 provincial or other grounds 



Whereupon The Council are decidedly of opinion that the admission of the 

 Americans into Miramichi Bay and Chaleur Bay and a participation in its 

 fisheries will be attended with a ruinous effect on the fishing trade of the 

 province, especially with regard to that branch of it, carried on in Chaleur 

 Bay by far the most valuable fishing ground on these coasts. That little 

 doubt can be entertained that such a concession will result in depriving us of 

 this valuable source of trade now rapidly increasing in that part of the 

 province. That it is obvious that the unlimited command of capital and other 

 advantages possessed by an old and populous country like the United States 

 must render competition on the part of this young colony hopeless. 



That past experience has fully shown that with such advantages they have 

 been enabled to carry on their fisheries on so extensive a scale and with such 

 overwhelming numbers that they have invariably succeeded in expelling our 

 fishermen from those coasts where they have had any pretext or sufficient 

 inducement for encroachment. 



Thajt hitherto it was on the superior natural advantages presented by our 

 own coasts especially those of Gaspe Bay that the enterprise of our fishermen 

 could mainly rely and on [one] of the difficulties against which they had to 

 contend and by no means the least injurious to their interests was being 

 excluded by the high protective duties of such a country as the United States 

 where the consumption of fish by an extensive slave population might other- 

 wise have afforded a remunerating market. 



That the admission of the Americans into Chaleur Bay would give them a com- 

 plete command over the herring, the salmon and the cod fisheries of that Bay 

 from its mouth to within three miles of its head where the inshore and deep 

 sea fisheries are alike carried on, and where its most valuable fishing grounds 

 are beyond the prescribed distance 



That it would be attended with the sacrifice of the capital of those establish- 

 ments already formed one of which, a company in London has recently ein- 

 barked two hundred thousand pounds 



That the fishermen and other persons employed are exclusively occupied in 

 carrying on these fisheries by which they are maintained 



That some idea may be formed of the extensive population thus occupied, 

 when the houses of Robins and one or two others employ several thousand 

 persons, who should these fisher' es be abandoned would be thus left destitute 

 of the means of support. 



