382 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



The Minister having prepared and furnished directions to Stewart 

 Campbell, Esq., M.P. of Guysborough, Nova Scotia, in accordance 

 with the Minute of Council dated 18th September last, to ascertain 

 accurately the facts in detail of the American fishing business and 

 trade at the various sea-ports of Prince Edward Island and Nova 

 Scotia, and their relation to the licensing system, that gentleman is 

 still engaged in making such inquiries, and so soon as his report shall 

 be received it may be found necessary again to refer to the subject. 



The whole respectfully submitted. 



P. MITCHELL, 

 Minister of Marine and Fisheries. 



No. 143. 1869, February %: Letter from Mr. Campbell, M. P., of 

 Guysborough, Nova Scotia, to Hon. Peter Mitchell, Canadian Min- 

 ister of Marine and Fisheries. 



GUYSBOROUGH, N. S., February, 2nd, 1869. 



SIR, With reference to your communication of the 16th September 

 last, on the subject of the operation of the licence system policy em- 

 bodied in and intended to be enforced by the provisions of the Act 

 for the regulation of fishing and protection of the fisheries, and the 

 Act respecting fishing by foreign vessels, and also in relation to the 

 fishing trade and business generally, I have the honour to inform 

 you that in accordance with your instructions conveyed to me by 

 that communication, I visited the Island of Prince Edward, and the 

 other localities affected by the subject in the months of October and 

 November last and I now beg to report the following observations 

 bearing upon the general question. I regret that in doing so, I shall 

 not be able to reply seriatim to the several inquiries propounded 

 228 by you. The difficulty or rather the impossibility of obtaining 

 in the Island the required information, will I hope be regarded 

 as sufficient apology for such deficiency, and the probably less satis- 

 factory shape which this communication will consequently assume. 

 I trust however that even in its present form, it will not be without 

 some value. 



The principal source of inconvenience and grievance on the part 

 of the Britibh traders and subjects generally in the Maritime 

 Provinces, who are connected with the fisheries is to be found in 

 the great change of circumstances brought about by the abrogation 

 of the Reciprocity Treaty. During the existence of that treaty, the 

 entire freedom with which that branch of industry, represented by 

 the fisheries, was pursued on the part of the subjects of the United 

 States of America on the coasts of the British Provinces, naturally 

 brought these foreigners into most intimate business relations with 

 merchants, traders, and others in many localities of the maritime 

 portion of the Dominion, and especially at and in the vicinity of the 

 Strait of Canso. The great body of the large fleet of American 

 fishermen, numbering several hundred vessels, which annually passed 

 through that Strait to the Gulf of the St. Lawrence in the prose- 

 cution of the fisheries, and especially the mackerel fishery, was in- 

 variably in the habit of procuring much of the requisite supplies 

 for the voyage at the several ports in that Strait. The business thus 



