DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 403 



240 No. 152. 1870, November 5: Report of Hon. Peter Mitchell, 

 Canadian Minister of Marine and Fisheries, on the Practice 

 which, previous to the Reciprocity Treaty, prevailed respect- 

 ing United States Fishing Vessels trading in Provincial 

 Ports, &c. 



DEPARTMENT OF MARINE AND FISHERIES, 



OTTAWA, 5th November, 1870. 



With reference to the Earl of Kimberley's confidential despatch 

 of the 12th ultimo, requesting information as to what was the actual 

 practice which prevailed previous to the Reciprocity Treaty between 

 Great Britain and the United States, in regard to the exclusion of 

 American fishermen from trading or effecting commercial operations 

 in the ports of the different Provinces of British North America, 

 the undersigned has the honor to state : 



That the right to prevent American fishing vessels from resorting 

 to Provincial bays and harbors, for purposes of trade, was actually 

 asserted and carried out under the Imperial and Colonial statutes, 

 enacted to give effect to the provisions of the Treaty of 1818, anterior 

 to the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854. 



Between the years 1817 and 1854 (Vide App. 4, pp. 107-10, Nova 

 Scotia Journals, 1853), several United States fishing vessels were 

 detained and seized by Imperial and Colonial officers for infractions 

 of the Treaty, and violation of these statutes. Many of them were 

 condemned. Among the specific offences of fishing, for which nu- 

 merous seizures and confiscations took place during this period. 

 American fishing vessels were accosted and detained for the follow- 

 ing reasons: 



1. Anchoring or hovering in-shore during calm weather without 

 any ostensible cause, having aboard ample supplies of wood and 

 water ; 



2. Lying at anchor and remaining inside of the bays to clean and 

 pack fish ; 



3. Purchasing and bartering bait ; 



4. Selling goods and buying supplies ; 



5. Landing and transhipping cargoes of fish. 



The undersigned begs leave to refer, in the first place, to the Im- 

 perial instructions under which, antecedent to the convention of 

 1818, American fishing vessels were excluded from British bays and 

 harbors in North America, conformable to the Treaty of 1783. The 

 following Admiralty order for the governance of officers command- 

 ing vessels engaged in the protection of the fisheries and the preven- 

 tion of illicit trade, signed by Rear- Admiral Milne, bears date the 

 12th May, 1817 : 



On your meeting with any foreign vessel, fishing, or at anchor, in any of the 

 harbors or creeks in His Majesty's North American Provinces, or within our 

 maritime jurisdiction, you will seize and send such vessel so trespassing to 

 Halifax, for adjudication, unless it should clearly appear that they have been 

 obliged to put in there in consequence of distress, acquainting me with the 

 cause of such seizure, and every other particular, to enable me to give all 

 information to the Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty. (Vide British and 

 Foreign State Papers, No. 7, 1819- % 20. p. 139.) 



Under this instruction numbers of American fishing vessels were 

 seized in Ragged Island Harbour, on the 8th of June, 1817, where 



