616 APPENDIX TO BEITISH CASE. 



The same schedule, and language, were preserved in the tariff law 

 of 1857, but the rate was reduced to 15 per cent. 



The tariff law of 2nd March, 1861, levied in the tenth section the 

 following rates: 



On mackerel, two dollars per barrel ; on herrings, pickled or salted, one dollar 

 per barrel ; on pickled salmon, three dollars per barrel ; on all other fish, 

 pickled, in barrels, one dollar and fifty cents per barrel ; on all other foreigii- 

 caught fish, imported otherwise than in barrels or half-barrels, or whether 

 fresh, smoked or dried, salted or pickled, not otherwise provided for, fifty 

 cents per one hundred pounds. 



In its twenty-third section that law declared that " fish, fresh 

 caught, for daily consumption," shall be exempt from duty. 



Then began a perplexity which has embarrassed the department 

 up to the present day. Someone at the port of entry must, under 

 that clause, decide whether or not the fish, entered as free thereunder, 

 is " fresh caught," and is " for daily consumption." Did the quali- 

 fication ; ' for daily consumption " refer to the " fish," or to the catch- 

 ing, and the purpose of the catching? Who can correctly pass 

 judgment on the motive of the fishermen, or of the importer? 



On 18th June, 1866, this department decided (see Appendix A) 

 that the phrase included all fish imported for consumption, while 

 fresh, and did not include fish imported fresh, but to be afterwards 

 dried, or pickled, or cured for future use. " Daily consumption," 

 said this department, twenty years ago, " means consumption within 

 a short time." That view seems correct, but, nevertheless, the law 

 was intrinsically incapable of exact execution, inasmuch as it might 

 be difficult for a customs officer to foresee or foreknow the intentions 

 or purposes referred to. 



I believe that the fish clause quoted above from the law of the 2nd 

 March, 1861, and which levied a tax on fish, stood till 1870, but the 

 free clause was made in 1870 to read : 



Fish fresh, for immediate consumption. 



The substitution of " immediate " for " daily " did not remove the 

 perplexity. 



The Tariff Commission did not report on the subject. 



The tariff law of 1883 taxes fish at our sea ports, our lake ports, 

 and on the frontier, by these words in the schedule for " provisions " : 



Mackerel, one cent per "pound. 



Herrings, pickled or salted, one-half of one cent per pound. 



Salmon, pickled, one cent per pound; other fish, pickled, in barrels, one cent 

 per pound. 



Foreign -caught fish, imported otherwise than in barrels or half-barrels, 

 whether fresh, smoked, dried, salted, or pickled, not specially enumerated or 

 provided for in this Act, fifty cents per hundred pounds. 



368 A subsequent section declared that the following articles, 

 when imported, shall be exempt from duty : 



Fish, fresh, for immediate consumption. 

 Fish for bait. 



Oil, spermaceti, whale and other fish oils of American fisheries, and all other 

 articles the produce of such fisheries. 

 Shrimps or other shell-fish. 

 Fish sounds or fish bladders. 



The kinds of fish just described having been " specially enumerated, 

 or provided for " in 1883, were thereby taken out of the clause levy- 

 ing a tax on foreign-caught fresh fish. 



