BRITISH, COLONIAL, AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 235 



4th. Neither can they be admitted to 

 any participation in the fishery on the 

 Coast of Labrador, where (especially 

 in the Belle Isle Straits) British fish- 

 ermen resort in great numbers. 



5th. The Island of Belle Isle in the 

 Straits being a British possession not 

 Included in any of the concessions 

 made to France by Treaty, no French 

 right to fish there can be recognized. 



cession, and as representations have 

 been made from time to time by the 

 commercial body and the Legislature 

 of Newfoundland, complaining of the 

 great injury arising from the encroach- 

 ments of the French in fishing for bait, 

 and as it appears from the late acting 

 Governor's answer to the recent refer- 

 ence that the local objections to giv- 

 ing the French any facilities for ob- 

 taining bait still continue, we think 

 that the concessions should be refused 

 for these reasons rather than on the 

 ground of inconvenience from a con- 

 current fishery. 



The granting permission to purchase 

 bait without hindrance is more pecul- 

 iarly matter of local concern, and a 

 concession which there would be legal 

 difficulties in making without the con- 

 currence of the Local Legislature, 

 which not only possesses in common 

 with other Colonial Assemblies (under 

 recent Imperial Acts) full power to 

 levy duties independently of Parlia- 

 ment, but passed in 1845, with concur- 

 rence of the Queen in Council, an Act 

 (8th Vic., c. 5) imposing a high export 

 duty on bait for the purpose of check- 

 ing the traffic in it. This Act is still 

 in force, and the most recent accounts 

 do not show any disposition on the 

 part of the Local Legislature to re- 

 peal it 



The Imperial Parliament has, with- 

 out doubt, the power of regulating the 

 traffic in bait, in supercession of all 

 local laws, but this would be an un- 

 usual stretch of authority. 



For these reasons we think Monsieur 

 De Bon's proposition must be rejected 

 as regards not merely the fishing for 

 bait, but the traffic in it also. 



4. This paragraph, if our preceding 

 views are adopted, may be introduced 

 thus. Her Majesty's Government also 

 find that British interests do not admit 

 of any participation by the French in 

 the Fishery, etc. 



