BRITISH, COLONIAL, AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 251 

 [Enclosure in No. 60.] 



ST. JOHN'S NEWFOUNDLAND, September 17th, 1855. 



SIR: In reply to your communication transmitting a copy of a 

 Despatch from the Right Honorable the Secretary or State for the 

 Colonies to His Excellency the Governor, dated the 23rd of August 

 last, requesting him to forward to the British Minister at Washing- 

 ton, authentic copies of all the laws and regulations of the Legisla- 

 ture, or other competent authority of Newfoundland, on the subject 

 of the Fisheries of this Island, we have the honor to report, in com- 

 pliance with the desire of his Excellency, that, apart from the com- 

 mon law of England, which is in operation here, so far as it is appli- 

 cable to the circumstances of the Colony, and the several Treaties 

 defining the relative rights of England, France, and the United States 

 of America to the fisheries of this Colony, there are no special enact- 

 ments of the Local Legislature in operation here for the regualtion 

 of the fisheries. 



2. In relation to the export of fish, certain duties are made payable 

 by the local Act 8 Vic., Cap. 5, upon the exportation of fish. Salted 

 or pickled herrings or caplin, if exported in bulk, 3s. per cwt., and 

 upon salted and pickled caplin, if exported in barrels, 2s. 6d. per 

 barrel. This Act, which was passed to check the traffic in bait with 

 the French, was amended as to the exportation of herrings to any 

 part of the British dominions, by permitting the master of every 

 vessel exporting herring in bulk to give bond for the amount of the 

 duties, which bond shall be cancelled upon the production, within 

 one year of the date of it, of a certificate from a duly qualified person 

 at the port of discharge, that such herrings had been landed within 

 the British dominions. This Act having been found insufficient to 

 prevent the evil which it was passed to correct, has not been enforced 

 for some years past and is now quite inoperative. 



Supposing it to be in any way inconsistent with the Treaty for 

 the establishment of Free Trade with the United States of America, 

 it must be regarded as suspended, so far as general words can do so, 

 with reference to the citizens of that country pursuing the fisheries 

 on our coasts under the Treaty; for the local Act 18 & 19 Vic., Cap. 2, 

 being an Act to give effect on the part of this Island to the Treaty 

 for the establishment of Reciprocal Free Trade with the United 

 States, suspends all the laws of this island which are contrary to, 

 or inconsistent with, the spirit of the Treaty. 



(Signed) P. F. LITTLE, 



H. M. Acting Attorney General 



J. HAYWARD, 

 H. M. Acting Solicitor General. 



The Honorable the COLONIAL SECRETARY. 



