BBITISH, COLONIAL, AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 263 



Extracts from Canadian Sessional Papers, Vol. IV, 1869. 

 Mr. Campbell to the Canadian Minister of Marine and Fisheries. 



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

 Hon. P. MITCHELL, 



Minister of Marine and Fisheries. 



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

 last, on the subject of the operation of the license 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 honor 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 enquiries propounded by 

 you. The difficulty or rather the impossibility of obtaining in the 

 Island the required information, will I hope be regarded as suffi- 

 cient apology for such deficiency, and the probably less satisfactory 

 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 British traders and subjects generally in the Maritime Prov- 

 inces, 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 prosecu- 

 tion of the fisheries, and especially the Mackerel fishery, was invari- 

 ably in the habit of procuring much of the requisite supplies for the 

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

 largely benefited not only those directly engaged in commercial pur- 

 suits, but was also of immense advantage to other classes of the 

 inhabitants of several of the adjacent counties of Nova Scotia. The 

 constant demand for, and ready disposal at remunerative prices to the 

 American fishing vessels, of a large quantity of farm produce, and 

 other products of industry in the shape of barrels, hoops, lumber, 

 wood, &c, was at once the character and result of the intercourse 

 which subsisted during the existence of the Reciprocity Treaty. The 

 total exemption from duty of all fish exported from the Maritime 

 Provinces to the markets of the United States was also a boon of 

 inestimable value to the very large class of British subjects directly 



