806 MISCELLANEOUS 



ers; but no compensation to be payable for any such building or 

 enclosure hereafter erected without the consent of the Commissioners. 



4. That the Commissioners should determine the limit or boundary 

 line to which the French might prosecute their fishery, the British 

 having the exclusive right of salmon and all other fishing in rivers. 



5. That the breadth of strand of which the French should have the 

 right of temporary use for fishery purposes should be defined; thus 

 removing objections to grants of land for all purposes beyond the 

 boundary so to be defined, and within the same for mining purposes; 

 right being reserved to the British Government to erect on such 

 strand works of a military or other public character, and to the 

 British subjects for wharves and buildings necessary for mining, 

 trading, and other purposes apart from the fishery in places selected 

 with permission of Commissioners. 



It was further recommended that the Colonial Legislature should 

 state to Her Majesty's Government that they were not prepared to 

 agree to any concessions to the Government of France which would 

 convey to the French rights of fishery which they did not at present 

 possess under existing Treaties; but that they would recommend the 

 Legislature to consent that the valuable and important right to pur- 

 chase bait, both herring and capelin, on the southern coast, should be 

 conceded to the French at such times as British subjects might 

 lawfully take the same upon terms which were to be agreed upon. 



During the course of the negotiations which took place certain 

 modifications of the above terms were introduced, which it is unnec- 

 essary to dwell upon here, inasmuch as the negotiations came to no 

 result; but the above extracts have been quoted in order to show 

 the nature of the arrangement which at that time was considered 

 by the Government of Newfoundland as offering a satisfactory set- 

 tlement of the fisheries question, and it is obvious that had an arrange- 

 ment been entered into at that period on the above-quoted bases, it 

 would have been far less advantageous to the interests of the Colony 

 than the one which has now been signed by the British and French 

 Commissioners in Paris. 



A period of five years now elapsed before fresh negotiations, by 

 means of a Joint Commission, took place. In the year 1881 a Com- 

 mission was appointed, Admiral Miller being again the British Com- 

 missioner, and Admiral Pierre being named on the part of France. 



During the negotiations Sir William Whiteway was in London, 

 and was constantly consulted by Her Majesty's Government as the 

 negotiations proceeded. 



Draft Articles were drawn up by the British Commissioner, with 

 the concurrence of Sir William Whiteway, which it was hoped would 

 offer to the French Government a satisfactory basis for discussion, 

 and lead to an agreement being arrived at between the Commissioners 

 of the two respective countries for a settlement of the question. 



The basis of this arrangement consisted in the appointment of a 

 Commission, to be called a Commission of Demarcation, whose duty 

 it would be to define and allot certain parts of the strand on which the 

 French might exercise the rights conceded to them by Treaty, and 

 the remainder of the coast to be released from Treaty stipulations; 

 and it was contemplated to allot not more than one-half of any one 

 harbour for the purpose of French use, and the amount or the 

 strand inland was not to extend to a greater distance than one-third 

 of a mile from high-water mark. 



