BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 357 



Governor MacGregor to Lord Elgin. 



GOVERNMENT HOUSE, St. John's, November %1, 1906. 



(Received December 4, 1906.) 



MY LORD: In continuation of my despatch of the 20th instant, I 

 have the honour to enclose herewith an extract from the "Daily 

 News," of St. John's, of this day's date, having reference to the trial 

 of the two men Dubois and Crane for putting herring on board an 

 American vessel without a licence. 



I have, &c., WM. MACGREGOR. 



[Inclosure.] 



SIDE LIGHTS ON THE TEST CASE. 

 [From our own Correspondent.] 



If contempt for law and order does not grow with the fishermen 

 of Bay of Islands, those who are responsible for applying the law 

 will have little to answer for. A special brand seems to be in force 

 here. Generally throughout this Colony, and, indeed, in all British 

 possessions, a person charged with an offence is regularly summoned 

 before a magistrate, reasonable opportunity is given to frame a 

 defence, and decency is at least aimed at in the proceedings. Here 

 it is different. Men charged with offences are inveigled to the court, 

 by a back way, at an unreasonable hour, there to find a magistrate 

 waiting to issue summons, try the culprit, and perpetuate a farce 

 against which British fair play and justice revolts. 



In " Truth's " " Pillory " there is depicted a Perth Bailie, who con- 

 sidered loitering on the foot-path exactly twice as atrocious a crime 

 as for a man to beat his wife with the tongs. The same wiseacre 

 punished a man twice as heavily for an assault on his own bicycle, 

 as a man who savagely attacked a defenceless girl. There are ample 

 opportunities over here for the pen behind " Truth's " " Pillory." 



The circumstances surrounding the recent arrest, trial and punish- 

 ment of two fishermen, Alex. Dubois and George Crane, as compared 

 with the punishment meted out to an American millionaire law- 

 breaker, a week before, will serve for purposes of illustration. 



On Monday, November 12th, these two fishermen, shipped on an 

 American vessel, were catching herring, in pursuit of an honest 

 living. Crane is 20 years old, unmarried ; Dubois, 25 years old, with 

 a wife and small family. Both are uneducated, the latter being able 

 to read but a little. Two hundred yards distant from these men lay 

 the cruiser Fiona, expensively equipped at the cost of fishermen tax- 

 payers, with her full ship's company " on watch " to prevent honest 

 men from earning a living. 



Tide Waiter Collins, at the trial, swore that they all had orders 

 " to be on the watch," and that at least four of these watchers on 

 the Fiona had glasses, scanning the movements of men only 200 yards 

 away. An attempt to take the fishermen from the American vessel 

 was frustrated by her captain, who warned Inspector O'Reilly against 

 such unlawful act. 



The Fiona returned to Birchy Cove on Monday, when it was 

 given out that summonses had been issued, the men would be arrested, 

 and trial was set down for two o'clock on Thursday. Wednesday 



