378 MISCELLANEOUS 



themselves, and with increased bait privileges, under the proposed 

 Bond-Hay treaty, they would not only supply their own market, but 

 would compete with our fish in foreign markets, and by so doing, 

 reduce the value of our fish in those markets. Americans certainly 

 possess treaty rights. If they were denied the right to purchase they 

 would simply make arrangements to catch themselves, so that our 

 people would lose the chance of selling profitably. Under the Wash- 

 ington Treaty, the Americans came to our coast, and sold all their 

 small fish and oil, from the proceeds of which they purchased bait. 

 They require very large fish for their markets, and so this plan suited 

 admirably. The Americans are reported to have recently invaded 

 the Labrador, which was a new development calculated to work 

 serious injury to our own people. Petitions respecting this feature 

 would likely be presented during the present session. He believed 

 the Foreign Fishing Act was responsible for driving the Americans 

 to the Labrador, to the injury of Newfoundland. He intimated that 

 he would vote against the proposed Address, which appeared to him 

 to be a censure of the British Government that was not deserved. 

 He believed the British Government was anxious to conserve the 

 interests of this Colony, but were met with treaty rights which had 

 also to be reckoned with, and Britain would not act dishonestly 

 towards any nation, or violate her treaty obligations. 



Mr. Morison contributed an interesting speech to the debate. He 

 differed from the Premier as to the only opportunity of publishing 

 the Government position, saying that if so important the people 

 might have been appealed to by public meetings, for a test of opinion. 

 The question had a more serious than the constitutional aspect, viz., 

 the policy of the Government. A careful review of the Premier's 

 speech was made, and points of difference dealt with. He reviewed 

 the difficulties with Canadian and American fishermen, extending over 

 a number of years, and which led up to the Bond-Blaine-Hay treaties. 

 It was possible a majority of merchants favoured these treaties, but 

 that did not mean the fishermen, whose opinion was important. The 

 merchants had urged an export duty on American, and a bounty to 

 our people, and if the Government had made some such proposition, it 

 would have aided in solving a question now vexatious. There could 

 be no doubt that the Fishing Acts were the cause of the present 

 trouble. He regarded the testimony of Inspector O'Reilly and Magis- 

 trate March as being unreliable. One was engaged in detecting 

 violations of the fishery laws, the other tried and punished offenders, 

 as in the case of Crane and Dubois. A visit to Bay of Islands would 

 prove the Premier's statements untrue. He disputed the idea that 

 the Premier came into power with a mandate from the people re this 

 fishery dispute, and characterized as harmless the reference to it in 

 the last manifesto. The references of the Premier to H.M.S. Bril- 

 liant were unfair, and he did not think the Governor worried over 

 Captain Anstruther's action, but was quite well able to look after him- 

 self. The fishery had ended well for all save those arrested and pun- 

 ished, and it had only ended favourably in so far as the British Gov- 

 ernment had stepped in to protect local men against unjust local 

 enactments. 



He intended to vote against the address. If it were simply a pro- 

 test against any invasion by the Imperial Government of our rights 

 as a self-governing Colony he and every other member on his side of 



