380 MISCELLANEOUS 



that when they met there again next year they would have something 

 more pleasant to contemplate than the possible starvation or im- 

 prisonment of our own fishermen. 



Governor MacGregor to Lord Elgin. 



GOVERNMENT HOUSE, ST. JOHN'S, February 26, 1907. 



(Received March 9, 1907.) 



MY LORD: I have the honour to enclose, for your information, 

 copy of a petition presented on the 13th February by Mr. M. P. 

 Cashin to the House of Assembly, signed by about a thousand fisher- 

 men of the Ferryland District of the south coast of this island, 

 praying that the Legislature may " terminate the present policy of 

 hostility towards the American fishermen," &c. 



2. I also enclose copy of a petition, presented by Mr. W. Oke on 

 the 19th February, and signed by some 56 fishermen, praying that 

 the use of trawls, bultows, and cod-nets be prohibited between Cape 

 Lewis and Cape St. Francis on the coast of Labrador. 



3. No action has so far been taken on these petitions. 



I have, &c., 



WM. MACGREGOR. 



[Inclosure.] 



To the Honourable House of Assembly in Legislative Session Con- 

 vened: 



The petition of the following fishermen of Ferryland District : 



Respectfully showeth : 



That your petitioners are engaged in the cod fishery on the southern 

 shore, and until two years ago added to their earnings from that 

 avocation by the sale of bait to American vessels. 



That this bait business was one which enabled your petitioners to 

 earn considerable money, and that the visits of these American ves- 

 sels resulted in the circulation of considerably larger amounts to the 

 sale of ice, stores, fishing outfits, shipping men, and proving a means 

 of circulating at least $40,000 per year to the people of this district. 



That two years ago the Government decided upon excluding these 

 American vessels from- our waters, in the mistaken belief that by so 

 doing they would injure the American fishermen, whereas they only 

 succeeded in injuring the people of this country. 



/That not alone have the people of this district been injured directly 

 by the suspending of this intercourse with the Americans, but that 

 the people of the northern districts have been injured to an equal 

 extent by the American fishing vessels which were excluded from this 

 section of the coast, now invading the Labrador waters where our 

 northern fishermen always previously carried on their fishery without 

 interruption. 



That during the two years this policy has been enforced 50 or 60 

 American vessels fishing on the Grand Banks and in Labrador 

 waters, have brought home to Gloucester larger catches than they 

 secured before. 



That the only result of the Government's present policy has been 

 to educate the Gloucester fishermen into seeing what little value the 



