BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 387 



took place at Bay of Islands on the 26th ultimo was well attended, 

 and that the resolution was adopted with practical unanimity, and 

 expresses the deliberate opinion of the community. I have at pres- 

 ent no other means of verifying these statements. 

 I have, &c., 



WM. MACGREGOB. 



[Inclosure.] 

 ("The Dally News," St. John's, April 4, 1907.] 



THE BAT OF ISLANDS PROTEST. 



The controversy over the herring fishery is inseparable from the 

 welfare of the people of Bay of Islands. 



To members of the Legislature and residents of the city, the ques- 

 tion is more or less an academic one, whilst to the fishermen who en- 

 gage in the Labrador and Bank fisheries, the participation or other- 

 wise of the Americans in the herring fishery does not immediately 

 appeal. 



If we are to get down to the kernel of the controversy, we must get 

 the opinion and wishes of the people most directly interested, and it 

 is this fact which makes the public meeting, which was held at Bay 

 of Islands, last week, one of extraordinary importance. 



Sometimes public meetings are engineered oy political parties for 

 party purposes. Not so with the meeting held on Tuesday. 



It was the spontaneous and unbiassed expression of public opinion. 

 That such a meeting was to be held was not, so far as we can ascer- 

 tain, known outside of Bay of Islands, then enduring the rigours 

 of a snow blockade; indeed, the first intimation received by poli- 

 ticians of either side, or by the public generally, was the publication 

 of the Resolutions in Thursday's issue of the " News." 



Sir Robert Bond stated in the House of Assembly that two-thirds 

 of Bay of Islands favoured his policy. The statement was so ridicu- 

 lous as to be scarcely worthy of serious contradiction, but if contra- 

 diction is necessary, Tuesday's meeting gives it in emphatic and 

 uncompromising tones. 



The meeting itself was well attended, and the speakers were 

 amongst the leading citizens of the community. 



The chairman was a typical fisherman, and there was absolutely 

 no opposition to the adoption of the Resolutions and Address. 



Only one dissenting voice was heard, and that belonged not to a 

 fisherman, but to a gentleman whose sympathies would naturally 

 lean towards his Canadian fellow-countrymen who, by the exclusion 

 of the Americans, would be benefitted at the expense of Newfound- 

 land. 



The practical unanimity of sentiment was no matter of surprise, 

 inasmuch as from those who have been on the spot and who have 

 discussed the Government's policy with residents and fishermen dur- 

 ing the fall and the winter, there has come only one answer, " The 

 fishermen are as a unit in their opposition to the policy of the 

 Government." 



Of course, an occasional voice of a rank partisan may be heard, 

 anxious to defend the Government's policy at any cost, but it is not 

 92909 S. Doc. 870, 61-3, vol 6 33 



