BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 447 



House, which will make it competent for the governor in council to 

 issue licenses to foreign vessels, should it be deemed desirable at any 

 time to do so. 



But not only are the merchants of this city in favor of this action 

 of the government, but from communications that I have received 

 from different parts of the country during the past few months I 

 have reason to know that the practical men the fishermen are also 

 in favor of the measure. 



I do not know to the fullest extent the views of the whole of the 

 " practical men of this House," but I know sufficient of their views 

 to say that every " practical man " in this House will support this bill. 



Many of the fishermen of the country during the last year or two 

 have been greatly embarrassed by reason of the free access of Ameri- 

 can vessels to our bait supplies. I have received a communication 

 from inspector O'Reilly to the effect that there were instances where 

 our own Bank fishermen were in harbor with American fishermen in 

 quest of bait, and, while our fishermen were prepared to pay an 

 amount equal to that offered by the Americans for bait supplies, the 

 Americans were given the preference, and that in some instances 

 serious loss ensued to our fishermen. Inducements were held out by 

 the American captains by way of cash and other means to secure the 

 preference. This has engendered a feeling of resentment, as well as 

 of determination, and demands at the hands of the government the 

 prohibition of the supplying of bait fishes to the Americans unless 

 for an equivalent in the shape of a free market from the United 

 States. They have borne with their grievance patiently because they 

 thought the Americans would speedily open their markets to New- 

 foundland fish. If those markets had been opened as was agreed 

 between the government of this colony and the Administration of the 

 United States, there would have been no representation of that griev- 

 ance to the government of the colony. 



There was also a recognition on the part of the fishermen of this 

 colony that we had the whip hand in regard to the fisheries of 

 British North America. There is not the faintest shadow of a doubt 

 upon that point, as I stated on a former occasion. We have already 

 demonstrated to the French that we hold the key to the North 

 Atlantic fisheries. 



It had been stated by the leader of the opposition that if we closed 

 our bait supplies to the Americans they could obtain it in Canada. I 

 am aware that the French have been able to obtain a certain amount 

 of bait from the Canadians at St. Ann's and other places in Cnpe 

 Breton, but the source of supply from that base is very limited, for 

 it is a matter of notoriety that the Canadians have not a sufficient 

 supply of bait for their own purposes, and that they are dependent, 

 to a very large extent indeed, upon supplies obtained in the waters 

 of this colony. I have mentioned this before, and I will now pro- 

 duce the proof. 



I hold in my hand papers relating to Canada and Newfoundland 

 printed by order of the Canadian parliament in the session of 1892, 

 and on page 28 of that report I find a letter addressed by C. Edwin 

 Kaulbach, esq., to the Hon. Charles H. Tupper, minister of marine 

 and fisheries at Ottawa, under date 17th of April, 1890. This gen- 

 tleman, who hails from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and who is a member 

 of the Canadian parliament, wrote as follows in respect to the re- 



