BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 509 



any previous year; that was the injury which had been done by the 

 policy of the Newfoundland Government to the Americans. The 

 Premier had intimated in his address, two days ago, that the fisher- 

 men who suffered because of the abolition of their industry, would 

 be considered and compensation allowed them. He, Mr. C. did not 

 altogether know whether the Premier meant what he was saying or 

 not, but he considered that such a course would be a just one. There 

 were many independent fishermen who for years had been working 

 hard from day to day to make a living and be independent in the 

 world; many of these found themselves to-day completely flattened 

 out with no course left open to them but that of getting out of the 

 colony. 



There was another subject to which he wished to call attention. 

 Two years ago the people of this country had been told in the speech 

 from the throne that the matter of cold storage would be dealt with. 

 Two years ago the members of the house were staying up all night 

 talking about cold storage, but to-day the local fishermen were as 

 hungry for bait as ever they were. Last year after the caplin season 

 was over, squid were to be had for three or four days, then for ten 

 days the squid were gone ; the fishermen had no means of saving the 

 squid except by salting them, and every fisherman knew the difference 

 between fresh squid and salt squid; when it came to catching fish. 

 Thousands of quintals more of fish would have been caught last year 

 if the members of the Legislature were in earnest in the stand which 

 they had taken two or three years ago. If they had been in earnest, 

 two or three or more settlements would have been selected so that 

 practical tests could have been made. He himself, lived amongst the 

 fishermen and knew what they wanted. He, himself had seen fisher- 

 men coming back on fine days with their boats and saying no fish 

 could be caught because no bait was to be had. On the other hand, 

 in the settlement of Bay Bulls he had seen how, by the enterprise of 

 Mr. Weeks and a little help from the Government, the fishermen who 

 were provided with bait from the cold storage plant could procure 

 fish many days when the fishermen of Witless Bay and Toad's Cove 

 and other parts of the district were compelled to sit idly by waiting 

 for the squid to strike in. He supposed that cold storage operations 

 would be undertaken about the same time that the smelting plant on 

 Bell Island, of which the Government had been talking two years ago, 

 would start working. It was enough to make the Irish blood of any 

 man boil to come to this house day after day and night after night 

 and see the mockery which was going on, and he was asked to-day to 

 vote upon this address, which was another mock. The member for 

 Trinity, Dr. Lloyd, had stated that he was an Englishman. He 

 would tell that hon. member that he, Mr. Cashin, was as true to the 

 flag of England as ever an Englishman was, but his loyalty to the 

 flag would not compel him to come to this house and make a mockery 

 of the people who elected him. He intended to record his vote 

 against the address, feeling sure that he was representing the true 

 interests of the people in so doing ; and he would go further and thank 

 the Mother Country on behalf of the people of Bay of Islands that 

 she in her wisdom stepped in with the modus vivendi and made an 

 arrangement whereby for another year the question could stand over 

 until the Imperial Government could have a chance of passing upon 

 it. When the Rt. hon., the Premier felt himself humiliated in con- 



