518 MISCELLANEOUS 



In the session of 1906, I introduced a Bill to amend the Foreign 

 Fishing Vessels Act of 1905, by declaring that the first part of section 

 1 and the whole of section 3 thereof do not apply to foreign fishing 

 vessels resorting to Newfoundland waters in the exercise of Treaty 

 rights. This was done at the request of His Majesty's Government 

 in order to meet objections that had been raised to the measure by 

 the Government of the United States. 



This Bill also contained the provisions: (1) that it should be un- 

 lawful for a resident of the Colony to leave it for the purpose of 

 engaging in foreign fishing vessels intending to fish in the waters of 

 the Colony; and (2) that it should be unlawful for the master, owner, 

 or agent of any foreign fishing vessel to engage British subjects to 

 fish for them within the territorial waters of the Colony. These pro- 

 visions were rendered necessary because while the Bait Act of 1887 

 declared that no man should take bait fishes within the jurisdiction 

 of the Colony without a licence, and the Foreign Fishing Vessels Act 

 of 1905 declared that any master who attempted to engage any per- 

 son to form part of the crew of any foreign fishing vessel in any port 

 or in any part of the coast of this island should have his vessel con- 

 fiscated, in the autumn fishery of 1905 the Americans deliberately 

 proceeded to aid and abet our fishermen in violating the Bait Act by 

 engaging them through agents in Bay of Islands as part of their 

 crew, taking them outside the 3-mile limit to formally ship and enter 

 their service, and returning with them inside our jurisdiction to fish. 



It will be observed that whereas the Foreign Fishing Vessels Act 

 of 1905 penalised the master of any foreign fishing vessel for engag- 

 ing any person to form part of the crew of said vessel within the 

 jurisdiction of the Colony, the amending Act of 1906 penalised the 

 master, owner, or agent of such vessel who should engage British 

 subjects, either outside or inside our jurisdiction, and utilise them 

 within our jurisdiction to fish for them. 



The machinery for a complete control over our own people so as to 

 prevent them from aiding the Americans in catching such fishes was 

 thus provided by the Legislature, but this machinery was rendered 

 inoperative by the modus vivendi entered into between His Majesty's 

 Government and the Government of the United States of America in 

 October 1906, the terms of which may be summarised as follows, viz. : 



1. Permission to the Americans to use purse seines during the 

 ensuing season, the use of which instruments of capture the law of the 

 Colony prohibited and penalised; 



2. Permission to the Americans to ship Newfoundland fishermen 

 outside the 3-mile limit, which, by the law of the Colony, was pro- 

 hibited and penalised; 



3. The undertaking on the part of His Majesty's Ministers not to 

 bring into force the Foreign Fishing Vessels Act of 1906, an Act 

 regarded by the Legislature of the Colony as essential in order to 

 control the conduct of British fishermen and effectively enforce the 

 provisions of the Bait Act of 1887; 



4. An undertaking on the part of His Majesty's Ministers to limit 

 the operation of a law of the Colony (the Foreign Fishing Vessels 

 Act, 1905) by the non-enforcement of the first part of section 1 and 

 the whole of section 4. 



With the validity of the modus vivendi of 1906. 1 do not propose to 

 deal. Suffice it to say that the Supreme Court of Newfoundland has 



