DESPATCHES, EEPOETS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 285 



exceeding two shillings, and sixpence, shall and may be taken by the 

 Officers of the Customs at Newfoundland for each such report; and 

 that no other fee shall be taken or demanded by any Officer of the 

 Customs there, upon any other pretence whatsoever relative to the 

 said Fishery, any law, custom, or usage to the contrary notwith- 

 standing." 



" Provided always, and be it enacted, that in case any such fishing 

 ship or vessel shall, at her last clearing out from the said Island of 

 Newfoundland, have on board, or export any goods or merchandize 

 whatsoever, except Fish, or Oil made of Fish, such ship or vessel, and 

 the goods thereon laden, shall be subject and liable to the same secu- 

 rities, restrictions, and regulations, in all respects, as they would have 

 been subject and liable to if this Act had not been made, any thing 

 hereinbefore contained to the contrary notwithstanding." 



Here it was expected that all controversy would end, but on the 

 Collector's return to Newfoundland, the trade still continued to refuse 

 to pay fees (alledging that His Majesty's ministers had no authority 

 to estalbish a Custom-house at Newfoundland) and he was obliged 

 to make another voyage to England to represent the melanchoty case 

 to His Majesty's ministers, after suffering the loss of emoluments for 

 near three years, for which he received a compensation from Govern- 

 ment, and in an Act of the 16th of His present Majesty, a clause was 

 inserted confirming to the Officers at Newfoundland the like fees as 

 taken at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, on or before the first day of January 

 1768, the third section of which recites, "That the Officers of His 

 Majesty's Customs in the said island of Newfoundland shall be and 

 are hereby declared to have been entitled to ask, demand, take, and 

 receive such fees for all business done by them in the execution of 

 their duty, as were legally demanded and taken by the like Officers 

 of the Customs at the port of Halifax in Nova Scotia, on or before 

 the first day of January one thousand seven hundred and sixty- 

 eight," &c. 



This Act put a stop to the persecution of the Officers, and the fees 

 were uniformly paid, agreeably to the Halifax list, (except for the 

 fishing vessels called Bankers) until the year 1785, when the subject 

 was revived again, and another complaint made, the merits of which 

 were agitated before the right honourable the Lords of Trade, in the 

 month of January of that year, and the Collector was in London six 

 weeks in attendance ; and after a long hearing of all parties, their 

 Lordships confirmed the fees of the Officers as oefore described; and 

 the Witness from Dartmouth, Mr. Newman, made the following 

 reply : 



"Then, my Lords, we must submit, and put up with the incon- 

 venience ; and we don't know that it is so very great." 



From that time we have gone on with more harmony, only that 

 whenever we have, in the execution of our duty, done any disagreeable 

 thing, or made a seizure, we have constantly been threatened with 

 another trial of strength, either to abolish the office, or take from us 

 our fees ; and in order to facilitate this undertaking, they made a very 

 unfair representation last year, desiring a clause in the Judicature Bill 

 of last Sessions, rendering the Officers of the Customs at Newfound- 

 land incapable, as long as that Act was in force, from acting as 

 Justices of the Peace, which has been the means of our being both 

 privately and publicly insulted, and in particular the Comptroller, 



