ARGUMENT OF SIR JAMES WINTE&. 



crimination, or rather legislation which allowed Newfoundland fish- 

 ermen to use nets from the shore and forbade American fishermen 

 using and catching fish by seines from their boats. That was the 

 impression which, I submit, must have been left upon the mind of 

 any person who heard the argument; in fact, that is the only sense 

 in which this charge of discrimination, I think, can be of any force 

 or effect. 



Xow, learned counsel failed to state to the Tribunal the whole facts 

 of the case. When I say the " facts of the case " I refer to the cus- 

 toms, usages, and practices observed in carrying on the fishery on 

 this part of the coast as well as on all parts of the coast. The fact is 

 that seines were used before this legislation was enacted, and have 

 been used ever since, down to the present time by the Newfoundland 

 fishermen. This legislation was and must have been directed prin- 

 cipally against Newfoundland fishermen. The legislation, merely by 

 accident, happened to be passed when the United States fishermen had 

 the same rights to catch fish upon the coasts as Newfoundlanders 

 had. in 1862, when the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 was in force, but 

 since that time and the legislation was intended for all time it 

 has been kept in force against the fishermen of Newfoundland, and 

 in relation to those parts of the coast where the Americans have no 

 right to fish. I may go further and say that at the time of the pass- 

 ing of this legislation the only fishery carried on by means of these 

 seines was carried on in the waters of Fortune Bay and its vicinity, 

 and that had been carried on by the Newfoundland fishermen only, 

 and not by the fishermen of the United States or any other country. 

 That fishery was carried on by the use of these large seines at certain 

 seasons of the year in the waters of Fortune Bay and it was found 

 that the herring fishery was being injured; or, at any rate, it was a 

 fact that the herring fishery was dwindling away, or being injured 

 by some cause or other, and the cause of that injury was supposed, 

 and is still supposed to be the use of seines by our fishermen and the 

 catching of enormous quantities of herring, particularly in the spring, 

 in the months of March and April, as well as also by the taking of 

 herring during the spawning season. The legislation was directed to- 

 wards the protection of herring from the two methods of injury: 

 one, the taking of herring in large quantities at the spawning season ; 

 and, the other, the practice which had prevailed of taking herring in 

 very large quantities in the spring; by which methods it was supposed 

 that the herring fishery had been damaged and diminished. Those 

 against whom that legislation was directed, therefore, in the first 

 place, were the fishermen of Newfoundland; certainly it was not 

 against the Americans, because neither then nor at any other time, 

 except once, so far as we can discover, have the Americans ever 

 used seines for the purpose of catching fish in Newfoundland waters. 



