960 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



the proper place for curing and drying cod-fish is the place where 

 they have not been caught. The proper place to take cod-fish to dry 

 it and cure it is a place where no cod-fish would ever be found for 

 the purpose of catching it. That is very clear. The clear intention, 

 unquestionable to any fisherman who is reading that article, would 

 be : That is all right ; you have got the right to catch fish out on the 

 coast, and bring it into the bays, harbours, and creeks to dry it. And 

 it is only in the bays, harbours, and creeks, where it is impossible to 

 catch your fish, that the fish can be cured and dried. 



JUDGE GRAY: It may be clear to the fishermen, but it is not clear 

 to me why that should be so. 



SIR JAMES WINTER: And further than that it was then only the 



unsettled bays, harbours, and creeks. 



575 SIR CHARLES FITZPATRICK: Can you not make that point 

 clear? It is not any more clear to me than it is to Justice 

 Gray. 



SIR JAMES WINTER: Which point is that? 



SIR CHARLES FITZPATRICK: The point you made a moment ago, 

 that you cannot cure the fish where you catch them. I suppose it is 

 on the ground that you cannot catch fish in the bay. Is that it? 



SIR JAMES WINTER: Yes. 



SIR CHARLES FITZPATRICK: That is the point I wanted you to 

 answer. 



SIR JAMES WINTER : I was coming to that. The fact is this, and it 

 is the point, really, upon which the whole case, so far as the facts 

 and the interpretation of this treaty, turns, as far as I am instructed, 

 and that is that in Labrador, where they are given the right both to 

 catch and cure and dry, in the bays, harbours, and creeks, there the 

 fish, the cod-fish, frequent and go into the bays, harbours, and creeks 

 and a re caught there. That is a physically well-known fact, publicly 

 known. An entirely different condition of things exists, has existed, 

 and did exist at the time of the making of the treaty, and does-exist 

 down to to-day, on the other parts of the treaty coasts, namely, from 

 Rameau Islands up to Quirpon, and from Cape Ray to Quirpon, 

 where no cod-fish is ever caught in any of the bays, harbours, and 

 creeks. Further than that, we say that if the word " cod-fish " is 

 put into the treaty to-day, instead of " fish of all kinds," we are 

 perfectly content with that construction of the treaty. The Ameri- 

 cans are perfectly at liberty to come into all the bays and creeks 

 and harbours of the southern and western coast of Newfoundland 

 for the purpose of catching cod-fish, as much as ever they please ; 

 because no cod-fish ever come into any of the bays, creeks, and har- 

 bours of that part of the country. 



SIR CHARLES FITZPATRICK : What evidence have we of that ? 



