ARGUMENT OF SAMUEL J. ELDER. 1451 



causing the least possible trouble either with the United States or 

 the Imperial Government. The chances of success cannot be weighed 

 in the balance against the grave difficulties that must arise out of 

 any endeavour to force these measures." 



Then, we have the Bait Act : 



" Permit me to go a little into details. In 1886 a Bait Act was 



passed " 



There I think Sir James was in error and that the reference was 

 to the Act of 1887 because I do not find in either Appendix any Act 

 of 1886. I may be in error. 



"In 1886 a Bait Act was passed for the purpose of preventing 

 the supply of bait to the French fishermen who used it for the purpose 

 of catching cod-fish on the Banks of Newfoundland. They took 

 the cod into our markets, and by means of heavy bounties were able 

 to undersell our fishermen. This Act was clearly intended to be used, 

 first of all, to prevent foreigners from using our bait against us, 

 and, secondly, it was enforced only against Frenchmen on account of 

 their competition in the matter of cod-fish, which was then almost 

 our sole means of livelihood. It was never intended to interfere with 

 the ordinary catching, sale, and exportation of herrings as articles 

 of consumption a consumption that has always been going on, and, 

 as far as the sale to the Americans is concerned, with considerable 

 profit to our people. It is by what I can call only a perversion and 

 misapplication of the spirit of that Act (although it may be accord- 

 ing to the strict letter) that Sir Robert Bond is endeavouring now 

 to interfere, as he has done, with the traffic with the Americans. In 

 fact, the very same Act contains provisions for facilitating and se- 

 curing the continuance of the traffic in herrings as articles of food. 

 When that Act was passed in 1886 the country was on the verge of 

 starvation on account of French competition ; it was passed as a meas- 

 ure of self-preservation ; the very life of the colony was at stake. But 

 at the present moment there is no necessity for the application of that 

 Act in the case of the United States. There is no strong public 

 demand for reciprocity with the United States. We never had bet- 

 ter markets for our cod-fish than at present. The Americans are 

 doing us no harm whatever ; there is only a desire on the part of some 

 people to obtain an entrance into American markets for the sale 

 of cod, and there is the widest difference among practical men on that 

 point. The best opinion is against it. Americans are not likely to be 

 consumers to any large extent of our codfish. Our best markets are 

 the Roman Catholic countries that buy our salted fish Brazil, Spain, 

 and the countries of the Mediterranean and our markets in these 

 countries were never better than they are now." 



It will be seen that the Act of 1887, if I correctly read what Sir 

 James said and interviews have been known to be not absolutely in 

 accordance with the statements made was intended against the 

 French, and it will appear that it was never until 1905 enforced 

 against the Americans. On the 15th February, 1888, the Chamber- 

 lain-Bayard Treaty was agreed upon. It provided for a commission 

 to delimit the places in which, under the renunciatory clause, the 



