1552 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



at all. It can secure all that it is entitled to while the vessel is on 

 the coast. 



I wish to call attention to an instance on the non-treaty coast, to 

 show how hardly any hard-and-fast regulation with regard to the 

 fish ing- vessels would bear. The case of the " Everett Steele " is the 

 one to which I refer, and is found in United States Case Appendix, 

 at p. 842. There was a case where the vessel put in in heavy weather 

 for shelter. I am not going to read with regard to it, because I can 

 state it, and it appears in a number of despatches. The captain put 

 in, and, of course, as is the manner of fishing-vessels, he prepared to 

 go to sea the instant the storm abated, and the earlier in the morning 

 the better, to save the day's fishing. He was hailed by a revenue- 

 cutter, and required to go up the harbor (he was in the outer harbor) 

 to the custom-house and there report. And in the course of the con- 

 versation he was asked whether he had ever been in any port with- 

 out reporting to the customs, and he told them, honestly enough, that 

 he had I think it was six months before put in at some place for 

 shelter, and made away in the morning; and so they held his vessel. 

 It is to be said that the vessel was released within two or three days 

 after her bait had spoiled, however, so that her catch was, for that 

 particular trip, ruined. 



We submit that, under Question 4, where shelter merely is sought, 

 and where there is no communication with the shore, that there ought 

 not to be any requirement of report at all. The Canadian Govern- 

 ment recognised the inconvenience of reporting, in the special instruc- 

 tions to fishery officers, from the department of fisheries in Canada, 

 on the 16th April, 1887. (Appendix to the Case of the United 

 States, vol. ii, p. 921) : 



" In places where United States' fishing vessels are accustomed to 

 come into Canadian waters for shelter only, the Captain of the 

 Cruiser which may be there is authorized to take entry from and 

 grant clearance to the masters of such fishing vessels without re- 

 quiring them to go on shore for that purpose. Blank forms of entry 

 and clearance are furnished to the Captains of Cruisers; these, after 

 being filled in, are to be forwarded by the Captain of the Cruiser to 

 the Customs Officer of the ports within whose jurisdiction they have 

 been used." 



And it goes on to say that in cases of distress and sickness, all 

 possible accommodation shall be shown them. That recognises the 

 severity of such a rule as I have been discussing when applied to 

 vessels seeking merely shelter, and not communicating with the shore. 

 It seems to us, and I submit that under no circumstances should any- 

 thing but report be required of fishing-vessels pure and simple, and 

 that that requirement ought not, so far as report is concerned, to be 

 imposed at all upon the treaty coast ; that it ought not to be imposed 



