1604 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISH KR IKS ARBITRATION. 



I say they dealt with it by leaving the power of regulation where 

 it was. 



First of all, the first question, therefore, to which I must devote a 

 few remarks, is: Was it so necessary as that I am justified in saying 

 that both parties must have thought of it? Well, there is a short 

 answer to that, without going to all the references in the appendices 

 and I mean to keep as clear of these appendices as I possibly can 

 and it is this : The fishery was, in fact, regulated for long, regulated 

 minutely, regulated severely, by acts and statutes which touched the 

 Newfoundland fishermen. 



Mr. Turner says they did not touch his fishermen; they knew 

 nothing about them ; and, therefore, he says : " I am not bound by 

 them, and they are not to be treated as affecting my rights, or as hav- 

 ing any bearing whatever on the question of my conduct." Well. 

 for the moment, be it so. I will deal with that in another branch of 

 the case. But, anyhow, they affected the Newfoundland fishermen. 

 They visited them with heavy penalties, and, as I say, they touched 

 them at almost every step and stage of their industry, where they 

 were to fish, who was to have priority among them. The vessel that 

 got out first from Great Britain had the luck to see its captain treated 

 as the admiral of the whole fishing fleet, English and American. 

 There were regulations of the most minute character, no doubt, made 

 by him. Depend upon it, a fishing admiral is not a person who be- 

 littles his authority, and I have no doubt that when he was entrusted 

 with quasi-legislative powers there was nobody ever caught a herring 

 on that coast that did not know something about him and his powers. 

 It is clear that legislation, therefore, was necessary for them. Would 

 they have submitted to it if it had not been vital? If the fish had 

 been as accommodating as Professor Huxley thought they always are, 

 and no amount of destruction can do anything but just stimulate 

 them to fresh efforts, then depend upon it we should not have had 

 much regulation. The fishermen would have said, in Newfoundland : 

 "All this is unnecessary; don't worry us with your statutes. Provi- 

 dence does everything we want ; it repairs the ravages of our seines, 

 and regulations are totally superfluous." They did not say so. They 

 submitted to them aye, and in the United States, where they were 

 not forthcoming, they clamoured for them they clamoured for these 

 regulations. 



There are two reports, two very important and useful reports, 

 which deal with this point. They have already lx?en referred to, and 

 I do not think that I need trouble the Tribunal with the reference, 

 because I am sure they will forgive me for just recalling them to their 

 minds in substance. I have a few passages extracted from them, but 

 I only want to deal with them quite generally, and therefore I am 

 dealing with them without actual reference. 



