ARGUMENT OF SIR WILLIAM ROBSON. 1739 



rial, and the most important limitation of all, for it is the most clearly 

 expressed, and which the circumstances show have been most vital 

 as between the parties, is, he may not bring anybody whom he likes to 

 assist him. He may only bring, to assist him in the carrying on of 

 that portion of his trade which he is permitted to exercise there, 

 persons of a particular class. Everything comes back to that. We 

 are here discussing whom may you, the fisherman, employ. Call 

 yourself a tradesman if you like, but you are not allowed here to 

 exercise the whole of your trade. You are only allowed to exercise 

 that part of it which consists in the taking of fish; and if you say 

 you want someone to steer your boat, we say: "All right, get him, 

 have someone to steer your boat, and have someone to dry your fish 

 and do all the other things properly appurtenant to your trade. But 

 remember, you are here under a special privilege, and you cannot let 

 anybody else in who has not got the same privilege as yourself.'' 

 That is the whole answer. You are confined to that. 



SIR CHARLES FITZPATRICK : You say it is an industry to be exercised 



subject to certain restrictions. The purchase of bait, for instance, is 



prohibited, the purchase of seines is prohibited things that 



1052 would be necessarily incident to the exercise of the trade ; and 



you say that the employment of foreigners is prohibited in the 



same way, although it may be considered as necessarily incident? 



SIR W. EOBSON : Yes, part of the trade. 



SIR CHARLES FITZPATRICK : That is your point ? 



SIR W. ROBSON : That states my position, if Sir Charles will allow 

 me just to make what may appear to be rather a fanciful verbal dis- 

 tinction. Instead of saying, as Sir Charles has said, an industry sub- 

 ject to restriction, he will forgive me if I say part of an industry is 

 to be exercised, that is to say, the taking of the fish. I rather prefer 

 that expression. One cannot be too careful about language, espe- 

 cially when you are not getting the last word. I feel that I don't 

 quite know how, in the report, some of the phrases that I may use 

 might, if detached, be made to tell against me, so I like to have it 

 exact. For instance, I should not like to have it read against me that 

 I had said it was an industry. Because that would give great scope to 

 the ingenuity of the more than distinguished advocate and statesman 

 who is going to take me in hand. And therefore I would rather have 

 it exactly as I put it not that it is an industry, but that it is part of 

 an industry. It is an industrial right perhaps that is how I should 

 put it it is an industrial right which is conferred upon a class of 

 persons, and which they may exercise strictly according to the terms 

 of their right. But however useful it may be to their industry as a 

 whole that they may have this, that, and the other thing, the answer. 

 is: "No! we have not entitled you to exercise your industry as a 

 whole; we have only given you a right useful to you, and necessary 

 to you in the exercise of your industry." 



