2050 NOBTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



to proceed early from the ports of Great Britain to the banks of 

 Newfoundland, and thereby to prosecute the fishery on the said banks 

 to the greatest advantage, may it please your Majesty that it may be 

 enacted." 



Then again 



" for eleven years, for a certain number of ships or vessels employed 

 in the British fishery on the banks of Newfoundland." 



They speak only of the fishery on the banks. Then, a little below 

 the middle of the page, after having referred to the Act of King 

 William III, they say 



" and shall be fitted and cleared out from some port in Great Britain 

 after the first Day of January, one thousand seven hundred and 

 seventy-six, and after that day in each succeeding year, and shall 

 proceed to the banks of Newfoundland; and having catched a cargo 

 of fish upon those banks." 



Then again, some lines below : 



" Before the said fifteenth Day of July in each year, at the said 

 island, with a like cargo, and shall proceed again to the said banks." 



In the next line you again find the word " banks," and two lines 

 below again the word " banks." In the whole of that statute they 

 speak only of the fishery on the banks. 



SENATOR ROOT : It was the same fishery. It was then, as it is now, 

 all the same fishery. The fishery on the banks was the great object 

 of the use of Newfoundland, and this statute of 1775, like all the 

 previous statutes, in fact, treats them as a whole because the success- 

 ful prosecution of the bank fishery required the use of the proximate 

 shores, and I cannot doubt that the general provisions of the statute 

 did operate to cover all persons such as were the British themselves 

 and as were the Americans themselves, and as were all the British 

 and Americans in 1783, and from 1783 to 1818 all those engaged in 

 that fishery, the object of which was to take fish from the banks, and 

 which employed and involved the use of the shores and waters of 

 Newfoundland as an adjunct to its successful prosecution. Lord 

 Elgin correctly gives, as we conceive, the opinion of the Government 

 of Great Britain regarding this statute. His letter will be found ;it 

 p. 986 of the United States Case Appendix, and it bears date the 8th 

 August, 1906. He says at the top of p. 987 : 



" Light dues were presumably not levied in 1818, seines were ap- 

 parently in use, the prohibition of Sunday fishing had been abolished 

 in 1776 "- 



That is a misprint for 1775, because it goes on to say "(see 15 

 George III, cap. 31)," which is the Act of 1775. 



" and fishing-ships were exempted from entry at Custom-house, and 

 required only to make a report on first arrival and on clearing." 



