2054 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION 



the Canadian limits; and does not extend itself out to sea at all, 

 except by this ballast provision. That is all for Lower Canada. 



So there was not, in 1783 or in 1818, or at any time between them, 

 any provision in Lower Canada which in any degree regulated or 

 affected the time and manner in which American fishermen might 

 exercise their liberty. 



There was in New Brunswick a series of statutes, that is, a statute 

 with amendments, relating to the river and harbour of St. John, 

 passed in 1793, a statute for the protection of river fishing, with 

 clauses in it apparently for the protection of the harbour channels 

 in the Bay of St. John, into which the river runs. The tides 

 1243 in the Bay of Fundy, the Tribunal will remember and we 

 are very proud of the fact are the highest in the world ; and 

 the water rushes in and out with tremendous violence. This statute 

 prohibited the running of nets out from the shore more than a cer- 

 tain distance. A careful examination of the statute will show that 

 it relates to nets running out from the shore. They are to be not 

 nearer together than so much, measured by a line parallel to the 

 shore, and only so many lengths of net out from the shore. So that 

 it is purely a river shore regulation. Nevertheless, there is a very 

 interesting circumstance affecting this river regulation, to which I 

 shall call attention before very long, and I will ask the Tribunal to 

 recall the description that I have given, both of that Nova Scotia 

 authorization for one year to magistrates to make rules for the pro- 

 tection of the run of fish in the rivers and this St. John river pro- 

 tection. The negotiators heard of the subject in the course of their 

 negotiations, as I shall presently show. 



Then there was in New Brunswick a statute containing a local 

 regulation of the shore rights in Northumberland County, in the 

 Bay of Miramichi, and authorizing local magistrates to make regu- 

 lations. And there was in two of this series of statutes a Sunday 

 regulation. Those laws were 1793, 1799, and 1810. I think I have 

 fairly described them. 



So the Tribunal will perceive that here, over this whole extent of 

 coast, all of Newfoundland, east and south and west, all of Labrador, 

 both the Newfoundland Labrador and the Canadian Labrador, all 

 of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, all of the south coast of 

 this part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence which joins the River St. Law- 

 rence over all this tremendous stretch there was no regulation of 

 the exercise of the American liberty of fishing, and there never had 

 been any when this treaty was made in 1818. There was a river 

 protection statute, up here in New Brunswick (indicating on map), 

 up the bay, and there was in here, in New Brunswick (indicating on 

 map) a Sunday regulation. 



