AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 14 39 



No. 30. 



TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. 

 May it please Your Majesty : 



We, Your Majesty's loyal subjects, the Commons of Newfoundland in 

 general assembly convened, beg leave to approach Your Majesty with 

 sentiments of unswerving loyalty to Your Gracious Majesty's t>er8on and 

 throne, to tender to Your Majesty our respectful and sincere acknowMz- 

 ments for the protection affjrded by the Imperial Government to the 

 fisheries of this colony and Labrador, during the last year, and to pray 

 that Your Gracious Majesty will be pleased to continue the same dnrine 

 the ensuing season. 



May it please Your Majesty : 



The illicit traffic in bait carried on between the inhabitants of the 

 western part of this island and the French, has proved of serious injury 

 to the fisheries generally, as the supply enables the French bankers to 

 commence their voyage early in spring, and thereby prevent the fish from 

 reaching our coasts. We therefore most earnestly beseech Your Majesty 

 graciously to be pleased to cause an efficient war steamer to be placed 

 in Burin during winter, so that, by being early on the coast, she may 

 avert the evil of which we so greatly complain. 



Passed the house of assemblv, April 23d, 1853. 



JOHN KENT, 



No. 31. 



[Memorandum.] 



VICE- ADMIRALTY COURT, Prince Edicard Inland. 



The United States fishing schooner Union, Warren D. Bunker, mas- 

 ter, was seized on the 20th day of July, 1852, by Her Majesty's schooner 

 Telegraph, the Hon. Henry Weyland Chetwynd, commander, for fishing 

 wjthin the three-mile limit. 



Vessel condemned on the 24th September of same year the judge by 

 interlocutory decree pronouncing ''the said schooner Union to have been 

 fishing contrary to the provisions of the act of Parliament made and 

 passed in the fifty-ninth year of the reign of His late Majesty King 

 George III, intituled 'An act to make regulations with respect to the 

 taking and curing of fish on certain parts of the coasts of Newfound- 

 land, Labrador, and His Majesty's other possessions in North America, 

 according to a convention made between His Majesty and the doited 

 States of America,' and as such or otherwise subject and liable to for- 

 feiture and condemnation, and condemned the said schooner, her tackle, 

 apparel, and furniture, goods and merchandise found laden on board 

 the said schooner at the time of her seizure, as forfeited to our Sovereign 

 Lady the Queen accordingly." 



Appearance was filed for the defendants in this case, " but neverthe- 

 less under protest to the jurisdiction of this court." Upon argument 

 the judge overruled the protest and decreed that the parties should 

 appear absolutely. No appearance, however, was filed. 



I cannot find from any papers in this case, at present in the rejjiatr 

 of this court, that this vessel was ever interfered with by government 

 officers for transshipping fish or purchasing supplies. 

 94 F 



