MISCELLANEOUS. 1247 



have also been enacted making regulations for setting nets, and in 

 other respects for regulating the fisheries in our bays and creeks. Stat- 

 utes have also been passed here, and assented to in England, for col- 

 lecting light duties in the Gut of Canso, and American and other for- 

 eign, and also British and colonial vessels, have been brought within the 

 operation of those statutes. The right, therefore, to legislate in re- 

 spect of the fisheries and in respect of the navigation of the Gut of Canso, 

 has not only been confirmed in England, but has been acknowledged 

 in America in the payment of light duties. 



"The legislature of Nova Scotia may, therefore, be fairly said to 

 have the right to pass enactments either to restrict or obstruct the 

 passage of foreign vessels through the Gut of Canso. 



"The second point, as to the policy of imposing/wr^Twr restriction 

 upon foreign vessels passing through the Gut of Canso, is yet to be 

 considered. 



" In the consideration of that question, the treaty of 1818 affords the 

 best means of arriving at a sound conclusion. The American govern- 

 ment, by it, relinquish all right of fishery within three marine miles 

 of the coasts, bays, creeks, or harbors of this province; and under 

 the construction put upon that clause in England, upon the same 

 principle of international law as is acknowledged and insisted upon 

 by the American government, the American citizens, under the treaty, 

 have no right, for the purpose of fishery, to enter any part of the Bay 

 of St. George lying between the headlands formed by Cape George 

 on the one side and Port Hood island on the other. American fisher- 

 men, therefore, when entering that bay for fishing purposes, are clearly 

 violating the terms of the treaty. It may be said that the Gut of Canso 

 affords a more direct and easy passage to places in the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, where American fishermen would be within the terms of 

 the treaty; but that is no good reason why this legislature should per- 

 mit them to use that passage, when their doing so is attended with 

 almost disastrous consequences to our own fishermen. Were there 

 no other means of getting upon the fishing grounds, in the produce of 

 which they are entitled to participate, the Americans might then assert 

 a right of way, from necessity, through the Gut of Canso. When that 

 necessity does not exist, it would be unwise any longer to permit 

 American fishing vessels to pass through the Gut of Canso, for the fol- 

 lowing, among many other reasons that could be given, if necessary: In 

 the month of October, the net and seine fishery of mackerel in the Bay 

 of St. George is most important to the people of that part of the 

 country, and requires at the hands of the legislature every legitimate 

 protection. Up to this period American fishermen, using the pas- 

 sage of the Gut of Canso, go from it into St. George's bay, and not 

 only throw out bait to lure the fish from the shores where they are 

 usually caught by our own fishermen, but actually fish in all parts 

 of that bay, even within one mile of the shores. It is also a noto- 

 rious fact that the American fishing vessels in that bay annually 

 destroy the nets of the fishermen by sailing through them, 

 and every year in that way do injury to a great extent and this 

 upon ground which they have no right to tread. Remonstrances 

 have therefore been made to the American government against such 

 conduct; but the answer has invariably been, to protect ourselves in 

 that respect. Had the United States government adopted suitable 

 measures to prevent its citizens from trespassing as before mentioned, 



