271 



these 

 wliich 

 hi have 

 u il lliat 



, tV07.t!ll 



onsidcr- 

 ^ ahuost 

 icly was 

 " their 

 suoying 



the fish, and tlu ocean would be uninhabitable by lish — would be a desert of water. 

 We were told that we were poisoiiinfj; tlieir lish In tlirowinij Riirry ov >rlioard, and for all 

 that lliere wen> to be damages. Now these iiillninnialorv haran;^iies, made by jioiilieians, 

 or iniiilisiied la the Djininion newspinicra, orcireuhited by those jiersoiis who went about 

 throu;i;h the Dominion obtaining' aflidavitsof witnesses, produceii tiieir elFect, and the effect 

 was a niuilildde of ssitncsses wiio HWore to tiiosu tilings, who evidently came lure to swear 

 to them, and took moreinleresl in them, and were belter informed upon them, than upon 

 any of tiie imi)ortant questions which were to be determined. V/hen we came to 

 evidence to be relied upon — the evidence of men who kenp books, wl ose interest it was 

 to keep books, and who kept the best possible bocks; men who had statistics to make up 

 upon aulhority and responsibility ; men whose capital and interest an;l everythinij; were 

 invested in the trade — then we brought forward witnesses to whom a. I persons looking 

 for li^ht upon this (jueslion would be likely to resort. And 1 hav< no doubt that as 

 fast as it beeam(> known ihrough lliese Provinces that nodamages would be given for" lee- 

 bowing," for poisoning lish, for purse-nets t,which ii appears we could net \m'}, nor for the 

 right to buy bait iuid supplie.", and to transship ; ami tliat it wa'' to come down to the 

 simple i|iiesiion of, on the one hand, participatini.' with them in the lishenisof this n gion 

 to the full extent instead of to a limited extent ; and they be relieved from all duties on 

 their fish and lish-oil on the other, with the conse(pient stimidation of their boat-lisliing 

 and vessel-building- and lishing, they all began to look at it in a totallv diHerent aspect. 

 I am not able lo product; it at this moiuent, but I will produce, before the argument 

 closes, a Memorial addressed to the Province of Nova Scotia, ret|ue8ting them to bring 

 things back to IJie old coiulition — that the fishing shall be left in common — without any 

 idea that free trade was to be granted as an equivalent. 



Such was the state of things and the ctmdition of feeling in the Pi'ovinces. 1 need 

 not press upon your Honotu's that we are right in our jiosilion, lor as to all. except the 

 qiu'slion of compensation, your Honours have already by an unanimons vote passed in our 

 favour; and of course it re(piires no argiuuent to show that as we are lo make compen- 

 sation for the value of what we obtain under the Article XVIll of the Tret'ty of 1871, 

 in addition to what we had under the Treaty of 1818 (provided iho British side of the 

 account does imt balance it), tliat is all we have to consider; and I disiuiss all those 

 elements which ave undoubtedly been the prevailing means of securing witnesses, and 

 of stinudating witnesses throughout these Provinces, up to tlie present time. 



After tlie sound sense and hunionr of my learned friend Mr. Treseot m the subject of 

 the lighthouses, 1 suppose I sijotdd be excusable if 1 touched upon them again. 1 see that 

 the counsel on the other side already feel the humour of the thing, and 1 suppose they 

 rather regret tliat the subject was ever opened, because it shows to what straits they wero 

 driven to make uji a case against the United States to balance the over-powering advan- 

 tage to then\ derived from the freedom of trade. Why, tiiey come together, the wise 

 men, and they say amotig tliemselves: "Free trade is a boon to us in our mackerel and 

 our herring. It is slimulaling our fisheries; it is recalling our sons from afar and 

 employing them at home in our own industries; it is building up boat fishing; it ia 

 exteiuliiig tiie .size ol'oiu' boats and building up vessel fishing. The profits on our trade 

 are now all that we have a right to make, with no discount wluitever. How can we 

 meet that case of advantage? What can we say they ought to pay us, that sliall lie 

 anything like a set-off for what we ourselves have received? Tlie riglu to lish wiiji'n 

 three miles! Why, the Americans had iIk; whole Uulf of St. Lawrence and ail its ha\s; 

 they had all its banks, .shoals, leilges, eddies; tliey had Labrador and the Magdalen Islaiuis ; 

 they had the north, west, and soutli parts of Newtoundlaud ; they iiad ever\ thing e.vcei t 

 the tliree-aiile line of the Isnuid, and tiie western sliore of Nova Scotia and New IJrnnsw iek. 

 And wliai did tlieyget? Nut the value of the fis-h ; not wliat tiie fish sold tor in iJie 

 American market; not the proiit wiiieh the American dealer made on his fish : that is 

 the result ot his capital, industry, and labour. What do the American get ? The value 

 of the fish as it lies: writhing on the deck? No; for that is the result of tlie capital that 

 sends the ship and fits it out. of the industry and th'; skill of the fishermen, Wliaf do 

 they get ? They get only tiie liberty of trying to catch the fish, which were eluding 

 theiu, with all their skill, in the water of the ocean; the right to follow them occasioiiallv, 

 if they desire to do so, in their big vessels, within the limits of three miles, liiil it will 

 not do to go to such a tribunal as this with such a case as that. The free swimming 

 fish in the seas, going we do not know how far off, and showing themselves here to-day 

 and there to morrow ; schooling up on the face of the sea, and then going out of sigjit in 

 the mud: having no habitat, and being nobody's property, the riglit to try to catch 

 them nearer the shore than heretofore, that is not capable of being assessed so as to be 

 of much pecuniary value : we must have something else." So they started the theory 

 of adding to this, compensation that ought to be made for right to'buv the bait ; for a 

 [•J80j ■ 3 O !? 



