194 THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERY QUESTION. 



nor interference with their buildings and enclosures there, nor with any 

 erections or buildings on any part of the coast where the French enjoy a 

 temporary right of fishery which did not actually interfere with the fishery 

 privileges of the French, as should be determined by the Commissioners ; nor 

 were British subjects to be molested in fishing on any part where they did not 

 actually interrupt the French by their competition. 



3. — That no building or enclosure which had been erected for five years should be 

 removed as interfering with the French fishery privileges without compensation 

 to be determined on by the Commissioners; but no compensation to be 

 payable for any such building or enclosure hereafter erected without the consent 

 of the Commissioners. 



4. — That the Commissioners should determine the limit or boundary line to which 

 the French might prosecute their fishery, the British having the exclusive right 

 of salmon and all other fishing in rivers. 



5. — That the breadth of strand of which the French should have the right of 

 temporary use for fishery purposes should be defined ; thus removing objections 

 to grants of land for all purposes beyond the boundary so to be defined, and 

 within the same for mining purposes ; right being reserved to the British 

 Government to erect on such strand works of a military or other public 

 character, and to the British subjects for wharves and buildings necessary for 

 mining, trading, and other purposes apart from the fishery in places selected 

 with permission of Commissioners. 



NEGOTIATIONS IN 1881. 



After an interval of five years, fresh negotiations were entered 

 upon by means of a Joint Commission, which was appointed in 1881. 

 Admiral Pierre representing France, Admiral Miller, England, and 

 Sir William Whiteway, the Premier of Newfoundland, representing 

 that Colony. 



The basis of arrangement arrived at, which was drawn up by the 

 British Commissioner, and approved by the Government of New- 

 foundland, and which it was hoped would have offered to the French 

 Government a satisfactory solution, consented in the appointment of 

 a Demarcation Commission, and a Fishery Commission ; the former 

 to define the coast line for the exercise by the French of the rights 

 conceded to them by Treaty, to deal with the harbours, and bays at 

 the service of the French, the erection of wharves, and buildings ; 

 and the latter to supervise the operations under the agreement of the 

 English and French fishermen with power to punish offenders. The 

 French Government opposing the joint occupation by British and 

 French of the harbours, and the joint operations on the fishing ground, 

 rejected the Convention. 



