ARGUMENT OF MR. ROOT 353 



to some provisions of this Act of 1905 of Newfoundland, objections 

 to which the British Government gave their practical assent. The 

 provisions objected to in form were directed solely to the prevention 

 of something which, very hkely, they had a right to prevent; that 

 is, certain trade transactions, the purchase of fish, or the purchase 

 of nets and implements of fishing which, I say, very hkely, they 

 had a right to prevent. I put in "very likely" because it might 

 depend upon your decision under Question i, and I do not want to 

 ignore that. But those provisions to which I refer in the Act of 

 1905, while directed only to the prevention of certain trade, author- 

 ized the local officer to go on board of any fishing vessel, take it 

 into port, take it away from the fishing ground, subject the master 

 to examination and the vessel to search for the purpose of ascertain- 

 ing whether he had on board any fish, or fishing gear, the purchase 

 of which was prohibited, and whether he had purchased any fish 

 or fishing gear, and provided that the presence of any fish or fishing 

 gear on board should be prima facie evidence that he had purchased 

 it. Those provisions, though directed to the enforcement of a 

 statute which I am not now contesting the right of Newfoundland 

 to make, were provisions which plainly interfered with and pre- 

 vented the exercise of the fishing right, because they took the ship 

 away and put it in a position where it might be impossible to 

 prevent it from being condemned, and made the mere presence 

 upon the ship of the very things which the ship was entitled to 

 have on board as a result of its fishing enterprise, the imple- 

 ments which it was entitled to have to carry on its enterprise, 

 a condemnatory fact. Anything of that kind should be avoided 

 in any provision relating to the conduct of these vessels under 

 Question 3 or Question 4. 



Sir Charles Fitzpatrick: Have you looked at the regulations 

 applicable to the North Sea fisheries ? 



Senator Root: I have run my eye over them. 



Sir Charles Fitzpatrick : Can you not find something which 

 there would be useful ? 



Senator Root: It is quite probable, and you will remember 

 that there was not any real difficulty in setthng upon those regula- 



