government which succeeded it was not content with this negative attitude. 

 In May, 1886, it enacted the famous "Bait Bill" which forbid the inhabitants 

 of Newfoundland to sell bait of any kind to foreigners. 



This drastic measure was aimed at the annihilation of the French cod 

 fishery in Newfoundland waters, on the banks as well as on the shore. It was 

 especially directed at the bank fishery, much the more important at this pe- 

 riod. The Coast fishermen had by then practically abandoned the line fishery, 

 fishing only with nets. The coast fishermen then had no need for bait, with 

 which they were, moreover, able to supply themselves. For the bank fisher- 

 men, on the contrary, the ban on provisioning with bait from the islanders 

 was a threat of the greatest gravity. 



But the French fishery could parry the mortal blow that the Parliament 

 at St. John's hoped to give it by adopting the bulot for baiting the trawls. It 

 was then useless to put into force a bill which would cause a loss of 600, 000 

 francs a year to the Newfoundland fishermen, and for which the Newfoundland 

 government would have to appropriate in its budget some 60, 000 francs for 

 the surveillance of its coasts. 



At the same period the French shore fishery gave rise to new conflict in 

 which the fishing industry and the canning of lobsters furnished a pretext. 

 The lobster abounds in the coastal waters of Newfoundland, especially on the 

 west coast. For many years, its canning, inaugurated by the Newfoundland 

 fishermen, supplied an important income to the French engaged in the coastal 

 fishery. For a long time the coastal fishery had been declining while the bank 

 fishery continued to increase. In addition to the hostility of the islanders, the 

 principal reason was that the coastal fishery, with the double crews needed 

 for the long drying process on the beaches, presented commercially, less and 

 less profit compared to the banks because of the development of artificial dry- 

 ing of green- salted cod at the home ports, which was much more economical. 



The young industry of lobster fishing lent a new interest to the coastal 

 fishery. The St. Pierre and metropolitan outfitters for the coast employed a 

 progressively more important part of their crews in this fishery and in the 

 canning of lobsters, and the French products were much better than the Eng- 

 lish which were in general less well prepared. 



The adaptation to these new working conditions had been very simple. 

 The crews, slightly reinforced, were divided into squads. One group fished 

 for lobsters with traps fabricated during the crossing. The other group fished 



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