Enclosure
55
13 JAN
Honourable Acting Attorney General,
Can any part of the shores of Mirs Bay be regarded as within our territory? By the convention the waters are ours.
Do the waters include the foreshore, and if so, to what distance? To high water mark or further?
(Signed) J.H.Stewart Lockhart.
Colonial Secretary.
22-7-99.
Honourable Colonial Secretary.
This is a difficult question to answer, because the circumstances are so anomalous that one can find no legal authority upon the subject, which would serve as a reliable guide.
By the common law of England, the Crown has a right to the foreshore round England, i.e. up to the high water mark of medium tides. (see the cases of A.G. v. Chambers 4 D.M. and G. 206 and per Lord Herschell in A.G. v. Emerson 1891 App. Cas. p. 653).
The circumstances, however, of the present case are so different, that I think different considerations apply.
In this case Great Britain can claim no greater rights than those conferred upon her by treaty, and I am of opinion that