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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O.
Reference :-
• 885
13 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
No. 125.
(NEWFOUNDLAND.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
Law Officers' Department, MY LORD,
Royal Courts of Justice, 30th July 1888. We were honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Brainston's letter of the 14th instant, stating that, with reference to our report of the 10th of November last relative to the employment by British subjects of cod-traps within three miles of the shore, and the establishment of factories on the shore for the purpose of preserving lobsters on that part of the coast of Newfoundland where the French enjoyed fishery rights, as set out in pages 1-3 of the enclosed Parliamentary papers, C.-4641. he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us a copy of a despatch from the Governor of the Colony, in which he submitted a proposal for meeting the objection Governor, of the French that the establishment of the factories in question was contrary to 7 April 1888. paragraph 2 of the Declaration annexed to the Treaty of Versailles in 1783, quoted on Page 2 of the Parliamentary papers enclosed.
That up to the year 1882, in accordance with instructions from Earl Granville m 1969, the Governor was "at liberty to make grants up to half a mile from the shore on those parts of the coast which are not occupied by the French, but not to confer any interest in land in the neighbourhood of those parts of the shore which are used by the French."
That the limit of half a mile from the shore was of course a purely arbitrary one. and that as the restrictions on the grant of land placed great impediments in the way
of the development of the Colony, they were subsequently removed on the application of the Colonial Government.
That the accompanying forms of lease and grant, which were prepared on the reports N. A. 10.
of our predecessors of the 14th of January and the 3rd of February 1882, would show N. A. 109,
the extent to which the rights of the Crown to the land on that part of the coast were considered to be limited by the troaty rights of the French.
That it was admitted by Her Majesty's Government that the establishment of the lobster factories immediately on the sea-shore was contrary to treaty, and that Mr. Bramston was to request that we would take the papers transmitted with his letter into our consideration, and that we would advise your Lordship whether, if the factories were removed to a distance of half a mile from the shore, they would still constitute an infringement of the rights guaranteed to the French by the various treaties enumerated.
In obedience to your Lordship's commands we have the honour to
Report
That, having regard to the terms of the Declaration of 1783 and of the statement annexed to the arrangement of November 1885, we are of opinion that the building of boiling and canning houses-at a distance of half a mile from the shore from high- water mark-would not be a violation of the rights of the French fishermon under that Declaration.
The Right Hon. Lord Knutsford,
&c. &c.
&c.
We have. &c.,
(Signed)
RICHARD E. WEBSTER.
EDWARD CLARKE,
A
52050.-29. 25.-8;88.