CO885-(13-15) — Page 115

10,983.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.

Reference :-

885

13 PUBLIC RECORD-OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

2

(2.) Whether the case was one on which your Lordship might advise Her Majesty to take the advice of Her Privy Council apart from the Statute 25 Henry VIII., chapter 19.

(3.) Whether the case was one in which your Lordship might advise Her Majesty to issue Her Mandate in any form to the Archbishop without waiting for his Grace to apply.

(4.) Whether leave might be given to the petitioners to bring their case before Her

Majesty in Council: and

(5.) Whether the proposed answer, with or without alteration, was correct.

That Mr. Bramston was to refer us, in so far as they might have bearing on the subject, to the reports of our predecessors dated May 17th, 1866, July 20th, 1866, July 6th, 1868, August 3rd, 1865, and June 10th, 1869.

We have taken the matter into our consideration and, in obedience to your Lordship's commands, have the honour to

Report

(1.) That, in our opinion, the case is not within the Act 25 Henry VIII., chapter 19, and that no appeal would properly lie to the Privy Council under that Statute.

(2. and 3.) The case is not one in which, in our judgment, the Secretary of State should advise Her Majesty to take the advice of the Privy Council, or to issue Her Mandate without the application of the Archbishop.

(4.) We think that leave should not be given to the petitioners to bring their case before Her Majesty in Council.

(5.) The proposed reply is, in our opinion, suitable and such as should be sent.

We have, &c., (Signed) RICHARD E. WEBSTER.

EDWARD CLARKE.

The Right Hon. Lord Knutsford, G.C.M.G.,

&c.

&c.

&c.

No. 150.

(NEWFOUNDLAND.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE. MY LORD,

We were honoured with your Lordship's commands signified in Mr. Bramston's

Royal Courts of Justice, May 31, 1889. letter of the 30th ultimo, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us the accompanying printed copies of a correspondence which had taken place relating to a claim advanced on the part of the French Government for a sum of 14,000 francs

as compensation for the destruction of some of the materials used in the formation of a salmon weir erected by Captain Belin, a French subject, in the Ponds River, on the coast of Newfoundland.

That we were aware that, under certain treaties and engagements between this country and France, which were set forth in the enclosed printed paper, French citizens had the right to take fish, and to dry them on land, on the west and north-east coasts of the Colony of Newfoundland within certain defined limits.

That Her Majesty's Government had, however, always held that the French right to take fish did not extend to the rivers of Newfoundland.

That in the case now in question it appeared that Captain Belin had erected a weir across the Ponds River on the west coast of Newfoundland for the purpose of taking salmon; such a proceeding being not only in excess of his treaty rights as a French subject, but being also in contravention of the law of the Colony, which prohibited the taking of salmon by means of such a contrivance as a fixed weir.

That the weir so constructed by Captain Belin was removed by order of the Local fiovernment in January 1888, after the close of the fishing season, in the circumstances shown in the papers.

That the weir appeared to have consisted of fixed pounds or wharves joined by moveable railings or "racks " (" claies" in French), which last were withdrawn by the French at the end of the season, and placed on the bank ready for the next year's lishing, but that it would be observed that it was alleged, in the note addressed by M. Waddington to the Marquis of Salisbury, dated 4th September 1888, that Captain Belin had intended to use the material in question in the construction of a stage for drying cod at Port-au-Choix, and that he had given orders that the materials should be taken to that place in the course of the winter.

That there seemed, however, from the papers enclosed, to be every reason to believe that Belin's original intention had been to replace those racks or "claies" again the next season in the salmon weir, and that that intention was only changed after he had heard of the destruction of the weir by order of the Local Government.

That in his notes of the 4th of September and 8th of December 1888, the French Ambassador referred to the guarantee given to the French to the effect that French property should not be injured by British subjects during the absence of the French in wintor, but that the guarantee contained in the British Declaration attached to the Treaty of Versailles of 1783 against the injury of the scaffolds of the French during their absence would seem to refer to such constructions only as were permitted to the French by the engagements between the two countries, and that those did not include fixed weirs.

That Mr. Bramston was to request that we would take the papers transmitted with his letter into our consideration, and would inform your Lordship whether we agreed in the view last above stated, and that we would favour you with our opinion:-

1. Whether compensation could properly be claimed through diplomatic channels either from the Colonial Government, or from Her Majesty's Government, for the destruction of the materials of the moveable portion of the weir in question.

2. If not, whether the claim might not properly be resisted upon the 'ground' that the racks formed part of the weir, and were intended to be used as such during the next fishing season, and consequently that they were destroyed as part of the weir which was established and used in violation of the local laws and of the treaty and

3. Whether if the Act of the magistrate in the destruction of the property in question was unwarranted, Her Majesty's Government could properly refer the

A 57014-20 25.-6/89.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.8

885

13 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO