CO885-(13-15) — Page 155

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.885

Reference :-

13 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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3809.

MY LORD,

No. 174.

(NEWFOUNDLAND.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

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

Royal Courts of Justice, Feburary 27, 1890. letter of the 13th instant, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to acknowledge the receipt of our report of the 28th ultimo upon certain questions raised in a presentment from the Grand Jury at St. George's Bay in Newfoundland, relating to the right of French subjects to export bait taken in the colonial waters to which their Treaty rights extended, or to sell bait within those waters.

That your Lordship was not clear as to the exact meaning which was intended to be conveyed by that part of our report which said that "these Treaty rights do not entitle "the French to sell or purchase bait for exportation except under the provisions and subject to the limitations of the local Act of 1889. In this respect they are exactly "in the same position as the native fishermen."

"

That that would doubtless be the case outside the Treaty limits, but that the presentment contended that within the Treaty limits the French might only catch bait for their own use, and not for sale or export, and were entitled only to catch bait for use in the shore fishery.

That your Lordship questioned whether that was the correct view of the French Treaty rights, and that you presumed that while their right to use the land was restricted to certain specified purposes, their right to catch fish and to dispose of the fish was not limited by the Treaty either as to the kind of fish that they might take, or as to the manner of dealing with them when taken, so long as they were not landed in the Colony.

But that your Lordship felt some doubt whether our report was intended to convey. that they could only exercise their Treaty rights subject to conditions imposed by the Bait Act of 1889, and if so, subject to any other local legislation applicable to British subjects fishing within the Treaty limits. And that your Lordship would be obliged if we would again consider the presentment of the Grand Jury and favour you with a further explanation of that part of our report above referred to.

That Mr. Bramston was to ask us to refer to section 22 of the Act which declared that the Act should not affect the rights and privileges granted by Treaty.

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

Report

That your Lordship has rightly interpreted our former opinion.

We do not agree in the view suggested in the presentment that the right to catch bait is limited by the terms of the Treaty to bait for their own use.

We think the true view is correctly expressed in Mr. Bramston's letter of the 13th February in the paragraph commencing "Lord Knutsford questions" and ending "landed in the Colony." The rights possessed by the French under the Treaty are not, in any way controlled by the local legislation.

In our judgment the French are, with respect to the exportation and sale of bait fishes, subject to the local Act.

There is nothing in the Treaties to prevent their engaging in such sale, or exportation, if the provisions of the local Act be observed.

The Right Hon. Lord Knutsford,

&c. &c.

&c.

We have, &c.,

(Signed) RICHARD E. WEBSTER.

EDWARD CLARKE.

A 61207.-9. 23.—3/90-

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