APPENDIX E. DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SECRETARY OF THE HALIFAX COMMISSION, AND READ AT THE SITTING HELD ON THE 30TH DAY OF JULY, 1877, IN SUPPORT OF THE "CASE OF HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT." I. Extract of a report from Mr. E. H. Derby to the Hon. William H. Seward, dated January, 1867, p. 44. The number of vessels in the fisheries has ranged since 1850 from 2,414 to 3,815 in 1862, besides boats in the shore fisheries. Six hundred sail of these vessels have in a single season fished for mackerel in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Bay of Chaleurs, and taken fish to the amount of $4,500,000. NOTE.-Nearly one-fourth of our fishing-fleet, with a tonnage of 40,000 to 50,000 tons, worth $5,000,000 to $7,000,000 annually, fish near the three-mile line of the provinces. II. Extract from the same report, p. 78. In 1865 vessels in the cod-fishery are estimated to average from 800 to 1,000 quintals of dry fish. In the mackerel business, from 500 to 700 barrels. Dry fish are now worth $8 to $9 per quintal, and mackerel $12 to $15 per barrel. III. Extract from the same report, p. 79. Estimate of the fisheries of the United States for 1859, by Hon. L. Sabine, Secretary of Boston Board of Trade. The tonnage alone is official. The sea and whale are estimated on official data; the shell, lake, river, &c., rest on some well-ascertained facts. Sea (as cod, hake, haddock, mackerel, halibut, pollack, and sea-herring): Tonnage Value of fish and oil ... 175, 306 $6, 730, 000 $7, 280, 000 NOTE. The official tonnage is less. The difference is added for boats employed in the shore fisheries, which are neither enrolled nor licensed. IV. Fisheries of Prince Edward Island, pursued by Americans. GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CHARLOTTETOWN, P. E. I., SIR: With reference to your dispatch No. 510 on 297, of the 24th of November last, I have now the honor to transmit a minute of the executive council of the 12th February, instant, on the subject of the fisheries and fish trade of this province, in connection with the claim for compensation provided for by Article XXII of the Treaty of Washington, as required by his excellency the governor-general; together with a copy of the address of the legislative council and assembly to the Queen, and a copy of minute of the executive council of the 2d February, 1873, both therein referred to. I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, The Hon. the SECRETARY OF STATE, Ottawa. Extracts from minutes of the executive council of Prince Edward Island. COUNCIL CHAMBER, February 12, 1874. At a meeting of the executive council in committee: Present: Mr. Owen, Mr. Haviland, Mr. Brecken, Mr. Yeo, Mr. Lefurgy, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Strong, Mr. McDonald, Mr. Arseneault. The following minute was adopted and ordered to be presented to his honor the administrator of the government: 1. The executive council in committee having had under consideration several communications from the government of the Dominion bearing date respectively the 15th October, 16th November, and 12th December, 1873, requesting this government to furnish a report "regarding the fisheries and fish trade of this island, connected with the claim for compensation provided by Article 22 of the Treaty of Washington," beg to report as follows: 2. That in any estimate which may be made of the value of our island fisheries, no credit can be given or allowance made for the nominal privileges accorded to the inhabitants of this island by Articles 19 and 21 of said treaty, inasmuch as the fisheries in and around this island are in a comparatively primitive state, and as yet undisturbed by the multifarious appliances of bay-nets, traps, weirs, &c., which have almost destroyed the sea-coast and inland fisheries of the United States. 3. The situation of this island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence makes it one of the best fishing stations in the world, whilst along its nearly four hundred miles of sea-coast every mile abounds in cod, hake, haddock, salmon, and mackerel, as well as other fish, during the proper seasons. Thus situated, fishermen are induced to use its ports in preference to other ports of the Dominion on the mainland. 4. With a weekly line of steamers from Charlottetown to Boston, and daily communication by rail with the different outports of this island, the American fisherman will be enabled to place his catch weekly in the United States market at a cost of one dollar per barrel from all ports of this island, receive new outfits, and continue his fishing during the season, thus saving the long and dangerous passage of each trip to and from the United States, as well as enabling vessels to make three or four successful trips instead of one. 5. The best evidence of the value of "free fishery" to the citizens of the United States may be shown by the decrease in their tonnage and men from 1862 to 1868. In 1862, whilst they enjoyed the benefit of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, the United States had employed in the cod and mackerel fishery 203,000 tons, which diminished in 1868 to 84,000 tons. Last year the United States had, according to a late report, "one thousand vessels engaged in the mackerel fishery alone, worth not less than $5,000,000, manned by more than 12,000 seamen ; and the town of Gloucester, Mass., alone sent out more than 400 of these vessels." 6. In connection with these facts, it may not be out of place here to state, that Mr. Consul Jackson, in his "Report on the commercial relations of the Dominion and the United States," places the total provincial fisheries at $11,759,530, and the United States fisheries at $7,000,000. Owing to the very imperfect manner in which our statistics have been collected, it is difficult to obtain reliable data on the question, as far as we are concerned. For example, in the report above referred to, Prince Edward is put down as yielding only $169,580.90, which is below our export alone for that year. Besides this, our exports could not possibly show what fish were taken inside the "three-mile line" by our own fishermen, much less by foreigners. Annexed, marked A, is a statistical return showing the description of property used in the fisheries, and the quantity of fish caught by our fishermen, within the three-mile line, for the year 1871, by which it appears that only about two per cent. of our population are engaged in fishing pursuits; that the average value catch per man for the same is two hundred dollars, the whole catch about three hundred and twenty thousand dollars, and the number of persons engaged therein 1,646. 7. It is alleged, as we believe untruly, that the great portion of the mackerel taken by the United States fishing-fleet is obtained or caught outside the "three-mile line," but this we do not believe to be the fact, as we have no doubt, from information obtained from persons actually engaged in the fishing business, that "inside" and "outside" fishing are indispensable to the success of the voyage, and that the inside fishery in general is more productive and remunerative than the outside fishery. 8. From the 1st July to the 1st October is the mackerel season around our coasts, during which time the United States fishing-fleet pursues its work; and as it has been shown that in 1872 over one thousand sail of United States schooners from 40 to 100 tons were engaged in the mackerel fishery alone, from this fact, together with our experience arising from the collection of "Light money" (now abolished), as well as from actual observation, a fair average of United States vessels fishing around our coast during the season referred to may be safely stated at three hundred sail; and as a season's work is usually about six hundred barrels per vessel, we may fairly put down one-third of the catch as taken inside the "three-mile limit;" which should give the following result: 300 sail at 200 barrels each, 60,000 barrels, at say $5 per barrel for net cost of fish above $300,000, as the yearly value of the mackerel alone taken from our shores; or, as has been shown in paragraphs, each one of our own men engaged in the inshore mackerel fishing in boats shared two hundred dollars per man. 9. It will be perceived that the preceding observations relate solely to the mackerel fishery, by far the most important in our estimation; the other descriptions of fisheries within the three mile boundary, the right to prosecute which is accorded to citizens of the United States, we conceive to be more than an equivalent for the supposed privileges conceded to British subjects on the American coasts. 10. This government trusts that one of the most important matters will not be overlooked at the conference about to take place, namely, the preservation of our fisheries, by making effectual provisions against throwing offal on the fishing grounds, as well as preventing the setting of traps, weirs, &c., unless under very stringent regulations. 11. In conclusion, we beg to bring to the notice of the Dominion Government the annexed minute of council, bearing date the 2d February, 1873, together with the address forwarded to Her Majesty the Queen from both houses of the local legislature, during the session of 1873, respecting the claims of the people of this province for a return of duties justly due to them from the United States Government uuder the circumstances detailed in said minute of council and address, in order that the Government of the Dominion may be enabled to press for the liqui dation of these claims by an earnest appeal to the justice and honor of the United States Government through the instrumentality of the Fishery Commission. A.-Statistics of abstract returns from the census taken in Prince Edward Island in the year 1871. Salmon taken last year, value £368 108...... Number of fish barrels manufactured last year. Number of cooper-shops Number of men engaged in fishing. Herring and alewives, decrease Quantity of preserved shell and other fish prepared last year lbs.. 11, 662 6,711 $1,195, 58 42,278 Number of boats owned for fishing purposes. Fish-oil, decrease in gallons... 65 1, 183 1,646 8,884 5,584 24, 126 5,947 WILLIAM C. DESBRISAY, Assistant Clerk Executive Council. Claim for refund of duties on fish and fish-oil. [Copy.] At a meeting of a committee of the executive council of Prince Edward Island, in the council chamber, on the 2d day of February, 1872, Present: The honorable Mr. Pope, the honorable Mr. Macdonald, Mr. Colonial Secretary, Mr. Richards, Mr. Attorney-General, Mr. Lefurgy. The following minute, addressed to the Right Honorable Earl Kimberley, Her Majesty's principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, on the subject of his lordship's dispatch, No. 48, of date the 30th December, 1871, to Lieutenant-Governor Robinson, was adopted by the committee and ordered to be handed to the lieutenant-governor for transmission to the Right Honorable Earl Kimberly, Her Majesty's principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, &c.: The committee of the executive council of Prince Edward Island have had under consideration your lordship's dispatch, No. 48, dated the 30th December, 1871, addressed to Lieutenant-Governor Robinson, on the subject of the "refund of duties collected in the United States on fish oil and fish exported from Prince Edward Island during the season of 1871;" also dispatch, No. 59, dated 25th July, from LieutenantGovernor Robinson to your lordship on the same subject; also copy of a dispatch dated at Washington, 12th May, 1871, addressed to Earl Granville by Sir Edward Thornton, British Minister at Washington, and inclosing a letter which he had received from Hamilton Fish, esq., of the Department of State, Washington, dated 8th May, 1871, with Sir E. Thornton's reply thereto, on the subject of a proposed provisional arrangement he wished to make with the respective colonies named therein until legislative action could be had. In Mr. Fish's letter of 8th May last he proposed to Sir Edward Thornton in the following words, viz: That as the treaty could not come into full operation until the legislation contemplated in that instrument shall have taken place, and as it seems to be in accordance with the interests of both governments, in furtherance of the objects and spirit of the treaty, that the citizens of the United States should have the enjoyment of that liberty during the present season, I am directed by the President to express to you his hope that Her Majesty's Government will be prepared, in the event of the ratification of the treaty, to make on their own behalf and to urge the government of the Dominion of Canada, of Prince Edward Island, and of Newfoundland to make, for the season referred to, within their respective jurisdictions, such relaxations and regulations as it may respectively be in their power to adopt, with a view to the admission of American fishermen to the liberty which it is proposed to secure to them by the treaty. The Government of the United States would be prepared at the same time to admit British subjects to the right of fishing in the waters of the United States, specified in the treaty; but as the admission into the United States, free of duty, of any articles which are by law subject to duty cannot be allowed without the sanction of Congress, the President will, in case the above suggestion meets the views of the British Government, recommend and urge upon Congress, at their next session, that any duties which may have been collected on and after the first day of July next on fish-oil and fish, the produce of the fisheries of the Dominion of Canada and of Prince Edward Island, shall be returned and refunded to the parties paying the same, if a similar arrangement is made with respect to the admission into the Brit sh Possessions of fish-oil and fish (with certain exceptions as in the treaty), being the produce of the fisheries of the United States. The proposal was agreed to by the government of Prince Edward Island, at the urgent request of Her Majesty's Imperial Government, and on the 24th of July last an order was issued in accordance therewith. From that date American fishermen had free use of the inshore fisheries of this island, and landed fish and fish oil without being charged any duty therefor; while the merchants of this island, placing full faith and confidence in Mr. Fish's proposal, exported their fish to the United States, relying implicitly on the good faith of the United States Government and never doubting but that the President would recommend to and urge upon Congress the expediency of making provision for the refunding of the duties which they had paid. The committee of the executive council now learn with great surprise that, on inquiries being made on the subject of refunding those duties, the United States Government have replied that the President did not intend to urge upon Congress the introduction of a bill in accordance with Mr. Fish's proposition. It would appear that the ground taken by the President of the United States for declining to recommend to Congress the introduction of a bill having for its object the refund of the duties paid on British fish during the past season is, that his "proposal, made through Mr. Fish in May last, contemplated the united action of |