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Licenses may be cancelled upon violation of the Act or the Regulations, and a conviction shall act as a cancellation.

Licenses may be issued for fishing in lake Nipigon, Nipigon river and adjacent waters on the following conditions:

(1) One license only to one person.

(2) Term of license must not exceed four weeks.

(3) Fees for non-residents of Canada

$15 for two weeks or less.

$20 for three weeks or less.

$25 for four weeks or less.

(4) Fees for permanent residents of Canada

$5 for two weeks.

$10 for four weeks.

(5) Licenses are non-transferable.

(6) Sanitary arrangements, disposal of refuse and regulations re extinction of fires shall be under the direction of an overseer.

(7) Cutting live timber is prohibited except for camp purposes. Non-residents of the Province may obtain angling licenses for any waters, except those specially prohibited. These licenses are good for three months on payment of an individual fee of $2, or $5 per rod when those fishing live on their own yachts.

Licenses to guides may be issued at $2 each.

Administration

Administration is under direction of the Superintendent of Game and Fisheries.

Not more than three fisheries inspectors shall be appointed; nor more than ten wardens.

These officials shall have the status of justices of the peace.

Deputy game and fishery wardens shall be appointed without salary except when on special service, and shall receive one-half of all fines resulting from conviction they secure.

Penalties are assigned by the Act for violation of laws and reg

ulations.

Miscellaneous

Family fishing permits were abolished by Order in Council Regulations of Jan. 8, 1909.

Residents of Ontario must obtain a license for fishing by other means than hook and line."

Guides shall be responsible for the extinguishing of fires by parties employing them."

a Order in Council, May 3rd, 1907.

b Order in Council, July 1, 1909.

NORTH ATLANTIC FISHERIES DISPUTE

BY JAMES WHITE

The decision of the Hague Tribunal, rendered Sept. 7, 1910, practically ended differences that have, for nearly a century, existed between Canada and Newfoundland, on the one hand, and the United States, on the other. Before discussing the award, it is necessary to state briefly the history of the dispute that was referred to the Tribunal.

Treaty of
Paris, 1782

On Nov. 30, 1782, the provisional articles of the treaty of peace were signed at Paris by Richard Oswald on the part of Great Britain, and by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and John Jay on the part of the United States. On September 3, 1783, the definitive treaty of peace, commonly known as the Treaty of Paris, was signed at Paris. Art. III of the latter is the same as Art. III of the provisional treaty, and reads as follows:

"It is agreed that the people of the United States shall continue to enjoy unmolested the right to take fish of every kind on the Grand Bank and on all the other banks of Newfoundland; also in the Gulph of St. Lawrence, and at all other places in the sea, where the inhabitants of both countries used at any time heretofore to fish; and also that the inhabitants of the United States shall have liberty to take fish of every kind on such part of the coast of Newfoundland as British fishermen shall use (but not to dry or cure the same on that island); and also on the coasts, bays and creeks of all other of his Britannic Majesty's dominions in America; and that the American fishermen shall have liberty to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbours and creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands and Labrador, so long as the same shall remain unsettled; but so soon as the same or either of them shall be settled, it shall not be lawful for the said fishermen to dry or cure fish at such settlement, without a previous agreement for that purpose with the inhabitants, proprietors or possessors of the ground." This article conceded:

(1) The right of the Americans to take fish on the "banks" of Newfoundland, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in the sea.

(2) The liberty to take fish on the coasts of Canada and Newfoundland.

(3) The liberty to dry and cure fish in the unsettled portions of the coasts of Canada and Newfoundland.

On Nov. 25th-five days before the treaty was signed-the British commissioners proposed that "the citizens of the United States shall have the liberty of taking fish of every kind on all the banks of Newfoundland and also in the Gulph of St. Lawrence; and also to dry and cure fish on the shores of the Isle of Sables and on the shores of any of the unsettled bays, harbours and creeks of the Magdalen Islands, in the Gulph of St. Lawrence, so long as such bays, harbours and creeks shall continue and remain unsettled; on condition that the citizens of the said United States do not exercise the fishery, but at the distance of three leagues from all the coast belonging to Great Britain, as well those of the continent as those of the islands situated in the Gulph of St. Lawrence. And as to what relates to the fishery on the coast of the Island of Cape Breton out of the said gulph, the citizens of the said United States shall not be permitted to exercise the said fishery, but at the distance of fifteen leagues from the coasts of the Island of Cape Breton."

This proposal was unacceptable to the United States commissioners, and Adams, who was specially charged with the care of negotiations respecting the fisheries, made a counter-proposal, which was virtually the same as the article incorporated in the treaty.

After the war of 1812-14, which was terminated by the Treaty of Ghent, the British Government maintained that as these 'liberties' were only privileges to be exercised in British waters and territories, they had been terminated by the war. When the negotiators met at Ghent, the British plenipotentiaries stated that "they felt it incumbent upon them to declare that the British Government did not deny the right of the Americans to fish generally or in the open seas; but the privileges formerly granted by treaty to the United States of fishing within the limits of British jurisdiction and of landing and drying fish on the shores of the British territories would not be renewed without an equivalent."

As a result of these differences, the treaty contained no mention of the fisheries.

In the following year an American fishing vessel was warned by the commander of H.M.S. Jaseur not to come within sixty miles of the British coast. Lord Bathurst disavowed this extreme claim, but stated that the Government of Great Britain "could not permit the vessels of the United States to fish within the creeks and close upon the shores of the British territories." Adams, then minister of the United States in London, contended that the Treaty of 1783 "was not, in its general provisions, one of those which by the common understanding and usage of civilized nations, is or can be considered as annulled by a subsequent war between the same parties."

Lord Bathurst replied:

"To a position of this novel nature Great Britain cannot accede.

....

She knows of no exception to the rule that all treaties are put an end to by a subsequent war between the same parties. The treaty of 1783, like many others, contained provisions of different characterssome in their own nature irrevocable, and others of a temporary nature. . . The nature of the liberty to fish within British limits, or to use British territory, is essentially different from the right of independence, in all that may reasonably be supposed to regard its intended duration. . . . In the third article [of the treaty of 1782-83] Great Britain acknowledges the right of the United States to take fish on the banks of Newfoundland and other places, from which Great Britain has no right to exclude an independent nation. But they are to have the 'liberty' to cure and dry them in certain unsettled places within His Majesty's territory. If these liberties, thus granted, were to be as perpetual and independent as the rights previously recognized, it is difficult to conceive that the plenipotentiaries of the United States would have admitted a variation of language so adapted to produce a different impression; and, above all, that they should have admitted so strange a restriction of a perpetual and indefeasible right as that with which the article concludes, which leaves a right so practical and so beneficial as this is admitted to be, dependent on the will of British subjects, in their character of inhabitants, proprietors or possessors of the soil, to prohibit its exercises altogether. It is surely obvious that the word 'right' is, throughout the treaty, used as applicable to what the United States were to enjoy, in virtue of a recognized independence; and the word 'liberty' to what they were to enjoy, as concessions strictly dependent on the treaty itself."

Convention of 1818

Between 1815 and 1818 many American fishing vessels found fishing in British waters were seized and much illfeeling was engendered. On Oct. 20, 1818, a Convention was signed at London, the first article of which read as follows:

ARTICLE I

"Whereas differences have arisen respecting the liberty claimed by the United States for the inhabitants thereof, to take, dry and cure fish on certain coasts, bays, harbours and creeks of His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America, it is agreed between the high contracting parties that the said inhabitants of the United States shall have forever, in common with the subjects of His Britannic Majesty, the liberty to take fish of every kind on that part of the southern coast of Newfoundland which extends from Cape Ray to the Rameau Islands, on the western and northern coast of Newfoundland from the said Cape Ray to the Quirpon Islands, on the shores of the Magdalen Islands, and also on the coasts, bays, harbours and creeks from Mount Joly on the southern coast of

Labrador, to and through the Streights of Belleisle and thence northwardly indefinitely along the coast, without prejudice, however, to any of the exclusive rights of the Hudson's Bay Company; And that the American fishermen shall also have liberty forever to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbours and creeks of the southern part of the coast of Newfoundland hereabove described, and of the coast of Labrador; but so soon as the same, or any portion thereof, shall be settled, it shall not be lawful for the said fishermen to dry or cure fish at such portion so settled, without previous agreement for such purpose with the inhabitants, proprietors or possessors of the ground. And the United States hereby renounce forever any liberty heretofore enjoyed or claimed by the inhabitants thereof, to take, dry, or cure fish on or within three marine miles. of any of the coasts, bays, creeks or harbours of His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America not included within the above mentioned limits; Provided, however, that the American fisherman shall be admitted to enter such bays or harbours for the purpose of shelter and of repairing damages therein, of purchasing wood, and of obtaining water, and for no other purpose whatever. But they shall be under such restrictions as may be necessary to prevent their taking, drying or curing fish therein, or in any other manner whatever abusing the privileges hereby reserved to them."

By this article, the right to fish

(1). On the "banks" of Newfoundland,

(2). In the gulf of St. Lawrence, and
(3). At all other places in the sea,

remains as under the treaty of 1783.

The liberties are:

I. To take fish on the following British coasts

(a). The southwestern coast of Newfoundland between cape Ray and the Rameau islands.

(b). The western coast of Newfoundland between cape Ray and the Quirpon islands.

(c). The shores of the Magdalen islands, and

(d). The coast of Labrador from mount Joly eastward and northward indefinitely, "without prejudice, however, to any of the exclusive rights of the Hudson Bay Company.'

II. To dry and cure fish on

(a). The unsettled bays, harbours and creeks of the south-western coast of Newfoundland between cape Ray and the Rameau islands, and (b). The coast of Labrador.

In 1819, an Imperial Act was passed which recited the gravamen of Art. I and provided penalties for fishing in the 'excluded' waters.

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