Daily press and Dakotaian. [volume] (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1875-1880, 1878-11-06

and, as he apparently imagines, sufficient
ground that though they were using only
the rights guaranteed them by the treaty.
vet they were violating the local laws 81
Newfoundland. Ifthis is sound We ought
evidently to have made our treaty with
Newfoundland and not with Great Britain.
The circumstances out of which the pres.
ent complications arise happened on the 9th
of last January, at Long Harbor, Newfound-
land. American fishermen have been for
MANY years going to this coast after herring,
for which there is an increasing market in
this country. Usually they have either
bought the Ash of Newfoundland fishermen
or hired these to fish for them, and SO long
a. this was done there seemed to have been
no complaint of their violation Of local laws.
The increased demand for the fish and the
competition ofcolonists, who bring their
6sh 10 our ports free fduty, compelled our
fisherman, at last, to set their ingenuity to
work, and this year about twenty vessels
went to Newfoundland with the large seines
which they used in summer for mackerel
and intended to seine herring as, under the
tire aty.!,hey had an in lisputable right to do.
They had discovered that seined fsh kept
fresh better and longer than fish caught in
gill nets, such as the Observation-Disclosures use,
and being Americans they, naturally con-
trived the best ways to prosecute their bus
iness.
The Newfoundlanders tried in various
ways to make the use Of seines impossible.
1t is in evidence that they not only planted
their gill nets along the shore in such a
way as to prevent the use Of seines, but they
sunk skifs laden with stones at different
points to tear the seines Of our people.
Sworn testimony shows further that on the
Sunday morning in question the Newfound-
landers were out in their boats taking fish
from their gill nets, the authorities evident
ly taking no notice of their violation of
their own laws. Moreover, the first crew
which spread q seine that morning was a
Newfoundland crew. Presently, however,
the herring very Unexpectedly came in in
vast schools inside of the range of gill nets,
and thereupon our people spread their
seines and prepared to take the fish. Being
deep water fish and coming to the shores at
uncertain times, it is necessary to take them
when they appear. But when our twenty
vessels had spread their nets a half drunken
crowd of Newfoundlanders, numbering from
N hundred to two hundred, came to the
shore, ordered u people to take in their
seines, violently compelled them to do
so, and in the case oftwo vessels whose cap
tains refused, tore the seine, let out the fish
and dragged the net away. In some cases
they came in boats to attack our vessels and
coerce our people. In one case the Ameri.
can captain, q Newfoundlander by birth, de.
Tended his seine and fsh with revolvers,
and he was permitted to gather in the fish
he had caught. An American fishing crew
consists, it seems, of but half dozen men
and this force was too weak to resist the
mob. In the evening, after the days vic.
lence, the Newfoundl anders celebrated their
victory with the firing Of guns, the beating
Of drums and shouting, and some of our PEG.
pie testify that they were boastingly told
that the intention was to drive them away
from those shores and prevent them from
catching fish there.
Undoubtedly the object Of thi. lawless
ness was to prevent our fishermen from
catching the fish and compel them to buy
them. There is no evidence of any pretenc,
having been made at the time that our PEG
pie were violating the laws. The au,hori
ties of the island who should enforce thu
laws against their own people did not ap
pear on the ground. The whole attack wa
by a mob, and yet Lord Salisbury %justifes it