The average annual value of all the French fisheries is £3,500,000 or 87,000,000 francs. In 1876 they yielded 88,990,591 francs or 16 millions of dollars. 21,263 vessels or fishing boats, manned by 79,676 men, were employed in the various fisheries.
The catch of cod in the colony of Saint Pierre and Miquelon according to official returns averaged, during the five years ending in 1871, 15,425,086 kilogrammes. The same returns show that for the five years ending in 1874, the average number of vessels employed was 76 and of boats 590, the total tonnage of which was 12,386 and the number of men employed 5,335.
The French take yearly 25,000,000 kilogrammes of cod and sometimes more, over three fifths, sometimes four fifths, come from the waters of Saint Pierre and Miquelon and this is not only for recent years. If we go back to 1863 we find 25,349,681 kilogrammes of cod representing 12,281,073 francs, imported into France. In 1864 there was an increase and the catch gave 27,795,392 kilogrammes representing a value of 19,733,700 francs.
In conclusion, I may add that in the Iceland seas the French catch more fish than the Icelanders themselves and bring to France each year cod-fish to the amount of £270,000 or 6,750,000 francs. They have a fleet of 290 vessels manned by 4400 men, the average tonnage of each vessel being 90 tons.
The fishermen of the Iceland seas as well as those of New-Foundland, receive bonuses. You will, thus see, Ladies and Gentlemen, that a country invests its money wisely when it spends it in developing an industry of this kind. In saying this, I only refer to pecuniary benefit, but we must not overlook the fact that fishing develops the sea-going instincts of a maritime population and by its stern apprenticeship makes excellent seamen for the navy of a State.
Since some years attempts have been made in England and even in Canada to contest the rights of France to the New-Foundland fisheries. But, if we examine the various treaties between England and France, we find full confirmation of the latter's rights, which it has never ceased to claim on all occasions and with the same persistence. The treaty of Utrecht in 1713 compelled His Most Christian Majesty to cede New-Foundland to the English but it confirmed his right to the fisheries on the coast and in the bays of that Island.
The treaty of Utrecht, in so far as the fisheries were concerned, was confirmed by article 5 of the treaty of Paris in 1763, Art. VI of which cedes to France in addition, the Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon to "serve as a shelter to the French fishermen."
A pamphlet published in Quebec, in 1876, and intituled: "The New Foundland fisheries." Les Pêcheries de Terre-Neuve, bears the following sub-heading. "The rights of France set forth, in reply to the assertions of the Colonial Institute." Droits de la France exposés en réponse aux assertions de l'Institut Colonial. This carefully prepared treatise successfully establishes the rights of the French.
The convention of 1857 shows that England, through the organ of its government and of its official transactions, has admitted the claims of France as founded.