Deposition of Richard Hendriken., this 14th day of June, A. D. 1878

Deposition of Richard Hendriken.

The examination of Richard Hendriken, of Hope Cove, Long Harbor, taken upon oath, and who saith:

I have been nine years in Long Harbor. I was here in January last, when the American seine was destroyed. It was destroyed on account of barring herring on Sunday. I was watching their proceedings from the point opposite; they laid their seine out and went to haul it in, because the English would not haul it in on Sunday, and the bay was full of fish. The fish would have remained. The Americans generally employ some Englishmen to work with their own crew; they don’t generally lay out their own seines. Captain Dago and Samuel Jacobs would persist hauling, and hauled once and barred them in Farrel’s net. Farrel was working for him, and had been barring herrings for several days, perhaps about a fortnight, by the American’s orders. I believe it is illegal to bar herrings; it destroys the fish, but we have no power to stop it. It is no good telling a magistrate; the Americans take no notice of them. The nearest magistrate to this place is at Harbor Briton, 25 or 30 miles off. The only thing to let people know what is right and what is wrong is to have a notice board in each harbor, and some heavy fine imposed on law-breakers. James Tamel is harbor-master. I don’t know if he is a special constable or not, but Mr. Enburn told me he was to see the Yankees did not heave their ballast over, and that their measures were correct, but they would not listen to him. They hove their ballast overboard, and had tubs 22 inches in depth instead of 16 inches; in these tubs they measured the fish they bought from the Newfoundlanders, and they would not alter them. The fish are sold to the Americans by the barrel; for 100 barrels it is usual to pay for 90, which is considered fair, but a flour barrel cut down to 16 inches in depth is the proper measure; they only cut them to 22 inches or more, and insist on having them filled. The vessels from St. John’s and Halifax always take the proper size tubs, but the Americans constantly overreach us, and choose the most ignorant to deal with, or those who are not so sharp as themselves. They generally otherwise behave well, and we have never had any quarrel with them before, but have always been on good terms. If the natives did not see the laws carried out themselves there might as well be no laws, for there is often no one else to enforce it. It is the only way I know, and is pretty well understood by both foreigners and natives.