ized on most
of the fish, and the assets would have been far more valuable. At
present, 2,000,000 dollars' worth of fishery products are stored in
St. John's awaiting the means of shipment. Until financial aid from
the outside world is obtained, it is impossible to place the fish on
the market."

At this time the financial position of the colony was thoroughly
unsound. Its population numbered roughly 200,000 persons, and its
Public Debt amounted to 14,000,000 dollars, or nearly three million
pounds sterling. The Ministry of the day resigned, after an
unsuccessful attempt to form a coalition Government, and its
successors applied for Imperial help, an application which logically
involved the surrender of the Constitution. In fact, the unassisted
credit of the colony seemed hopeless, for in a year or two the railway
reckonings had to be met. The Government had issued bonds whereof
yearly interest was to become payable on completion, amounting to
almost a third of the total revenue of the colony.[48]

Such temporary measures as the nature of the crisis admitted were
taken locally. The Legislature passed two Bills guaranteeing a
portion of the note issue of both the Union Bank and the Commercial
Bank; while a loan of 400,000 dollars was procured from the Bank of
Montreal, and additional loans from the Bank of Nova Scotia and the
Royal Bank of Canada: thus "the financial sceptre passed to
Canada."[49] At the same time the manager and directors of the
Commercial Bank were arrested on a charge of having presented a
fraudulent balance sheet. Reuter's correspondent at St. John's noted
that in this time of trouble the idea of union with Canada gained
ground rapidly. How hopeless the position seemed to calm observers on
the spot may be gathered from the following vivid extracts from a
letter by _The Times_ correspondent at St. John's:[50]

"Twelve large firms controlled the whole export trade of the
colony--fish oils and fish products, valued at about 7,000,000
dollars. Of these twelve only two remain ... and these are sorely
stricken. These firms occupied the whole waterside premises of St.
John's, gave employment to hundreds of storekeepers, coopers,
stevedores, and others, beside some thousands of unskilled labourers
occupied in the handling of the fish. All these men are now without a
day's work, or any means of obtaining it. The isolation of the colony,
away out in the Atlantic with no neighbour, is its greatest curse.
P