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part of it. In mixing freely with the public men of the Province we have carefully abstained from the expression of any opinions upon the mere party questions of the hour. nor do I WIBh to touch them now. Parties. and party strife. and even party acrimony and injustice. are the prices we pay for freedom. You will always have these. The Land Question is not indispensable as a battle ground. There are others of sufficient magnitude and importance to engage your attention and employ all your energies when this is swept from the field of controversy. Let me im- plore you then to approach this great subject in a becom- ing spirit, and to lend to your country your best {bilities to give vitality and security to this award by practical le- gislation. If you do, trust me when I say that Prince Edward Island will enter upon a new era, and that her industrial development and social elevation will be rapid and strongly marked in the happier future before her.
I have said that there are many questions to engage the attention of thoughtful public men. I will refer but to one—-—the Fisheries. As I stand upon the shores of the Strait of Canso, and see the white sails of hundreds of American fishermen gliding into this Gulf to carry away the treasures that surround you—when I know that out of a single County of my Province a hundred beautiful schooners are sent here every summer on the same errand, Iain smitten with wonder that the people ol Prince Ed- ward Island appear so indiflerent to the value of treasures which all the rest of the world so l'ighly prize ; and if I were a native of this Iland I would never rest till my countrymen had vindrea ed their right to largely appropri~ ate the resources of the surrounding seas, which God has so abundantly enriched. From the prosecution of the Fisheries will spring more of Foreign Trade and the steady growth of a Mercantile Marine. Towns will rise up along the sea coast. giving adornestic market for the produce of the soil. Questions such as these are worthy of the consideration of your public men. and the development ol of the resources of the Island, moral. intellectual. and in. dustrial. will. I trust. task their highest powers when these old questions have been adjusted and forgotten. I trust, at no distant day, to see these maritime Provinces more closely united—their great lines of communication streng- thened and improved ; and at some more appropriate sea- son it will aive me pleasure to explain to you how all this may be brought about.