The activity of _Mr. Palliser_ during his government, had contributed to bring forward the old debated question of property in flakes and stages. These questions were of different sorts, the first related to the parts between _Bonavista_ and _Point Riche_, the two limits of the French fishery. Many tracts of land within those limits were claimed as private property; and, as such, might interfere with the concurrent right of the French to fish there. This matter was agitated at the board of trade, and an additional instruction upon that head was given to the governor, by which he was commanded, not upon any pretence whatsoever, to allow any _exclusive possession_ to be taken, as private property, of any lands, rivers, or islands in the northern parts, between _Bonavista_ and _Point Riche_; taking special care that such ships as resorted to that part, should chuse their stations as they arrived, and should take up, and occupy, subject to the governor’s controul, such space only of beach as was proportioned to the number of their boats, conformable to Stat. 10 & 11 Will. 3[74]. [Sidenote: Justices appointed.] This provision was with a design of preserving peace between the fishermen of the two nations. But the exclusive property which some persons claimed in stages, flakes, and beach, was a question that applied to the whole of the island; and had become of a magnitude to call for some discussion and adjustment. The board of trade thought proper to consult _Mr. Yorke_, then attorney general, upon this point. They proposed to him two questions; first, Whether exclusive property in any part of Newfoundland can be acquired under colour of any provision of Stat. 10 & 11 Will. 3, without a grant or patent from the crown? secondly, If any part of that act does warrant such exclusive property, what is the nature and extent of it? Can it be acquired for the purposes of cultivation, and settlement of the land, or is it confined to the purposes of fishing; and in what manner, and upon what principles, and by whom are any disputes arising thereupon to be decided? By the answer to these queries, it was hoped to obtain some clear judgment upon these points, for the direction of the governors; who had sometimes considered this as real, sometimes as personal property, at other times as no property at all; and were involved in great difficulties, and exposed to vexatious suits for what they had done at Newfoundland, in relation to this doubtful sort of occupation and possession. But I do not find that these questions were resolved by the attorney-general, or that the board pressed him for any answer to them[75]. So that these points remained for examination in after-times.