Life and Labour in Newfoundland : Based on Lectures delivered at the Memorial University of Newfoundland

This study of Newfoundland is a brilliant combination of first-hand observation, and of research into fascinating source materials. Professor Fay made tours of Newfoundland and of Labrador and examined documentary material in London and the West Country. Both his observations and his source-material are fresh and stimulating, and he writes in his usual lively provocative style. Professor Fay relates the economic history of Newfoundland to the seafaring and commercial background of the Island's first inhabitants. Many parallels can be drawn between life in early Newfoundland and in the west of England where the enterprises which first discovered Newfoundland and its resources were founded. Despite legal restrictions on the growth of permanent settlements, Newfoundland developed inexorably from a simple fishery to a full-fledged colony. And just as Newfoundland could not help its progression from fishery to established settlement, so today it is inevitably pressing towards industrial maturity. The material in this volume is based upon a series of lectures first delivered in 1953 at Memorial University, St. John's Newfoundland. Contents 5 Preface 7 1. West Coast, Newfoundland, And West Country, England 9 2. South Devon And The Newman Records 21 3. Job's, Bowring's And Furness Withy 39 4. The Newfoundland Trade And Fishery 46 5. Epic Of The Seal Fishery 64 6. The Master Builders 78 7. The Architects Of Law And Liberty 113 8. From Fishery To Colony 136 9. The St. John's Chamber Of Commerce 154 10. Ordeal By Fire 171 11. Grand Falls And Corner Brook 199 12. Wabana, Aguathuna And Introduction To Knob Lake 220 13. The Labrador Potential 233 Appendix I. Statutes 247 Appendix II. Treaties 254 Index 257